Am I just a crabby old lady?

[Pig Pen]

Something like this just happened to us. We are renting a house until we retire to FL which borders a stream. The previous tenants were the owners and they allowed 2 neighborhood boys to play in the backyard in the stream. We hadn't seen the kids all winter until the last few weeks when the weather warmed up. In the meantime a couple of mallard ducks have started frequenting our yard. We suspect they have a nest somewhere close by.

The other day the boys were back there digging in the sand and building a "bridge" to a little island in the middle of the stream. I happened to look up and see them chucking rocks at the ducks who were swimming madly around the stream. Oh boy, I lost it. I tromped out there and yelled at them and told them to pick up their stuff and get home.

DH was slightly shocked and afterwards I felt a bit sheepish. But today I realized that I haven't seen the ducks so the boys probably scared them away or maybe had found and destroyed the nest before I kicked them out.

Sign me up for the crabby old lady society.

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

DH live in a neighborhood FULL of kids. they're always playing everywhere on the street. it doesn't really bother me. once in a while they get a bit loud but most of the time it doesn't bother me.

altho them being in your rosebush and flowerbed WOULD bother me. so i don't think you were wrong in telling them to be careful at all. maybe this will scare them away from getting close to their again.

 

[ZeitgeistDuck]

I thought of this thread today at coffee hour after church- one of the ladies reminded my DH that as he takes his turn mowing the church's lawn this week to please be careful of the flower beds, she'd just spent hours on them and didn't want him to trample them. Since she's his mom's age and a total sweetheart, and followed it up with a chuckle and a hug, he was not at all offended.

 

[rumrunnergirl]

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[PaulaSB12]

Being neighbors means give and take. They might not like a child walking on their grass. We didn't particularly care for the loud hot tub at 11:00 at night. But really does either of the above scenarios matter or cause harm? I think she was crabby and she only created resentment on my part for her outburst. By the way, I never told her about the hot tub, so don't think it became a heated relationship. I just kept my distance and held my tongue.

Yes being a neighbour is about give and take, if you want them to be quieter in the hot tub speak to them. Then again why is it that being a child gives them a free pass to go over someone elses property? I saw that in a thread where someone was complaining about children in their yard. You don't want someone elses child on your property then they stay off. As stated below if the child is harmed your health insurence is likely to sue the owners which is stress they don't need.

 

[mickey&minnie04]

I think it's pretty crabby. I personally think it's a stretch to say that a child walking across a lawn to get to their own yard faster is trespassing. I personally think things like that go along with suburbian life. If you are going to be uptight about a perfect yard, you might be better off moving to the country where you don't have neighbors and the pains that go along with neighbors.

What would happen if that child was walking on my lawn and fell and broke his/her leg? It's my property and I didn't fill in a whole, could I be sued? I'm not taking that chance! So maybe I'm becoming a crabby lady too!

 

[rumrunnergirl]

.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

I think I've become the crabby neighborhood lady. There is a group of teenagers who live on the street behind us, and several times last year I had to ask them to please ride their bikes in the road, NOT in our backyard! They weren't just passing through; they were doing figure eights around the trees...literally just riding around the yard.

And one day last week, I came home from work to find them riding their scooters and skateboards up and down our driveway. What the heck??? It's not even a slope! All I could think was, are we liable if one of those kids had fallen and been hurt?

 

[Jynohn]

I guess I'm a crabby old lady at the ripe age of 37. The woman across the street runs a daycare, and it drives me crazy that I can't open my windows for some fresh air without hearing the kids screaming (playing) in the front yard and the CONSTANT sound of a bouncing basketball. I would never say anything because they're really just having fun and not doing anything wrong, but it does secretly annoy me sometimes.

On a more serious note, we have Great Danes, and it hasn't been in the budget yet to put in a privacy fence, but we do have an Invisible Fence. However, I can't ever leave the dogs outside unsupervised because we are on a corner lot all the neighborhood kids use our yard to cut through to other yards. Our dogs are in no way aggressive, but all it takes is one kid to get knocked over accidentally and an angry parent, to cause a world of aggravation. So until we come up with the thousands of dollars we need to fence in our acre+, the dogs aren't able to fully enjoy our yard right now.

And that's the reason why this crabby old lady is looking to move out of a neighborhood and live somewhere more secluded as soon as possible.

 

[surfergirl602]

How can asking a kid nicely to watch where he steps be perseived as being crabby?!? I don't get it. If I spent my money and time on buying/planting them, I wouldn't want someone just stomping through my garden. I would happily get the ball myself, too. I have kids that play with my kids in our yard, but I constantly remind my children to not go onto the yards of the others that live around us. Most have nice landscaping and I would be upset if my children ruined it.

 

[rparmfamily]

I guess I'm a crabby old lady at the ripe age of 37. The woman across the street runs a daycare, and it drives me crazy that I can't open my windows for some fresh air without hearing the kids screaming (playing) in the front yard and the CONSTANT sound of a bouncing basketball. I would never say anything because they're really just having fun and not doing anything wrong, but it does secretly annoy me sometimes.

Same here! Except it's my neighbor's dogs all day and part of the night. Except in my case, I have lodged complaints a few times (after trying to talk to them about it) about the nonstop barking. We live in a townhome, and her house is about 20 ft from mine, with our small yards inbetween. She leaves the dogs out all day. Plus the SMELL of her dogs, gross!! (from dog feces), and my house gets filthy because she has no grass, the dogs have destroyed her yard, it's just red dirt and it blows in my house.

I live in HI, I want to have my windows open.

 

[Handbag Lady]

You aren't being overly crabby, but I would be a bit taken aback if someone opened their door and said that to me or my kids. It's not like it was intentional, I would almost feel spied on. We would be more careful to avoid your property in the future, absolutely. I think it just goes with suburbian life that you'll have stuff like this happen. But, I am in the days with the young kids, so I am thinking from the opposite side.

I was thinking along this idea too. If the OP doesn't want to be seen as a crabby old lady, she can send a nice note to the family saying she wanted to clarify that her plantings were recent and does hope hope they are carful in the future but that she didn't mean to startle anyone and isn't it great that their kids play outside instead of becoming vegetables in front of the TV. Or something like that.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Not really.

I don't mind our friend-neighbor's kids playing in our yard (but NOT on our growing grass seed!!! ), but that is because we think they are cute, since we are friends with their parents!

Any other kids? Get. Off. My. Lawn.

Hopefully I am not a crabby old lady... I am 27!

 

[cinmell]

Is there someone in your neighborhood who doesn't want kids playing in their yard?

Yes and it's me.