Reporting kids for anti social behaviour?

[cocolioness]

A group of children who all live in the same row of houses as me will be out playing from 07:30am to 8pm at night.

They will constantly shriek, play on my drive and just generally cause a nuisance.
I have a newborn and a toddler and the noise often wake them up.

This is a council property as are the other houses.
We are just really fed up of living here and are now saving up to move.

They jump on cars.
Throw stuff at cars.
Constantly chuck footballs in our garden.

The kids are from 5 - 8 years old.

I am thinking of reporting this to the council but wanted to ask for others opinions as I feel kinda mean considering they are children.

AIBU?

I’m not sure if you are being totally unreasonable but you certainly are a little bit unreasonable. It is summer, the weather has been good and children play outside. While they are doing that they may also be making some noise. You have little ones now, but you will have loud, playing out kids one day and someone else will no doubt be annoyed by them!

You do have to try not to dwell on it as no one has a right to silence and sometimes you have to just make the best of things. However, they shouldn’t be allowed to damage peoples property so the car jumping should be mentioned to the landlord but footballs are a given at this time of year - there are loads in my garden (I don’t throw them back as the kid who is sending them over comes to collect them all at the end of the week which was his mums idea). You could also talk to the neighbours about how early they play out and maybe negotiate a later start? Worth a try.

I think the noise and playing is fair enough. The jumping on cars or damaging property isn’t. Could you try asking nicely if they can keep off your drive, not least as it disturbs your two littlies?

Surely the first point of call is asking the kids in a fair enough way, then parents, and lastly council.

I have mentioned it to the parents before, I have heard the parents telling them to keep it down etc but they still come onto my drive.

The mother of the child who comes on my drive knows I don’t like him doing it but she see’s him doing it and says nothing hence why I want to report it.

Of course you're not being unreasonable! They don't have the right to play on your drive, jump on cars or disturb you all day!! "Kids will be kids " my arse, yes, but they don't have to make everyone's life a misery. Their parents should show up and take responsibility!

If you're not exaggerating and there are children as young as five unsupervised for over ten hours a day, I'd report to social services.

Yes the children are basically left to play out all day in a park a minute away.

Whilst coming back from a walk last week my neighbours 5 year old was 5 minutes away from his house playing in the road whilst his mum
had her friend round.

These kids are regularly left unattended.

I would never allow my kids to play outside unsupervised at the age of 5.

They jump on cars.
Throw stuff at cars.

See I would've started with that rather than they're making noise up until 8pm during Summer evenings.

If you don't have a doorbell cam, take your phone out and video them jumping on cars and throwing things at them. Then send the evidence to the council.

But don't start your complaint with 'I don't want noise at 8pm because I have kids' etc.

Get a camera set up recording with full view of your car. That’s evidence you can use. I’d be out telling the kids to get off the drive every single time they cause bother. I had the same with balls being booted into my garden over and over for months. One of them hit my rabbit hard. I stopped throwing them back over after that. The kids lifted a broken fence panel up (many of my panels were broken and splintered in places from their fucking balls hitting them so hard) to walk through to my garden to get their balls and I went mad. I had two rabbits and two guinea pigs free ranging in carefully sectioned areas with that back fence as a barrier every day, they were put in their respective hutches at night. The kids were told to get out of my garden right now and that they’d already hurt my rabbit. They dropped the fence panel and legged it. Any ball that came over after that I retrieved in the evening, popped it and stuck it in the bin. I bought a camera that records my garden. Hasn’t happened since but I have lost my rabbits and piggies due to old age :(