Does anybody put a sign out during nap/rest for the neighborhood kids?

[battlemaiden]

I love that we have a neighborhood full of kids, but they come over all day long. That is fine most of the day, but I am militant about nap/rest/quiet time in the afternoon- mostly because I need it, but also to enforce reading time for the older kids during the summer.

 

I would like to put out some sort of sign to prevent the kids from ringing the bell or knocking so that I don't have to get up and down like a kangaroo during my rest time.

 

I would rather not write "nap time" on there because it would probably embarrass my older kids.

 

How have you handled this? Thanks so much.

 

Jo

[FlockOfSillies]

How about, "Shhh. Quiet time in progress. Come by at _____." Something like that?

[phathui5]

You could write "Not now" on masking tape and cover your doorbell.

[Amy in Orlando]

In our neighborhood we have a "signal" that kids aren't available to play. All of our garages face out to the street and during the day most are open. If someone's garage door is closed, whoever lives there can't play. Maybe you could arrange for some kind of similar signal? It's worked really well for us for the past 10 years.

[94txaggie]

I printed a large black stop sign on hot pink neon paper. Beneath the stop sign, it read "we can not play right now, please come back later." I laminated the whole sign to use over again. It got to the point that the neighborhood kids knew not to come to the door if they saw the neon sign.

[serene]

I printed it on cardstock, and laminated it.

 

'Please do not disturb. School in progress. Thank you!' with a smiley face to make it more palatable.

 

Ours was actually more for extended family that thought 'we were home anyway, so they thought they'd just drop in'.

[Heather in OK]

I have one I put out on the door if I need to. This year my girls' really good friend hasn't been home much so it hasn't been an issue. But it says:

 

"This is our school time. Please do not ring the doorbell"

 

Last year I had one that I put up often and it had added in there a line about nap time.

[battlemaiden]

In our neighborhood we have a "signal" that kids aren't available to play. All of our garages face out to the street and during the day most are open. If someone's garage door is closed, whoever lives there can't play. Maybe you could arrange for some kind of similar signal? It's worked really well for us for the past 10 years.

 

This would require that people routinely look in my garage- yikes! I can't do that to my neighbors. ;) We refer to the garage as "Man Land" and my *man* hasn't had the time to set it up.

 

I don't think the neighbor kids would get the hint anyway- they are an agressive, summer-bored pack these days.

 

Thanks anyhoo.

 

Jo

[TammyinTN]

We got a large rock and painted one side yellow with a smiley face :)..that meant you could knock or ring the bell.

 

The other side was red and a sad face...that of course meant...don't ring the bell or knock.

 

This was great because even the little ones knew what it meant by the face and color. We never had any problems after coming up with this system.

Good luck!:D

[Michelle in MO]

I've had a sign for years that reads something like, "Please Do Not Disturb: Please Do Not Knock or Ring Doorbell". I printed it out in large, big letters from my computer and had it laminated.

 

I STILL use the sign, even though my kids don't nap anymore! I'm an earlybird, so by the time lunch is over, I'm ready for a snooze myself. I tape the sign to the front door, just in case. We had a mail lady who knocks loudly whenever we have a package delivered, so this has prevented that. (She means well, but having the sign on the door eliminates that.)

[Marie in Oh]

but my kiddos were all under 5 then. I would still use something. I like the "Shhh. . . quiet time in progress. Please come back at X:00."

 

Living on base has such interesting dynamics, doesn't it???

[Only me]

Our problem is mostly kids ringing the doorbell in the morning or while we are trying to eat dinner. In the summer I let my kids stay up pretty late so they are not early risers. We've had kids ringing our doorbell at 8:30 am and if we don't answer it right away they ring it a few more times. Sometimes my youngest two (10 and 13) sleep until 9:00 or 9:30 so this is really annoying. During the weekend unless we have plans we all like to sleep a little late or at least lounge around in our pajamas. I hate it when the bell rings that early and all of us are either sleeping or in our pjs. None of us want to answer the door but if we don't the kids will ring the bell again and again.

 

We've tried telling the neighbor kids time and time again that our kids will come out when they are ready but they won't listen. It happened again yesterday. My son was up late the night before watching a baseball game so he slept until 9 am. He was eating breakfast when the doorbell rang. I told the neighbors that my ds would be out when he is ready to play. 1/2 later the bell rang again and then 1/2 hour after that. I think I'll have to try some of these suggestions and hopefully it will get through to the neighbor kids.

[battlemaiden]

How is this sign:

---------------------------------------------------

RESTING OR READING...

 

:001_smile:

 

WE WILL BE OUT TO PLAY LATER.

 

PLEASE DON'T RING THE BELL. THANKS.

---------------------------------------------------

 

 

What do you think? They'll just assume that knocking would be inappropriate too, right?

 

Thanks for all the input.

 

Jo

[KristenLihos]

I love all the ideas! The neighbor kids are "okay," just really aggressive. I've had some try to argue with be about my 2 hour "quite-time" rule. We will defiantly be put up a sign this year. I love all your signs.:001_smile:

[Sahamamama]

... when my twins were even littler than they are now, and I needed REST, I would put all three of them down for a nap, shut/lock the front and back doors, and turn off the phone ringer (answering machine set to low volume). I'd lie down. I really needed it, honestly.

 

But... just then, my sister would "drop by" with bags and bags of old clothes from her kids...

 

... or my dad would be "on his way home" from the garden, and decide it was a good time to drop off 17 eggplants and 32 zucchini...

 

... or my friend would call and I would think maybe it's my husband, so I'd pick up, then be "stuck" on the phone for an hour...

 

... there goes Rest Time for Tired Mama.

 

The truth is, if you are managing a home, school, and children all day, you NEED a break. Do what you have to do to get it. I printed out two very nice, sweet signs (with little pink baby borders) that said something like:

 

 

QUIET TIME:

Babies and Mommy are resting.

Do not knock.

Please come back at another time.

Thank you! :001_smile:

 

 

 

 

I put the signs in plastic sheet protectors, punched holes at the tops, and hung them on the front and back doors EVERY DAY at quiet time. It seemed to work for everyone but my dad. He, um, thought he was exempt! ;)