To ignore the neighbours kids at the door and not throw their ball back over

[Charlotteap]

It’s happening all the time now and it’s always around this time 7:30-9 when I’m bathing baby and putting him to bed and doing toddler bedtime routine , the kids knock on the door and the windows constantly, they’ve just knocked for 20 mins straight whilst I’m sat breastfeeding. The other day I put my head out of the window in the towel and said after 7pm it’s bath and bed and hard to interrupt that !! Mum has never said sorry for it happening all the time and it’s been 5 x already this week.

not to mention they blast it at my fence all night long and the fence touches my house whereas the other side it touches theirs but they never kick that one.

its a football and can easy cause an accident, sick of it hitting my plants. But I’ve got a glass table out there and baby sometimes in bouncer when we are all in garden. The other month a cricket ball went over and I went to the door and said that so could have hit my baby!

the parents don’t seem to give a shit

so AIBU to leave it till husband gets home to throw over, i am in my pjs doing about to attempt to put baby down for night

Yeah,
fuck them

I'd be leaving it all weekend!

Tell them you're no longer collecting it they are disturbing your baby.

Thanks guys , that makes me feel better after my mum telling me ‘ you don’t want any problems with neighbours’ but it’s getting everyday now and it’s always after 7pm the other night they was banging at 9pm! And woke both kids up 😡

Just tell them they don't need to knock, you'll throw it back when you see it

Put a pin in the ball and tell them they must have hit it too hard as it’s deflated.

Do this every time.

The minute they woke my kids up continuously knocking I’d have marched into the garden brought the balls through and popped them in their face on the doorstep.. 🙃

We are that family but much considerate (I hope). I don’t get the kids knock, they have to wait until it’s thrown back (unless we can hear them). My neighbours are understanding and we are apologetic!

I can remember the pure rage that the neighbour’s kids footballs and cricket balls used to cause me. Whacking against the fence and knocking plants out of pots etc.
Now I have three boys and they want to play out, so I have some rules. I will let them play out in the evening until 20:00. No shrieking, no knocking for balls, no hitting against neighbours walls or fences. (We have lovely neighbours so can be confident that balls come back over the fence).
As the neighbours kids have grown up, I’ve encouraged my boys to play out with them, teach them a bit of football or cricket etc and it’s lovely to see.
When my neighbour had a new baby, we stopped earlier in the evening out of consideration. People just aren’t very neighbourly now perhaps.

They shouldn’t be getting it over the fence at all. Just leave it a long time until you are ready to throw it back.

We’ve had this issue. I have a young girl and our garden became a no go zone as she was at high risk of being hit by a ball being kicked at force. I spoke to the parents and even requested they move their net sometime we so they weren’t always shooting at our house but had no success. Once we started to keep their balls they suddenly learnt how to kick and we rarely have balls kicked over now.

I'd tell their mum to tell them not to knock because it's disturbing you but that once every evening before bed your husband will go into the garden and throw any balls back over.

If the knocking doesn't stop then go back and tell her balls will now be returned only at the weekend and suggest to her she buys a net to stop balls flying over and staying in your garden till the weekend.

@Mouthfulofquiz you sound like lovely neighbours! It’s a new build house and we’ve only been in a year so not really had much interaction with them Sometimes you can see the mum in the garden watching them endlessly knock on the door !

@Underlig ifs a 6ft fence too, very high !

@Thisismetooaswell this seems the way to go

Thanks everyone looks like the only way for them to learn is to actually stop throwing it over right away.

@IncompleteSenten this sounds like a good idea thank you, they unfortunately already have a net and we have a 6ft sense so god knows how they’re getting it so high

Go bang on the neighbours window for 20 minutes.

I'd put a note through to say you are happy to return the ball but you are busy with bedtime from 7pm and will throw it over the fence when you can. Please can the children not knock at any time after 7pm as it wakes up your children. If they keep knocking tell them that you have asked them not to knock. And that it's going to take you longer to put the kids to bed and therefore longer to get their ball back.

Sounds like they may be deliberately throwing it over and making a game of it.
If so then having to wait until the weekend for their balls back might make the game less fun.

so annoying. Initially I was understanding but then the noise was actually disturbing work calls. And then neighbours kid broke several of my plant pots and plants. I started not giving balls back, saying I didn’t have time to look if they knocked and leaving it weeks and then threw them back. Then I spoke to the mother after one work call when my colleague asked if someone was trying to break in,. I told mum it needed to stop. Park is three minutes away. I said no more balls were going back and I was sick of it. Kept my word. Burst and binned three. A year later I’ve not had one since

Thats very annoying! I would tell them they aren't allowed to knock anymore. Whenever you're next in the garden you will throw it back because they're disturbing your little ones. If that doesn't work, I'd go and tell their mam the same. Doesn't have to be confrontational. If it still doesn't work, fuck them just pop the balls 🤣

Keep the ball, when your baby wakes for a feed in the middle of the night go knock to return it..😉

I had massive issues with balls and horrible kids damaging my plants on purpose with their balls. The parents never cared. As long as the kids were not annoying them. I ended up binning all balls that came onto my property. They didn't care about my belongings. Why should I care their balls they put into my garden on purpose!

Stop throwing the balls back and engaging with them. It's a game to them. Don't play it.

In my last house, we had football mad young boys next door who knocked for their ball. I work from home so it was disruptive.

I put a little stepladder on our side, so they could hop over into the garden and get their ball if it went over, and be able to get back to their side. Problem solved.

Why can't you say that sometimes you cannot stop what you are doing (caring for baby) but they will get their ball back as soon as you can do it?

My lovely next door neighbour moved in with three boys (7 to 11) and their football was forever coming into our patio. No problem. They couldn't get into our patio from their garden, so the boys would knock on our door. They were always lovely and polite, and it was hardly a hardship to walk into our patio, retrieve their ball and give it back to them.

Now those boys are grown, we have a lovely relationship with our neighbour. For example, we are having our drive and paths round the house 're done. Neighbour is just fine with the builder storing the bricks on her drive. Neighbour on the other side invited us to park our car on her drive (she has room for two). Live and let live. It can pay dividends.

YANBU. Our 9 yo is not allowed to play football in the (narrow) garden because he can’t hold back and it constantly went over the fence. Fine here and there and ask the neighbour to chuck back over if they’re in the garden, but otherwise we’ve said no and have just got alternative games and if anything goes over the fence I wouldn’t expect to see it until the next day!

It’s annoying for him but it is what it is, I can’t expect people to constantly be sending balls back over for someone else’s child. There are plenty of parks for football!

@user1471453601 i have told them on several occasions that after 7 I can’t stop what I am doing. On one occasion the mum was on her front garden and when I said I was putting baby to bed she said ‘how long will you be’

so I understand where you’re coming from but we have had no consideration or respect from their side, not one apology or thank you. We have only lived in this house a year and our last neighbours were great, mutual respect

@Thelaundryfairyhasbeenassassinated thank you, you’re right seems like it is a game. And that’s the main problem the parents not caring unfortunately