Woman Asks If She Was Wrong For ‘Banning’ Neighbor’s Kids From Playing In Her Yard

Nov 29, 2022 by apost team

Dealing with neighbors can be challenging. If you’re lucky, the people who live around you are kind, respectful and understanding people. However, not everyone is lucky enough to have that type of living situation, and it seems like some people can take advantage of the kindness of others. Unfortunately, a woman seemed to be dealing with the latter.

The woman inherited her father’s house in 2019, a house that he had purchased back in the 1980s. While it’s not the biggest house, as it has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, it has a nice yard that spreads across two acres. The woman went to Reddit to explain how she keeps the yard mostly empty aside from a portion of it that has a nice garden.

Since she has plenty of space outdoors, the woman has been very open to her neighbors using her yard on the presumption that they would respect her property. Fortunately, she hadn’t run into many issues until November 2022. The neighbors to the right of her have five children, all aged 7 or under, and the kids clearly don’t care about the woman’s rules or her property.

One day while the 7-year-old was in charge of his younger siblings, problems ensued as two of the kids decided to write their names on the woman's wall, along with some crude drawings. The issues only escalated from that point on and resulted in even worse property damage to the point that the woman banned the kids from using her yard any longer.

This didn’t sit well with the kids’ mom, though, and now the woman is wondering if she was wrong for how she handled the situation.

Starting off her Reddit post, the original poster (OP) talked about how she inherited her father’s house from the 1980s. She has a yard that takes up two acres, while her neighbors’ yards take up only about half of an acre.

“I’ve always loved kids so I was happy to let my neighbors kids play in the field with the understanding that they would respect the property,” she said. “Most of the kids are great, very respectful and understand that this is not their backyard. The problem is with my neighbors to the right.”

The five kids tend to run around unsupervised but don’t play in OP’s yard often. A few days prior to OP’s post, the 7-year-old was in charge of watching his siblings, but the two 5-year-olds found a way to vandalize OP’s wall. They wrote their names and drew “rude drawings,” as she explained.

OP continued:

“I found their parents the next day and asked them to pay for the paint I’ll need to cover it up, they were very offended, accused me of lying and said they weren’t going to pay.”

Unfortunately, the issues only continued as one of the kids threw rocks at OP’s house. She explained:

“There are several dents in the siding where the rocks hit and two of my windows are broken. From what I’ve been quoted to fix it it’s about $800-$900 worth of damage. I talked to the parents who accused me of doing it myself to make their kids look bad.”

So, OP decided that those five children are no longer allowed to use her yard until their parents for the damage they caused.

apost.com

OP explained the situation to the kids one morning, letting them know they were no longer allowed in her yard, and it was clear they were upset. “About an hour later their mom came by and cussed me out, yelling at my doorstep about how I’m a horrible person who hates children because I’m ‘bitter and can’t find a husband,’” she said. 

OP explained she was standing her ground, but since other parents grew frustrated with the situation, she started to question her decision and asked Reddit users if she was wrong “for banning them from playing” in her yard.

Although some neighbors weren’t on OP’s side, many Reddit users were. One user commented, “It is your property. You don’t have to have a reason to tell others to stay off. The fact that they damaged your property gives you cause to not just politely ask them to pay for repairs, but to press charges and sue for damages.”

Another added, “Let those destructive little kids play in the yards of the families who are frustrated your yard is now off limits.”

OP gave an update on the situation, explaining that she found her dad’s old cameras and put those up. She has no plans of banning the rest of the neighborhood unless she “absolutely” has to. “I also have a meeting scheduled with my attorney to discuss the possibility of drawing up a liability waiver for the parents to sign,” she said. OP added, “I am also looking into an umbrella policy that would be more likely to cover any injuries that occur.”

Do you think this woman was right to ban the kids from her yard? Or do you think she overreacted? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your family and friends.