Nuisance Children

Reggie_Rebel

They are pushing the boundaries, seeing what they can get away with.

Plastic Plod is probably your best way to go, although they'll struggle with turning the Astra in the cul de sac

ukjoel

In your situation right now I wouldnt do anything.
Reason for this is Winter is coming up and the minute its gets a bit cold and dark they will go home and start thinking about what xmas presents they want.

If it happens again in spring do get the police involved - its what they are there for.

Nothing against kids (have 2 myself) but the difference with the kids now and kids a few years back seems to be that we would head down to the park or playing fields or as far away from adults as we could.

These days parents are so nervous about everything they would rather they played in the road than in the park.

Also think that govt planning legislation is massively to blame as gardens in new houses now are a quarter of the size they were 40 years ago and parents want to deck, patio, bbq, water feature, grow their own veg in every square inch that kids have nowhere to play.

Dont think they sound like bad kids, just bored kids. Problem is there is a fine line between the two.

Personally I would probably offer them some money to sort out my garden/ wash my car etc and exploit them for my gain.

Just a shame you cant put them up chimneys any more. Its that time of year and mine needs a clean

jenhug

have you considered saying "Hi" to these kids? might break down a barrier with them and they may feel less inclined to damage your property if you have befriended them.

It has to be worth a go.

Gavin83

ukjoel wrote: »

If it happens again in spring do get the police involved - its what they are there for.

But it's not. Police are there to fight crime, these kids aren't committing a crime.

Peoples attitudes in this thread concern me a little. People seem to think that just because some children are playing in the street they're gonna cause trouble and start damaging property. Do people really believe all children are trouble these days?

skipsmum

Bufger wrote: »

A couple of branches off trees? as a kid we used to throw 'mud bombs' at houses and used to play knock door run. I can imagine that was more annoying than a few kids sitting on a wall and that was from years ago when anti social behaviour was never really an issue.
.

We used to call it knock down ginger. Absolutely no idea why!

gairlochgal

My kids were part of a group aged from 6 (my younger one) to 14 that played in front of our houses every evening for 2-3 summers. The neighbours' reaction was interesting - some definitely thought it was unacceptable, but my very elderly neighbour loved it as she said it reminded her of when she was a child and all the kids played in the street. They used to scream, run up and down, chalk, throw water on really hot days and sometimes get their wheels out and ride scooters, bikes, ripstiks, skates. A lot of playing endless rounds of pop idol too! All the mums would pop out regularly to check it was ok and any of us would tell the whole group to be quiet if they got too rowdy. We were very strict with them about their wheels, and ball games went to the park round the corner. They've all moved upwards and onwards now so it happens only rarely these days but I thought it was absolutely right. Provided their parents are setting good standards, kids need to learn to play out, enjoy their area, learn to moderate their behaviour appropriately for the environment they are in.

gabyjane

Hi Liz i can partly sympathise with you due to the kids where we liuve although after taking some action things have died right down!

I have never really had an issue with the kids where we are, they are noisy at times but our house is a town house and up a set of stairs at the back so we dont hear much if anything! BUT the lady up the rd from me does and she is so fed up with it all..they have:
filled up her bins with rubbish from other peoples buy moving rubbish bags..very odd!?
they have climbed in the wheely bins and go up and down the rd leaving them where they wish..
Climbed and trampled all over the flowers etc we have between houses.
they have climbed the lamp posts and shout and swear,
they have sat outside her side window and a few months back actually opened her window up and shouted in asking what kind if dog she had..no wonder she is fed up!..

They have a perfectly good park to play in and a huge car park area, we also as part of our development have lots of green areas and a huge field with lovely sea views that they could play in but they would rather try and get themsleves run over/in trouble it seems!

I being the community support officer have done letters to the parents (as one family) and all has been well, they have been ok up till last week when rubbish was found all over the place again and neighbour not happy at all..it is now being dealt with through the HA but again all has been quiet so fingers crossed! Thing that annoys me when i was little i climbed trees, rode my bike, went to the park, visited a friend, went swimming etc, some kids dont seem to be able to go out without causing trouble or trying to be funny! they have a lovely new estate and seem intent on ruining it.

Speak to the HA or PCSO and see what happens. Good luck x

Paparika

jackomdj wrote: »

I do think they are just being children. Do you talk to them when they are behaving?

We live in a good area but we sometimes have a group of children play outside our house, they live down our road & in the next road, we are at the top before a turning so a good place to congregate. We always chat with them & have a laugh & a joke. However if they are misbehaving I will go out & tell them not to do something, some of the things they have done are break the tree branches, pick the berries from the tree, a few minor arguments & poking about with a dead mouse(!).

I think because we are always friendly they accept our reprimands for what they are meant to be. I would hope when our girls are old enough to play out in the street our neighbours will let them know if something they are doing is not acceptable.

HTH
Nicky

now that is nice, the fact you can go out and talk to them, it's not often you hear nice things, we hear teenagers and we think oh here we go again, glad you have a good lot

LizD wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.

I can accept that some of you will say 'kids will be kids' etc, fine, I don't have a problem if they're just kicking a football, riding bikes etc. The fact is they are damaging the few trees in the road and throwing some hefty branches around - (we aren't inner city, but it's a densely populated area with not a lot of green things nearby) and engaging in some pretty nasty fighting.
They do have gardens and a nearby park to play in - but they seem to prefer to hang around in the roads.
I'm afraid I don't feel comfortable talking to them - the younger kids would be fine, but the early/mid teens are not the sort of people I would feel comfortable talking to - they are pretty intimidating.

I will definitely talk to the local CSO and see if they can help - maybe all they need is a bit of guidance.

I wonder why they won't play in the park, is it somewhere you would feel safe, perhaps the streets have lighting and maybe the park hasn't?

my DS will behave and no he is no angel, but he took it upon himself to help out at our community day (all day poor thing was shattered)


i wonder if you could approach them, ask them nicely if they have anything to do, if they so no they are bored, ask them if they want to wash your car..... or something like that, to break the ice and see if they are nice or not if you see what i mean,

there are some really nasty teenagers out there and then again there are some nice ones too, i'm on benefits, i'm a single mum i live in council property, but i make sure my son has respect for others, and keep away from trouble, its not hard it can be done its called discipline, and i'm proud of him

BeenieCat

I know how you feel OP as i live on a council estate and there's a green directly in front of my house - in fact my house gets the brunt of all the stones, balls and litter :rolleyes:

I get riled about the litter but my son plays with these kids sometimes so i'll go out with him and encourage them (ages 6 - 15) to have a clearup and give them a sweeping brush which keeps them busy, although they don't do it so much now that some of them are a bit too old and 'cool' for all that (not understanding why cool 15yr olds are hanging around with 6yo's but whatever lol).

So it can be as late as 11pm and they'll all still be outside and i do have to take a few mins to pluck up the courage to go out and ask them to move on. The other night i'd let myself get so riled about the constant squealing that when i went out i was v.short with them - "look if you're gonna scream like that can you make it outside your OWN house instead of mine cos i'm getting peed off now"

Luckily they said sorry and after about 20 stubborn minutes they moved on. Not sure why i feel scared but i guess it's worrying that they'll all laugh at you then everytime you ask again there's an increased risk that you'll become a 'target' for their boredom.

I've been a target with numerous other kids who thankfully have moved on now, but for a while i thought it would tip me over the edge. Constant banging on my door, stones at the windows, furniture being thrown into my garden, dead birds thrown onto my patio retrieved from their own gardens courtesy of their cats....the list was endless.

Not to mention the chavvy scumbag parents who feel a need to prove to their kids that mummy and daddy are invincible and no one messes with their family etc :rolleyes: I called the police once who decided it was safer for me if they didn't approach the family, unless we had something solid to charge them with - as they feared i'd be hurt.

That wasn't much reassurance when i woke up one morning to find my curtain on the front door had been set alight in the night, but luckily had not caught fire to anything else and died out before i'd even seen it.

All because their kids would go back their saying i'd shouted at them, when i knew better than to waste my breath on them, cos i knew it was not worth it!!

Oops sorry, that turned into a rant and a half

brighthair

I'd just keep an eye out for now. I've had a massive ongoing problem with children to the point I couldn't open my blinds. I basically reported everything, every time it happened. It started off as just annoying behaviour but believe me, in summer when it's sweltering and you can't open a window as you get a brick/lit fag/bottle through it, it's bloody annoying. Asking politely didn't work - we have children on our road that sit in your parking space, and won't move even if you are driving at them! This is the log of some of the incidents that I ended up emailing to the police. The area is a lot nicer to be in now

20th Oct: Boy in garden, banging on window
20th Oct: 2 males in garden, banging on window
between 20th - 30th Oct: next door house window smashed
30th Oct: male in garden, banging on window
31st Oct: fireworks set off along ground, in road and aimed at window
18th Nov: football thrown at window
Nov date unknown: next door house window smashed, bricks on ground
15th Dec: stones thrown at window, fence and building by 2 boys
26th Dec: full glass bottle thrown at window
26th Dec: fireworks along ground and set off along road
29th and 30th Dec: gate open, children in garden
1st Jan: bottle thrown at window
12th March: in garden, banging on window
window smashed (again) in house next door
6th May: something thrown at window
12th May: bottle thrown at window, gate open, male in garden
22nd May: female talking to herself, screaming and swearing at me as I stood in garden
25th May: stones thrown at window
13th June - male in garden staring in window - tried door handle to patio doors
14th Aug: can thrown through open window, half drunk, contents all over living room floor
15th Aug (today and the last straw) banging and kicking of front/back glass doors for a period of time

I have listed everything I have kept record of but there has been many more incidents of stones thrown at the window, people staring in and abuse shouted