AIBU not to outright ban kids from playing with balls in garden, after neighbours complained

[MyKidsThrowFood]

I have 2 active boys age 6 & 4. We live in a Victorian terrace with a smallish garden. Both boys love a kick about. Recently our neighbours complained about too many balls ending up in their garden. I completely understand this. However, they said the kids should be forbidden from playing with balls in the garden entirely, which I avoided agreeing to. Instead we instituted a rule where the boys have to request a ball from us so they’re only playing with one ball at a time and it’s supervised.
The boys also apologised. The neighbours didn’t exactly accept the apology but were civil.
This was about a month ago. Since then there’s been one incident of a ball accidentally going over, which the boys apologised for. But now another has gone over. That’s 2 balls in month. Is this an unreasonable amount? Can they now reasonably insist on no playing with balls on the garden ever? My eldest became very tearful at the prospect as he loves football and is very active but the gardens are so small it seems impossible to prevent balls ever going over entirely.

I coudktn get worked up about this because I have small kids too

Omactualg!! So, you don't have a big enough garden for football, but f*ck it, just play football anyway?? No OP, the solution isn't to wind up your neighbours, the solution is to buy a house with a bigger garden, live in the countryside or just you know.. take your kids to a field or park!

What is wrong with people. Whether it's once or twice in a month, just knowing a ball might be flying at your head any moment would cause anyone anxiety. Or worrying about balls hitting your flowers or ornaments.

Stop playing with balls when you know they will disturb your neighbours, it's selfish.

And the fact that netting never even occurred to you!

The neighbours who back on to us have 2 young boys and the balls do come over occasionally. Our gardens are small but they are just children and there will be reasons why the parents can't take the boys to the common at that particular time. So I try to be understanding. It won't be forever.

To be honest, if the neighbours kids are old enough then they should be able to go to the park themselves and play football. We had neighbours that lived opposite the park - it always baffled me why their older teenage son would kick the ball up against the fence all day. Surely kids that age have friends to play in the park.