Hi everyone.
My children, who are young teenagers, love being outside. I encourage it to avoid them being on screens too much.
We've lived in our current house for almost 3 years - this is our third summer here. Recently, my neighbours (I only have neighbours on one side) have taken a huge disliking to them playing in the garden. I spoke to the gentleman and we agreed a mutually acceptable time for them to stop playing was 10pm. I enforce this if they forget, but they are very conscious of the time limit.
Last night (Saturday) they went over by 2 minutes, so got really told off by the neighbour. I could hear the lady screaming at them that they are disrespectful and should be in bed by 10pm. My younger one was mortified and couldn't apologise enough, but she was livid. The screaming attracted my attention to the time, so I also apologised, but she said she was calling the police as we were disturbing their peace. Her and her husband then spent the next 20 minutes shouting at each other.
Well the police turned up today to speak to me, unfortunately we were out, but I saw them on my cameras.
What do I do? I really do dislike falling out with anybody. I understand that we all have different tolerance limits. I want to address it with them, but without making it worse or getting into a neighbour feud. I'm almost tempted to say that when they let their dog out to bark from 6am onwards, or do their glass recycling before 8am at a weekend is outside of my tolerance limits, but I say nothing to keep the peace - but if I say that does it look like tit for tat?
Any advice welcome please.