rant about next door's kids...

Ooh they're driving me mad lately. They're not the worst kids in the world - two boys about 9 and 11ish and they don't do anything really horrible like setting fire to stuff or torturing small animals but they're always playing football in their back garden and the ball ALWAYS ends up in my garden, flattening my plants and hitting my windows occasionally. The worst bit is that when this happens, if they think I'm not in they'll actually come into my garden to get them back without asking first! They've even torn down a section of the wire mesh fence to make it easier for themselves and they trample through a flowerbed each time they come through. I've asked them not to come into the garden, but to go and knock on my door first and I'll give the stuff back. For a while they did this, and I got a bit fed up of them knocking on the door every 10 minutes - I felt like I had no privacy- but now they've torn the fence down and started coming in on their own again. I'm on pretty good terms with their parents and I'd like to keep it that way and I can't think how to bring it up without creating an atmosphere. Their dad once did sort of apologise about the fence but that was the only time it got mentioned. I'd like to get a new, higher fence but I can't afford it at the moment and I have a feeling it would get wrecked very quickly.

Does anyone think I'm being unreasonable if I just start keeping everything that comes over the fence? They might be a bit more careful if they can't get their stuff back.

I sound like a mad old spinster don't I?! Getting angry about kid's footballs. I'll be standing in bus queues complaining about "the youth of today" soon!

have the same next door to me ..i love it when it rains it keeps them in

If I didn't have a dog there'd be poison-tipped spikes planted in the soil near the gap in the fence!!

My Mum has the same problem...but not with next door neighbours.
There is a little cul-de-sac next door to her, and local kids play football on the tiny patch of grass.
They have wrecked my mums plants, hit windows, hit her car, wind little Kingsley (dog) up.
They then started climing over the fence, or coming through the back gate without her permission.
Her fence keeps getting big holes in it, where the balls keep hitting, and the kids keep climbing over.
it doesn't matter how many times they had been told to knock, they kept trespassing, so my Mum started keeping their balls, telling them if they want them back, to bring the parents round, so she could show them the damage they have caused.
She also told them if they kept tresspassing, she would phone the police.

One of the boys Dad's came to apologise, and made his kid, and all the others repair my Mums fence and paint it - but thats only once, and this has been going on for years.
They've got a bit older now, so don't seem to play football as much.

I don't think you are being unreasonable at all.

That was nice of him. It's really good to hear that there are resposible parents out there. I think I'm going to take a similar line. Next time I catch them in the garden I'll give them a verbal warning, then if it happens again after that I'll be considering anything that comes over the fence as my property - should save me a fortune in dog-toys! Any problems with this and I'll go to the parents.

I think its a brilliant idea.

You can extend the height of your fence-its easy,cheap & dont take long!

All you need is:

Metpost fence post extenders
Couple new fence posts to be cut up into sections
6x1 trellis panels (or whatever size you want to increase height by)
Screws

Hammer the post extenders over the original posts and fix with screws.Then cut the new fence posts into 18" long sections and hammer these into the post extender brackets-then fix with screws.Fix the trellis panels in place using more screws to new post sections-ta-da-its done!

You can make your fence as high as you like,but i just used 1ft high trellis as an example.Most timber yards will have it in various sizes.

Hi Minda,
I really feel for you ,our neighbours kids are the same,twice last week hubby caught them climbing over our fence and the parents were outside and never said a word to them.They are forever throwing bits of plastic and rubbish over and they know we have a young pup

I would if you can try highering the fence.
good luck hope you sort it out.

I've got the same problem with 2 boys next door to me. There's currently been a rugby ball in my back garden for about a month. I will return it eventually but I also get fed up with them throwing things over the wall over the last few months i've found dvds, broken balloons, sweet wrappers .........

I'm forever shouting at them as i'm a keen gardener and their balls often ruin my plants. Where they came across my garden and trample on the plants (they push there way through a hedge that has a preservation order on it) i've just planted those spikey sea hollies which last for a long time.

I think the idea about the toys for the dogs is an excellent one.

Cheers for that, Steve, but unfortunately the fence that's there at the moment is just a rubbishy wire affair - not much more than chickenwire really and the fenceposts are just metal spikes. I'm going to save up till autumn I think and then get a proper 6ft fence put up so I never have to see the little brats faces again.

To be fair to the kids' parents the kids only do it when their mum and dad are out. They seem like quite responsible people on the whole and I've heard them telling the boys off for letting stuff go over the fence so I'm pretty sure that if I do have to speak to them they'll be reasonable about it. I just hate confrontations of any sort (at least with people I have to live next door to anyway!)