General Discussion & Chat: Neighbor kids on our lawn, 1 by mommydi

mommydi wrote:
Oh boy can I relate! Bought house in summer of 2000 and met the grandchildren of neighbors two doors down, they were about 4 and 7. My two youngest were newborn and 2. Since our backyard was not yet kid friendly, we would sit out front so 2 yo could ride his little scooter.

The two grandkids (we now refer to them as "Beastie Boys") stayed often at neighbors. BB would race up and down the sidewalk in front of our house, not slowing for my little ones at all. They also played "bumper bikes" and "chicken" without any consideration of who was in the way. They also ran through my flower beds and yard.

I started out nice and it didn't work. So I started getting nasty. The 4yo pulled a knife from his pocket and threatened me with it!! They both cursed at me. When we would go in the back yard, they would go around back and harass us (we are on a corner and there is an alley as well) They even threw a rock at my now-5-year-old when he was playing in our back yard. I could go on and on.

They claim that they like riding in front of our house because we have a good sidewalk, not all broken up like theirs. I didn't get anywhere with mom or Grandmother (grandfather is "step" and not allowed authority). We don't have a HOA because this is just a small town... but we do have a small town police dept! I reported and reported (grandmother would lie), documented,etc and even the chief told them that they had violated the "public property" expectations of the sidewalk and to not come past our property line on the sidewalk. That didn't work either but it's getting better!

I still have problems but I have prevented some of it with landscaping. Please excuse the "still in progress" look because it pretty much is!

This is the corner "fence" that I put up partly to add privacy between my house and the rental (nothing wrong with rentals but this one is managed by a slumlord) next to me and partly to keep the BB from using that corner as a "turnaround" location on their bikes etc.