Wwyd, children playing out.

[Specksofwhiteallaround]

Interested in opinions as I’m not sure of the best way to handle this. The last year or so there have been two young girls who play out everyday, we live in a close so zero traffic and it’s safe for them to so this. They play all over the court, going up and down the alleys between people’s gardens and the main path around the fronts. They are out from 7am every weekend until around 10pm and from 4pm to about 9pm in the week for context. They are noisy in the way most kids playing are but that genuinely doesn’t bother me, I have an 11 year old son with ASD so used to kids noise.

My issue with them is they’ve started very intrusively shouting into my garden. With the nice weather I set up outdoor chairs in my garden, my son asked me a question and I answered and suddenly the youngest one started shouting who said that, who is it, what did you say etc, they kept it up for a good half hour while walking up and down the side alley. For context all the back gardens here have 6ft tall fences so they can’t see into our garden at all, hence the shouting. There are three other gardens baking onto that alley so probably not just my garden she was directing this at as she obviously couldn’t see where we were. Rightly or wrongly I didn’t want to get into conversation so kept quiet and didn’t think much of it, except now every time we’re in the garden and they’re near by as soon as one of us talks they start yelling asking who’s talking and it’s really beginning to annoy me.

My problem is this is a fairly small court where most people know each other by sight, and almost everyone knows me because of my cat so I’m hesitant to speak directly to these kids and end up being that person who told kids off. I’d happily speak to their parents but Ive no idea who they are, I’ve only ever seen these girls on their own, never with an adult so not an option. My husband said to put a polite note on the notice board in the communal bin store but I feel that’s passive aggressive. So kind of at a loss on how to deal with it.

Any suggestions?

Time to water your plants when they start shouting! If the fences are tall they won’t know if there are actually any plants there! Should deter them! 🤣🤣🤣

Just keep ignoring them, once they realise you won't engage they will get bored. You can't be the only one in your garden talking so they probably do it to other people too. It must be irritating but they will move on at some point.

They're just kids mucking about, just ignore them 🤷‍♀️

That’s what I’m hoping but they are very persistent. One of them spent six months chasing my cat before she finally accepted that him running away meant he didn’t want to engage with her 😅
It is sort of weird here though in that it’s very quiet, it’s actually rare to hear people talking aside from these two kids playing. No one ever plays music, people rarely have bbqs or any of the usual summer activities. It’s the kind of place where you just automatically keep your voice down in your garden as with no one else talking it feels like all the neighbours can hear your whole conversation.

They just want to interact with your DC, surely? My DC shout over the fence to neighbours DC every day for hours on end. The difference is that we are friends and do meet up in the park etc. Maybe just give the kids a chance to interact with yours?

They didn’t hear my son, just me so they weren’t trying to get his attention. They call for a younger boy who lives opposite us so they have no problems knocking on the door of other kids they want to play with. They have no interest in my son as he's a bit older and obviously autistic.

Ignore them. If you respond in any way, they'll just keep shouting. Use earphones if the shouting annoys you. I wouldn't engage in any passive aggressive notes as that might blow up.

Speak to the parents and just ask them to tell the kids not to shout over fences.

So far we’ve just gone inside a while until they stopped but really hoping they don’t keep this up all summer. I’m honestly surprised they’ve kept it going as long as they have, I can’t really understand what they’re getting out of it.

Just ignore them. If you engage you’ll never get rid of them and they’ll be knocking on the door all the time.

They're probably bored and looking for excitement or attention. Definitely ignore. I wouldn't go inside though but just keep ignoring

I would but I’ve no idea who they are. I've never once seen them in the company of an adult. I did keep an eye out to talk to them when they were annoying my cat but they eventually stopped chasing him before I ever spotted them.

Absolutely ignore. They're desperate for a reaction/drama/conflict.

I think they must bored as there’s not a lot of playmates for them. They seem to prefer being outdoors as even if it’s pouring with rain they’ll be out on their bikes but riding around the same close day in day out must get monotonous.

First step for me would be ignoring them. If they’re very persistent say something like “that’s enough shouting now girls“ in your best teacher voice. So not a telling off as such so the parents couldn’t complain just telling them firmly that’s enough

Their latest games involve them swinging massive golf umbrellas around and they’ve nearly taken out a couple of the older residents this weekend so I’m sure they’ll be getting some drama and conflict coming their way if they’re not careful 😬
My kitchen window is at the front of our house facing the entrance to the court where they often play before anyone thinks I’m overly interested in these kids. I just happen to see them a lot while pottering around the kitchen cooking, washing up etc.