Neighbourhood kids swearing and behavior annoying us

bellkat wrote: »

Guest 101, young children of that age can be very intimidating.

I could have written this thread as I'm having the exact same problems as you OP.

A family have recently moved in near me, and some of their children have started playing right outside my house constantly. I live in a ground floor flat. My living and main exit door are at the back of the flat, and there are grass verges outside. There are notices saying no ball games, but they are constantly outside playing rounders and foot ball. Also the language for children of that age is terrible.

The balls hit my windows and door, then yesterday 2 of them were fighting right up against my door. I ended up going to sit in the bathroom in tears.

I did ask them to move when they first started this, but I think it could have made it worse as they only seem to play outside my flat.

I rang the council last week and a housing officer was supposed to contact me this week, I'm still waiting.

Hope you can get it sorted OP

LMG1305 wrote: »

A bit harsh. I know some 15 year olds who are bigger than me, and I'm 35!! It can be intimidating if there are a group of them, particularly if you already know they cause trouble.

However, I do think the idea of maybe engaging in conversation might work, because if they get to know you they might just stay out of your way or might even start to look out for you and make sure others don't cause trouble for you Maybe you could just start off saying hello to them when you see them, good morning/afternoon, how's your day etc.

Obviously if none of this works then I agree you should speak to your local council or community police officers, they could do a few patrols in the area so the kids are aware of their presence. I wouldn't bother with the school, summer holidays approaching & if the school did say anything it would most likely go in one ear & out the other.

LMG1305 wrote: »

I agree, but not everybody has enough confidence in these situations.

swingaloo wrote: »

I don't think its a case of being scared of the kids as much as knowing there is not much you can do.
I lived next door to a young woman for 4 years and our life was hell. She had a daughter who was rude and unruly and anytime we approaches her the mum she would literally scream 'I'm a single mum and I know my rights'. It was like a mantra, we heard it over and over again. - Ok. But she probably didn't.

She liked a drink and any time the weather was reasonable she would have her family round standing on both our front lawns with their cans. Of course none of them worked so it didn't matter if it was a weekday or weekend. - You could've put up a fence. Ultimately got an injunction to keep them off your property

Her nephew would stare through our front window actually pressing his nose on the glass and eventually we had to resort to closing our curtains in the afternoon. - Or call the police? The kids would sit on our car bonnet literally laughing at us. - So take her to court. then they would bounce and kick footballs against the windows or the car. It was a flaming nightmare all down to a family who could not give a damn about their childrens behaviour and even seemed to find it funny. - Ultimately there's plenty of options to deal with it. Unfortunately people tend to not use them

I rang the police on a couple of occasions , once when the kids decided to stand on the roof of the car and another time when they were shaking cans before opening them and spraying ours and a neighbours car. All the response I got was that they would send a community pc to have a word but no one ever came. - Exactly, but did you ever follow it up, make a complaint. go to the media?

We put up with it week in, week out and on the one occasion I did snap I grabbed the football and brought it into our house. When they knocked for it I went to the door with the ball and a pair of scissors, let them see me pierce the ball and threw it back to them. Less than 15 minutes later I had a visit from the police saying there had been a complaint about criminal damage! - Well that is criminal damage. Why did you do that?

I was advise to buy a ne ball for them and take it round as a peace offering.