First nice weekend--already tired of all the kids in my yard

[Moxie]

Really, do these kids ever hang out with their parents?? I sent them home so my kids could shower and eat dinner at 5 Saturday. They were back at 6. Today, they were playing outside and it started to rain so I sent them home. They came back and said, "Dad said we could play anyway".

 

I don't have a problem telling them when it is time to leave. It does bother me that my kids think I'm the wicked witch of the west for making their friends leave once in awhile!

 

Thanks for listening!

:rant:

[Impish]

Go you one better:

Try sending the neighbour kids home, only to be told, "My parents aren't back yet."

"Huh?!"

"My parents left to go to the mall. They told me to stay here and play til they came home."

:cursing:

[mama2cntrykids]

Eeek! That's one reason I like living in the country. Really high up on my list actually, lol.

[katilac]

No, they never hang around with their parents, and it's very sad.

[EarleneW]

Our house is the house to hang out at too. Honestly I don't mind because I know exactly where my kids are, who they are with and what they are doing.

[Tree House Academy]

Reason # 2 (2nd one today) that I like living in my little secluded area of the mountains with our land surrounding us. :)

 

Honestly, though, a homeschool mom and I took my older son and her daughter (who is the same age as my son) to the park to play before a class at the library. The two kids "picked up" a 5 year old child, who, after awhile was just driving them nuts and would not leave them alone. The kids were nice (9 year olds) for a good while, and then wanted time to themselves. My friend and I noticed this and decided to take the kids away from the playground for a walk. What happened? The 5 year old started to follow. We didn't know this child, nor his mother. She saw us walking away and just sat. My friend and I stopped and told the child that he was going to have to go back to his mom. The mom walked over and told us, "that is okay, he can go walking with you..."

 

WHAT?

 

That was the first time, in my life, that either I or my friend had met this woman OR her child...and the mom was just going to let us take the kid off walking! Now, my friend and I joke that, if we need a babysitter, we can just drop the kids off a thte park and some mom will surely watch them till we get back. (UGH! What kind of parents are these?)

[Mama Anna]

We have a problem child in the neighborhood. I know her mom works nights and sleeps days, but I wish her father would be around more . . .

 

I find myself ranting to dh frequently about her. We live in an apartment complex, so the yard isn't an issue, but sometimes she'll knock every 15-20 minutes during dd's rest time in the afternoon to ask her to come out and play. DH has dismissed her from our building before, but she pops back up!

 

Mama Anna

Edited April 5, 2009 by Mama Anna
I was convicted for gossiping. <rueful grin>

[Cricket]

Some of these stories are scary! We manage an rv park in a 55+ community so we only have two children who come to visit their grandparents on the weekend. We allow the kids to play on Saturdays but not on Sundays. And once the kids come in for supper, they are done playing for the day. It helps that these two kids are slightly scared of my dh. :lol: Now they never question anything if he says it. But he had to get to the point of saying "Go away and don't come back again for the rest of the day!!!" When you try to say the kids can't play in a nice way, they just don't get it. There is nothing wrong with sending kids home and saying "Please don't come back. Playtime is over for today!"

[SherryTX]

We used to have a big problem with former neighbors. They had 5 kids (like us), and we let our kids play with them. However, their kids could get really rough. (Okay - I don't mean to be offense in stating this - but these particular kids used to live "in d'hood" - as their aunt put it - and apparently they felt it was appropriate for their kids to be rough, and swear, etc.)

 

I often would tell their kids when they came to the door that my kids were busy doing other things because after a while, they just got burnt out dealing with them. I made it clear to their kids we didn't appreciate nor tolerate bad language, and they watched themselves for the most part while they were here. However, they had a really bad habit of coming into our yard without permission and taking my kids' bicycles as well. Even worse - their mom's boyfriend was BREEDING pit bulls in their back yard, and their two adult pit bulls were constantly getting out and wandering the neighborhood. (One of the pregnant dogs wandered away and never came back. I suspect some one called animal control.) After the puppies were born - it got worse.

 

I tried talking to them about it, but they never could seem to keep the dogs in their backyard.

 

When they finally moved, we were relieved.

And my daughter then 6 or 7 was extremely upset - they took her bike!!!

 

When I was a kid, my siblings and I roamed the neighborhood fairly freely, but my mom pretty much knew where we were, and knew all the neighbors, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

 

We rarely have kids over any more. It seems that the only time a friend is available either my house is upside down, or I have other plans and they cannot come over, etc.