Longish post. We're having our first neighbor issue and need help.Backstory: We purchased our first house about 18 months ago. We love our neighborhood, the area is beautiful and everyone is very friendly but mostly keep to themselves. We are by far the youngest couple in the neighborhood, by a good 15+ years, and are the only couple to have kids (4 of them). We keep our yard presentable, on par with the others on the street, but we could do more in terms of landscaping (flowers) if we had the time or desire (I really don't care, it looks as nice as the other houses on the street). We also have a dog, who we keep in the house. She is on a chain or leash when she needs to go out, and always goes in the same place (we have a rocky area just for her to do her thing).
Our problem: I'm having a difficult time addressing this issue with our next door neighbor. She's a very nice lady, she is really is, but I'm having some issues with her regarding social boundaries, I think she sees us more as kids than adults, which is understandable as her kids are older than us, but still. She recently purchased a dog. Her dog "goes" in our yard which is not large at all, maybe 1/3 of an acre (he uses it every time he's out, she walks over with him so she knows). She'll clean up after it, but I'm skeeved by the fact that the kids play in the yard and will be playing in her dog's you know what (particularly now with snow there are several areas that they can not play/ sled in). It also very awkward when I open the door to let our dog out while I'm in nightclothes and she's standing there with her dog.
I've been somewhat uncomfortable in our interactions before (telling my kids to help the neighbor's grandson pick up his toys in front of me, they KNOW and more importantly, DO do that on their own). They also drive/ walk through our yard to get to the back when they are doing yard work or visiting other neighbors, we don't really have a problem with that, a heads up for the driving would be nice, but whatever. She is a very nice person, but the dog thing is really bothering me. If you got this far thank you. Now how do I address this with her without coming off as the bad neighbor?
******* UPDATE *******
Thanks for all the replies. We are so getting a fence. Dh spoke with our neighbor regarding the dog earlier today. He said that he told her that she needs to stop letting her dog into our yard. He said that her reply was, "I make sure I clean up after him." Dh reiterated that the dog really needed to stay in their yard. He said that he though she got. Well, I just looked out our kitchen window and her dog was going right in the middle of our yard with her standing there watching. Needless to say I am beyond mad
. DS11 is having his birthday party this weekend and wanted to take his friends outside to sled and snowboard. This is so not gonna happen now. There are yellow spots all over. Urgg . I can not believe that people can be so ignorant, but reading some of the responses it seems to be way more common than I would expect.
