Neighbours kids

[Kentmum23]

Hi new here. Older mum now with teenage kids. Don’t want to be a Scrooge or have anyone think I’m a miserable old bag lol but Have moved to new neighbourhood and am getting fed up having to listen to the kid next door screeching in the garden. He’s constantly kicking the football over our fence then rings on the doorbell to get it back and has even broken a window in our conservatory by kicking his ball at it. I tried ignoring the doorbell yesterday despite us clearly being in thinking the parents might get the hint but then he just hung over the fence to get our attention. Don’t want to fall out with neighbours but has anyone got any advice on how I can deal with it?

I can relate! Boy at the back of us constantly kicks a football into the fence. It’s so excessive his parents have built a second fence. We tend to not say anything purely because we think he has Autism or similar (they have sensory lights in the conservatory, and the boy is polite .. just intense … I will sometimes say ‘I’m just working/doing my washing I’ll throw your ball back in 30 minutes’ which he’s ok with, and gives me a break from the bang bang bang!)… so it’s irritating but manageable, and it’s only in summer/nice weather.

I guess you have three options;

• do nothing
• tell his parents (could work, but could bring some risk… depends what they’re like really)
• gradually extend the time it takes you to pass it back (‘I’ll throw it back in about an hour once I’ve cleaned up/finished my work’ etc) And if he manages to not kick it over for a while maybe tell him his aim is improving or something (so a subtle mix of making it negative to send the ball over and positively reinforce him for not doing so….. in essence, attempt to train the child lol)

We had two neighbours who dealt with balls from my boys in two very different ways

Neighbour 1 said - back gate is always open so help yourself!

Neighbour 2 said - do not come round - if I see a ball I will throw it back

Both neighbours avoided us ringing in their door bell and we always got the ball back!

You could try out the second option and see if it works!