Our Neighbor is a Witch!

[Poly Pal]

Not the kind with a broom either!

My 4 year old's best friend lives on the other side of our witchy neighbor's yard. Our 3 backyards run together and are basically open (no fences or hedges,etc. - just open lawn). It is nice sice we can watch the kids play in whichever backyards from our kitchen window or out on the deck.

When my 4 year old wants to play in his friend's yard, he makes a bee-line through this neighbor's back yard. Today, the witch says to me, "Will you say something to the children about running through the yard? We are thinking about putting in a hedge next year and want to start cutting down on traffic to get them used to it." Very weird!

Now she has 2 children herself who play with my kids and the other neighbor's kids. Her kids were with her and she proceeded to yell at them to stay on their side of the property marker! Our neighborhood is full of young children with good size houses on small lots. We watch out for each others kids and there is usually a bunch of running from yard to yard, biking in the cul de sac, etc.

I wouldn't be too concerned about instructing my little guy to stay out of the neighbor's yard if it weren't for the fact that he'll have to go out in the street out of my line of sight in order to get to and from the best friend's house. And I don't know what he'll do when the witch's kids want him to come play in their yard. He's a sweet dispositioned little boy who listens to authority and pays attention to rules!

I've been upset all day about this and just have to vent!

 

[JohnTBap]

Man, it's just grass.

Someday you will look back and laugh. I have hilarious bad neighbor memories from when I was a kid.

{{{hugs}}}

 

[NHAnn]

As I was first reading your post, I thought maybe she has no kids and wants privacy in her back yard area...but then read further...

That's too bad.........

 

[Chattyaholic]

Maybe if the kids asked her permission to cut across her yard to go to each other's yards, she would allow it and not be so witchy about it. I can kind of "relate" because when we go camping and kids cut through our campsite to get to another one or to get to the bathrooms, it kind of bugs me. Especially if we're sitting outside in lawn chairs trying to read or carry on a conversation with each other. It just annoys me for some reason. But, last time there was a young boy of maybe 10 or 11 who stopped in the street and ASKED if we would mind if he crossed our campsite. I had NO PROBLEM with that, basically I guess because he stopped and politely ASKED for permission. I really wanted to find that boy's parents and tell them what a good job they were doing in raising their son, you just don't see many kids who stop and ASK first.

 

[DocRafiki]

HAHAHA! I was just thinking today that the here probably think I'm the "nasty dog lady" (I would be the nasty cat lady, but I prefer dogs).

I HATE when kids run by my back "yard" (I'm in an apt complex, and the rules are that kids are to play only in the playground). They run by, and my dogs bark and jump up on the sliding-glass door. I'm afraid they're going to break through! It's very annoying! Plus they LOOK INSIDE! I had one little girl standing by the window just waving at my dogs (after she had knocked at the front door 3 times and I told her I'd be out walking the dogs LATER after I did some things I had to do). ARGH! So I finally told her to not stand by my window and to stop bothering me. So that's when I imagined the "nasty dog lady" thing.

This is the same kid who asked me before if I could "watch" her while her mom brought her brother to tee-ball. I've never even met her mom! And when I made excuses, she kept at it, wanting to come inside my house! Looks a little suspicious on her mom's part, but who knows? This kid needs to be taught about limits.

Sorry for the rant, but I can understand the witch-lady not wanting kids running through her yard. The reason she gave is a little strange, though.

 

[caitycaity]

jmho -- but it's her property and she should be able to do whatever she wants when it comes to people using it. i don't see how that is witchy.

sorry, this is an issue close to my heart.

 

[AirForceRocks]

I'm sorry, but I just don't see why not wanting kids running through her yard makes her a witch.

So long as her kids aren't running through other people's yards, I would just drop it, and start walking your DS over to his friend's house.

 

[Wendy]

Well, I hate to say it, but I can certainly understand your neighbor not wanting your kids running through her back yard. In our area, everyone has fenced in back yards so it's not an issue, but I would get pretty annoyed if we didn't have that fence and kids constantly were running back and forth. Personally, I wouldn't ever have a non-fenced backyard because I do like some amount of privacy sometimes. If I want to be social, I go in our front yard. It I want some privacy, I can go in my back yard and it's my own little escape. Maybe she's just feeling that the kids are beginning to invade what little bit of privacy they have?

I will say though, that I've always been taught that it's rude to run through a neighbor's yard or cut across their grass. That's just the way I was brought up. My 7 year old's best friend also lives 2 doors down from us. When he goes to his house, I always make him walk down our driveway to the sidewalk and don't allow him to run through the neighbor's yard and I always go outside to watch him. If I can't go outside, he has to wait until later to go play. We have tons of kids on our street. My rule is that you may be in a neighbor's yard if you are playing with that child. Otherwise, you do not go in the neighbor's yard, period.

Good luck! I hope y'all can come to some sort of agreement on things.

 

[marlasmom]

When we first moved into the NH house the house next door had an easement to the woods behind us and the kids used to use it to get a shortcut to school. When the idiots moved in (I have posted about them before) the put up no trespassing signs before their furniture was even unloaded.

The neighborhood kids (ages 9 through about 12) asked if they could cut through my yard. Actually they started doing it and were amazed that I didn't say anything to them. Anyway after they saw me watching they asked permission. I said sure, so long as you don't trample my flowers or tease the dog. They agreed and used our yard for years - with ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM. As someone said, it's only grass.

 

[epcotfan]

I too wouldn't want people cutting through my backyard as a shortcut. I don't blame her.

 

[dianeschlicht]

The operative words here are "with permission". It is hard to know what motive may be in force here. I too used to live in a neighborhood with lots of children. I had no problem with them using our yard to get to another's house, but I drew the line at them coming right up on the patio and looking in the window unless they were looking for my daughter to play.

 

[Mermaid02]

There's a liability issue here too.... if a child were to fall and break a bone or something she would be liable. I am a firm believer in "Good fences make good neighbors."

I can't stand it when people go through our campsite either- we have a dog and when people get that close to the camper she doesn't like it. If the dog is out when people cut through they usually get the you know what scared out of them!

 

[AirForceRocks]

I will say though, that I've always been taught that it's rude to run through a neighbor's yard or cut across their grass.

Same with me, and that's what we've taught our kids too. Even when we take them trick-or-treating, they use the driveways or walkways to go up to the door, rather than tearing through people's yards.

 

[Ranatra]

At first I thought, ok, she doesn't have kids, or ok, she doesn't like kids. But as I read on and saw that she also has kids, I wondered what her problem was. Sorry, but I think it's wierd. I fail to see how they could hurt anything walking across her grass.
When I was growing up, there were at least 50-60 kids on our street. Everyone ran thru everyone's yards. Kids play, that's what they do. Nobody had a problem with it. Imagine kids trying to play Hide-n-Seek if everyone was like that.
When my kids were little, we had a neighbor that would come out and take the ball if it went into his yard. Hard to believe there are people like that.
It would be hard to live next door to someone like that. Good Luck!

 

[bumcat]

I think the problem is kids do not understand or have not been taught limits. Maybe this neighbor has had other problems so keeping kids out of her yard will take care of that.
I have no problems with kids playing or even walking in my front yard but some kids have not been taught that there is a limit. I have come home to several kids walking thru my flower beds looking for frogs and lizards, they park their wagons and bikes in my driveway. I have also come home to kids playing ball in my yard because we don't have a tree and they do. They have picked the flowers out of my flower beds. They have bounced their balls up against my garage because there are too many cars in their driveway. All this while the parents are outside and they do nothing, you just can't be nice because they walk all over you. I blame the parents.

 

[Serena]

I have to agree that the woman has a right to not let children in her yard.
But in this circumstance, I think it's mean spirited of her.

 

[vickyBaby]

We have a service drive (fancy name for alley) that runs behind our homes. My house is the only one that the driveway goes from the front of the house all the way back to the service drive. The children on bikes used to use my driveway to cut through to or from the service drive. It's my property, I pay for it. I don't want people invading my space while I'm sunning myself or entertaining people on my patio. Additionally, it shows lack of respect for what belongs to others.

 

[Tinkbell]

As a kid, there was one house that separated my house from my best friend's house. The older neighbors in the middle would not allow us to cross their yard to play with each other. Our moms asked the neighbors if it would be ok if we could cross their yard. They said that they were not comfortable with children running across their property. So we had to walk around the front of the houses. It really wasn't a big deal. Since I grew up like that, I probably wouldn't allow my children to use yards as a shortcut.

 

[Tina]

I have to say I understand your neighbor's feelings. We've had so many problems with our neighbor's kids. We don't have any kids, but don't mind them. Shortly after we both moved in (this is a new subdivision), we gave the neighbor's kids permission to play football in our backyard since we have a large flat yard and their yard is angled and has many trees. At first it wasn't a problem, but then it became an everyday playground for them. I would constantly have to watch them because no one else would. Just days after planting small Leyland Cypress trees, I saw the boys (about 8 years old at the time) bending them over and standing on them because "they want to bounce on them." I always had to take the time to clean up the toys in my yard in order to mow the lawn because they always just dropped things when they were done playing. At first I would call the kids over to clean up, hoping they would eventually start doing it themselves, but they never caught on. After awhile, I wouldn't even bother to pick up the toys, unless they would damage my mower. I just ran them over. We got so tired of the rotting food as well. These kids just love to bring food outside, eat half of it, then leave it to rot (including any packaging). AAAAuuuuggghhhh! It drove me crazy. We spoke to the parents several times, but they couldn't even teach these kids to do this sort of stuff INSIDE the house, much less outside. We gave up. We built a 6 foot fence with solid panels on both sides. Now we don't have to worry about the back yard anymore. As for the front yard....that's another story.

 

[cinlee3]

I am one of those who doesn't like kids playing in my yard without my permission. We used to have a group of kids that would come over and play even if my son wasn't home.

I used to not mind at all but one day the kids were playing baseball with an aluminum bat and big soft ball. One of the boys was hit by the bat and knocked out. We called the dad and then 911. The parents sued US. I couldn't believe it. They said their insurance made them.

So now we are very careful in how the kids play in our yard. I don't want to be the mean old lady either.