Annoying litte gits

izzybusy23

Willsnarf1983 wrote: »

that play football out the front of my house, use my hedge as the goal (which has resulted in that side the hedge being practically bare) and tbh its the last thing that i want after work is to come home and sit back and here the ball whacking against my car, my housemates car, the windows and whilst nothing has broken yet it soon will.

1) i've asked them many times not to play football there
2) I'm very tempted to park my car in front of the hedge to hopefully prevent them from playing there
3) or maybe just stab the bloody ball!

Any ideas?

Will

I know how you feel. In my last rented house, the kitchen used to overlook the communal car park and in the summer there was forever a bunch of kids weaving in and our of our cars on skateboards and using the small steps leading up to the front path as their jump. Used to drive me nuts as I was forever worried that the cars would get damaged.. I used to bang on the window and tell them to move away.. which they did, but they came back again the next day!

You have my sympathy. Reading this back, I really sound like my mum! :eek:

poppysarah

One of the annoying notsolittle gits was to be charged under section 5 for a public order offence but he was made to come and apologise.
A cynical person might suggest this is because his uncle is a police officer.

And a really cheesed off person might go through their pics of horrors attacking the house and find out his distinctive hoodie was last seen flicking the Vs after throwing snowballs at our house.

BIZZYIZZY

I would just like to point out that I have never shouted abuse at the kids in fact we try to ignore them as much as we can,they play outside our house because the parents don't want them kicking the ball beside their car etc. So I think 'sporedude ' you should not assume that is what we do. And until it is happening to you you can not begin to imagine how bad it is

Strapped

Willsnarf1983 wrote: »

Actually its not just me, my housemate has complained to them and so has my Neighbour its just my house is the only one with a hedge but i think i may just get rid of the hedge and get rid of their goal

Will

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread but we used to have this exact problem when we lived facing onto a green. Our solution was that we gave the kids a proper goal (one of the portable outdoor games type) - cost about a tenner. OK, it didn't cure the noise issue (amazing how much sub-teens swear!) but it kept them off the garden which was an improvement. Also it improved "neighbour relations" with the kids families. We didn't have car issues though, as we parked round the back of the house.

freeoffers

Great story strapped. U give a little you get something back. Sometimes we spend too much time moaning and not enough actually making changes. i still assert that in the end parents have to accept responsibility but why not work together to sort out problems? Great story

woody01

P!key/Feral Kids come from P!key/Families 99.99999% of the time.

Scum breeds scum and should not be tolerated.

waaag

Friend of mine ended up with a family with feral kids who attracted the most undesirable kids in the area - living nextdoor, the mother wasnt much older than the eldest kid.....and was never there.

Thumping bass music was constantly played, barbecues most days even when raining they went under a gazebo....the recycle bins full of beer cans, the youngest allowed to be drunk., etc.

Then the football...smashed his greenhouse 4 times, no acknowledgement no apology, the footballs were retreived by my friend who stabbed them and put them back with a note, 'sorry but the glass in my greenhouse has pierced your ball'..no response ....he had to pay for all the broken glass himself....the dog has burst seven balls of theirs now, they have been told that when the ball comes over and the ball games usually coincide with him leaving for work, that being as it always happens when he isnt there, there is nothing he can do to get it of the dog..a mastiff.

Finally what has happened is their football has gone through their own kitchen window and the mother has banned the football games now. Just needs them to all move away now....:rotfl:

waaag

You could get some platform boots and spray them silver, stick some stars on them - leave them just outside your door...if the kids mother thinks gary glitter lives there this should do the trick...:D:D:D!!!

Seriously, I think you could join in with them and do it all wrong and they'll think you are a wierdo and not want to come back, and playing loud music of a type they'll not like is good too, or even better, keep going out to talk to them and offering 'watchtower' and preaching god!!!

ferf1223

I have the utmost sympathy for the OP and those in similar situations...we live in an area with a small grassed area outside a row of several houses. No ball games signs are posted but ignored. There are trees that serve as the 'goal' but unfortunately our house is situated such that many of the missed kicks land in our hedge, hit our house, windows, etc. On the other side of the grassed area cars are parked on the road and are also regularly hit by footballs, many times at significant speed.

We have tried asking nicely. We have tried explaining that while the area is marked 'no ball games' no one would have a problem if they kept the ball low and didn't damage property. That works for a short while, but not very long before it's happening again...so I'm sorry, but the being nice and showing the kids some respect thing isn't always successful. We have tried speaking to the kids sternly. We have out of sheer frustration tried yelling.

So far nothing has worked for more than a short period. Our next step (of which we have advised the kids) is to speak to their parents (at least where we know who their parents are as there are several unknown kids involved a lot of the time).

We live in an area where all of the houses have 100+ foot gardens - we do not live in an inner city area where the grassed area out front is the only grass for miles. There is an absolutely massive park a 5 minute walk away. While I do understand that parents may not feel comfortable in this day and age to send their kids off on their own to a park, it astounds me that these parents think it's OK to let their kids play in an area clearly marked no ball games - an area adjacent to a well used road and yes, we have seen kids run in front of cars after balls before...at least twice this year balls have been run over by cars...we know as it sounds like a gunshot when it happens and scares the life out of us even inside our house - what must it sound like to the driver?

The council says they cannot enforce the no ball games rule, but if we identify the kids, they will send someone around to speak to them...they have suggested keeping a log of events as they occur and to identify the kids involved...or they have suggested calling the police...we don't really want to be "those people"...I certainly do not feel comfortable with the idea of covertly taking pictures of other people's children - this is something I could see going very wrong if the kids were to see it and report back to their parents. Hopefully speaking to the parents will work, but I'm very stressed even thinking about it as I do not know what the reaction will be and I don't wish to cause an issue with our neighbors as we have to live here. I know that they do not advocate their kids damaging property or even hitting the houses - we have heard the parents scold the children when they witness this behavior. Unfortunately, the parents are rarely supervising their children and we're put in an uncomfortable position.

As for the 'we did it when we were kids, so give them a break' people - neither I nor my husband did. If a neighbor told us off, we moved on - period...nevermind the fact that our parents would not have let us play in an area that was designated no ball games in the first place.

I think it's great that these kids are not sat inside playing video games and are not wandering the streets getting up to no good...I do, but we should not have to suffer damage and a good amount of distress in dealing with them either, especially as they DO have alternatives. It IS very stressful worrying about getting a reputation for being the mean people in the neighborhood and what will that bring when the kids grow a bit older...it IS very stressful having a football hit a window 2 feet from where your head is when you are sat on the sofa...and the worst part is that the best time to say anything is immediately after something has happened - the time when we're the most upset...it's quite difficult not to come off as angry when you really, really are. Unfortunately, it seems from some posts here that some parents just don't see the big deal...hopefully those in our area will.

Sorry for the long-winded post...but it was somehow nice to see others who were in a similar situation and who would understand.