To think that if my kids want to be outside they don't need to come in every 2 minutes!

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

they are driving me crackers! They all craked to go outside, so I dutifully bundled them up and sent them out to our nice fenced in garden. DH is doing various jobs around the house garden anyway. HOWEVER they are in and out every 2 minutes, trailing mud and grass behind them, and always always leaving all the doors open- aargh! They can't seem to play by themselves. If DH goes out of their line of vision they are traipsing in to see if he is in here (NO HE IS NOT!) I am ill (although recovering!) and grumpy and just want some peace without a force 10 gale blowing in. AIBU to think of locking the doors?

beb-bop - SLAM - bee-bop - SLAM beb-bop - SLAM - bee-bop - SLAM beb-bop - SLAM - bee-bop - SLAM beb-bop - SLAM - bee-bop - SLAM

is what I live with in nice weather! I end up locking the door and sending them through the garage!

Mine do that. Eventually I usually blow up about it..IN OR OUT..!! AND STOP TRAIPSING MUD ABOUT!!

Mine often keep ringing the doorbell to come in too - even though the back door is open. That has me spontaneously combusting as well.

The icing on the cake here is the dog barking like Cujo and running to investigate every time he hears the door opening. My kitchen floor is brown with kiddy and dog footprints. Just bloody stay out for more than two minutes!!

Drive's me nuts to - lock the door and tell them you have lost the key and to back later

come

YADNBU!

Drives me mad!

In or bloody out, make your bloody mind up! arrgghhhh ...

Glad it's not just me! Ringing the doorbell would be the final straw, bendybob. We don't have a door through from the garage, ilove, but maybe I could just lock them IN the garage....

I have blown up about it now and they all gave me the "YABU" face! Now, DH is sneaking them in, in a "shh, don't let mummy hear you coming in for a jammy dodger" kind of way! GRRRRRR. Am loathe to go out and have a go at him though because he is pressure washing the doors and windows, and it would be just my luck....

I locked mine out once when they wouldn't stop fighting.

Good old DH eh? bless him

I know! Of course, since I breathed fire told them how I felt, they have now gone quiet- so quiet that I have been forced to go and check that they are all ok!! (they are!) But my concern and remorphosis from raging crosspatch to concerned mum has now reassured them that it is ok to start coming in and out again. Sob!

Yanbu. Mine do this. It's a right PITA as our patio doors are in an open plan living / dining room so all the mud + debris ends up round the sofa.

Come summer they'll be locked out after breakfast and I will post snacks out to them through the window.

Argh YANBU!

DD does this too. Her friends call. DS (3) goes crazy because he is under the impression that DDs 11&12 yr old friends are his friends, and have come to play cars with him.
They all go away. DS cries. They come back 10 min later.
Repeat process... and again!

Grrrrr drives me mad, DDs friends must think I'm a bad tempered old boot because I'm practically frothing at the mouth by the 3rd time

Lock em' out!

Which reminds me- I shouted to DD that I was going to lock her out once, and her friend thought I'd said knock

I get this too, not just with our kids but their friends in the street! It's X has hurt himself, have you got a plaster. I tell dd to send X in to his mum but that doesn't seem to be an option! So dig out a plaster, then it's "Mum we're hungry/thirsty!" I say ok I'll do early lunch, do that then it's can their friends come in. I say OK then their friends start, "Can we have a biscuit/have you got any glue/paper/string? Is your dh there, we need to borrow his bicycle pump/screwdriver etc!"

This is all when they're supposed to be playing out, like your kids. I'll have to get firm and start refusing to answer doorbells and knocking!

Oh yes, DD does this too, and then there's the tale telling every 10 minutes, from her or one of the other kids.

I end up bellowing out the door 'if there's no blood or broken bones, I don't care', and then slamming the door.

Ahh- feeling better that I am not alone now!

And yes, muggglewump, I heard myself shouting earlier that I wasn't interested unless someone's head was "cleaved in two"

Mine daren't come back in now... I said if they did, I would lock them inside and make them do workbooks .

it's becaUSE OF THIS THAT i'VE INVESTED IN (sorry, caps) an unattractive but very practical washable "dirt-trapper" mat.

Haven't yet solved the problem of the doors being left open though. I'm wondering about some kind of pavlovian setup involving teensy-weensy electric shocks. What d'you think?

Oooh yes, that sounds like a fab idea.

DD was out all day for the first time this year yesterday. 10 minutes after going out I had the first tale from one of next door's kids about a blue chalk.

How long is it until October?

Oh God, the tale-telling! In the sing-song voice! (Who teaches them that, btw??) Muu-u-umm! She hit me!....I didnt...she di-d.

at the thought of a whole summer of banging doors, dirty floors and whinging children!

Or Muu-u-umm... Katy told off me and I didn't even hit her hard.

Told off me what's that all about then? They're 9 and 11 for goodness sake.

"WILL YOU MAKE UP YOUR MINDS? ARE YOU IN OR ARE YOU OUT?"

I remember my mum yelling this at us after we had rushed into the house for the umpteenth time in ten minutes, trailing yet more mud and grass in with us.

Now I have my own children. Guess what I find myself yelling on regular basis?

Yup.