How to deal with unpleasant behaviour from kids in our street

[Teaandcookiestime]

Hello - wondering if anyone has any advice on this?

My children are year 1 and 3, and some kids in our street (mixture of ages, I'd say oldest looks about 13 youngest about 7) have been being unpleasant. They started off with 'jokes' which quickly became quite bullying, but they are now also being quite intimidating. Today they blocked another young child in the street from getting home, so he had to run to get to his house while my son distracted them.

We have asked them to stop several times and the older boy has shouted and sworn at us, which doesn't bother us but is really not acceptable behaviour.

My plan is to speak to the parents and mention that behaviour has sometimes got out of hand (aiming to be as non confrontational as possible), but based on others experiences with the families my expectation is that this won't change anything. Does anyone have any ideas for steps to take which might make a difference?

Thank you!

No way would my kids in yr 1 and 3 be playing out.

Sorry, but it's all I can think reading your post (not trying to be nasty)

Contact the council’s anti social behaviour team if the convo with parent’s doesn’t have the desired effect.

No offence taken, given that you have no idea about where we live or how we supervise our kids when they are outside 👍

Do you have a front garden OP?

Set up camp and maybe get a few other parents to put out garden chairs etc on the front lawn/driveway. Periodically sit out and keep and eye on things, making your presence known.

If the kid acts up, bring your kids in and tel the other kids to go home and tell them to tell their parents there was a bully on the streets.

Everytime he does this, bring the kids in and invite their friends in. Exclude the bullies

Hopefully they will get the message

I hope mine are. I was.

Are there any youth centres in your area that do street work? They could start calling past on their route and trying to better engage the kids causing the issues? I agree having more of a presence around might discourage them from acting out.

Thank you that would be great - sadly where we live is very rural and there is no provision along these lines (probably part of the problem!)

Thank you, some good ideas - we are generally around and have been keeping an eye, but this doesn't seem to put them off too much. The oldest in particular just swears and rides his bike slightly aggressively towards us/the kids. Totally new problem as there have always been a few lovely kids who play together really nicely. We might try your idea of all the kids going home saying there is a bully around!

Thank you, definitely something to consider if they continue trying to intimidate.