would you complain or would you think its just kids being kids

[shellybelly]

I live in an open plan estate, no garden fences open lawns. Its a lovely place great for kids (cul de sac) but there are some older children who play with footballs (big caser ones) they constantly run across gardens in front of peoples windows (and some people really care for their gardens/flowers) the ball also hits cars/garages etc (matter of time before a window goes out). In the past dh has asked them politely to move further up the street to where they live as they don't tend to play outside their own front door!!, we did some time ago get leaflets from the council about this sort of thing but I can't find it so my question is do I grit my teeth and bear it or complain to the council about it??

how about talking to them again, or their parents before the council?

if it was me i would put fences up tbh

we used to have this in our old house, it was a cul-de-sac too but front gardens had fences, teh kids from up the other end still played football in the street. It used to drive DH insane.

Couldn't say anything to them as they were as rough as you like( for eg, 5yr old out playing at 10:30pm with older siblings, effing and blinding the whole time) and would have purposely kicked the ball at our car and god know what they would have done to the garden.

Not much help but for you though...sorry.

I'd remind the kids to play down their own end of the street and mind the flowers. And maybe have a word with the parents.

take them to a local field and join in with them
the kids will buzz off it

and yes I do
I go and play cricket and rounders with all the local kids
they respect you then
good luck

We've had similar problems in the past, even though the gardens are fenced and there is a football pitch around the corner.

Most of the children calmed down a bit after dh spoke to them nicely but some were determined to carry on. The parents were fairly reasonable but didn't seem to have much control over their children tbh. It got to the point where I was ready to make a formal complaint but something happened and it was no longer necessary.

If you feel you've tried everything else I would complain tbh.

DSW....don't suppose you'd mind coming to live next door to us would you?

You sound like my perfect neighbour

LadyT I always join in with the kids when the weather is nice
I take them to a field and we play for a couple of hours
dh takes the mick out of me though when the kids come knocking for me to go out to play

you sound FAB!

we live in a cul de sac and have the same probs durin summer.our gardens are walled but the driveways are open with walls dividing IYSWIM!
last summer,a girl from one of the other houses was walking along the walls going from one house to the next.the copin stones on our wall are loose,and dh went and told her shed hurt herself.she told him to f off or shed get her mum round!(this girl is 8!)later on that afternoon,her and one of the girls from the estate across the road were doing it again.gobby little shit fell off our wall.cut her arm open and bumped her head.her mother brought her round saying it was our fault!(we had alredy reported it to the housing association and were waiting for them to come and cement it back on).two days later,dh's car had a key scratched down his car ,the full length of it.too much of a coincidence really,but they wouldnt admit it was them.
we learnt from that,that if anything like that happens,just report it to council/housing association.if you confron them round here,you just get a gob full and damage done!

I always feel sorry for kids who can't run around outside for fear of disturbing the neighbours. Probably they are nice kids from nice families. Probably their parents want them to stay close to home so they can keep an eye on them and not be off somewhere else. If I see kids skateboarding or playing footy I feel glad that they doing something healthy and fun, not sitting in a darkened room attached to a play station or doing something worse behind the bike sheds. I say give them a break. If they repeatedly squash your plants then have a word with their parents but it doesn't sound as though they've actually caused any damage yet, have they? They are probably loud, irritating and perhaps a bit intimidating but if they can't play footy just think what else they might start getting up to out of boredom.

In our case we did have a window broken. Under our HA tenancy rules it had to be reported to the police.

Generally the behaviour was worse than just normal boisterous play. A police friend of mine was at our house one evening when it was going on and wanted to go outside to warn them off. We're usually tolerant people.

they are nice kids from nice families, I tend to keep myself to myself and don't really want to go upsetting anyone (tho when one of the parents is playing footie with them and running over the lawn and having a good neb in the window) well it makes me wonder whether they would take any notice if i did say anything. tbh the noise of children playing outside is lovely and doesn't bother me at all but there must be something other than playing footie they can do