Hello everyone! I need some advice from more experienced parents... Not long ago we've moved into a new house. We have quite a big back yard compared to those in the neighbourhood. The people are friendly and there are lots of children. The garden looks out onto a pritave lane with lots of houses and children with whom our children have made friends. A few weeks ago we built a gate into the fence divinding the neigbhours' lane and our garden so that our children and theirs could play freely and we could walk out and talk to the parents on the other side (instead of just talking through a net-like fence). Now I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand it was great to develop friendships and get to know our neighbours, on the other hand, we can't invite just two or three children to play, because almost the whole neighbourhood comes (imagine 10 children at once). They used to play on their lane, now everybody is playing in our garden. How do I draw the line without offending anybody? How do I maintain a good relationship with the neighbours? (Frankly speaking, we've just met!) The children in the neighbourhood are lovely, truly, but there's just too many and often I'll see my elder girl left out, while they're playing with her toys. Then, there's the problem of taking responsibility of all those children's safety. It's quite impossible for my husband and me to just sit and relax with our children either. I know they're all just children, that's why I need to be delicate, but I don't want our garden to turn into a public playground. And I don't want to make our back yard the bone of contention. I'm not from UK, btw. Thank you for any ideas.