kids kicking football outside gate.

A lot of these comments are getting out of hand. There are also broader issues to be taken into account.

I live on an estate in Swords, County Dublin. I would never allow my children to use someone else's gate pillars or posts as goalposts. However, I do let them use our own driveway. Other parents of other kids also allow their driveways to be used. The only stipulation is that they don't play near the other neighbours' cars and that they (we parents!) will be liable for damage done to other neighbour's cars and houses.

What I do find extraordinary is that certain neighbours even object to kids kicking a ball outide the kids own houses! They also object to them using the green spaces for football, hurling, cricket etc all because a couple of neighbours have taken a decision to plant daffodils on this green space! When I was growing up, it was accepted that the "greens" on Dublin housing estates were used for football etc.

One neighbour who bullies the kids sees no problem in his dog, sometimes wandering the cul de sac without a lead, soiling the footpaths and gardens where children of all ages play. He also uses foul language and issues physical threats when giving out to children.

An increasing amount of people (most don't have any children or are investor landlords) don't want children playing on paths and roads or on green spaces anymore. This decrease in physical activity is contributing to the deterioration of child health, childhood obesity and social behaviour problems.

Play is an important element of childhood.

Some of the newer housing estates in Swords, e.g. Waterside on the Malahide-Swords Road and Holywell in Kinsealy have few play areas for children and are dominated by car parking. A contributory factor may be the lack of front gardens, more compact houses and the narrower roads. Foxwood residents on Drynam Road, similar to what is happening on other estates in Dublin, have been campaigning against plans to build more houses on long established green spaces!

Is childhood to be spent looking at TV or in boxrooms in front of Playstations and XBoxes?
 
I think a lot of the posters on this thread have absolutely no problem with kids playing football in their own gardens or on the public green areas in estates where there is room to play football without damaging other people's properties.

I for one object to kids (from the estate accross the road from me) who play football in the very tiny green area right beside my house and repeatedly kick their ball up against the wall of my house/windows and into my back garden.

These kids have a much larger green area in their own estate which is not beside any houses. Presumably their parents don't like them playing there and do not see my point of view when I have objected to them playing there in the past.

I agree that kids shouldn't spend their childhoods on front of the TV etc but if there are no suitable green areas in estates for kids to play, this is not sufficient reason to damage and disrespect other peoples properties in the estate who may or may not have kids of their own.

If someone has bought or rented a property in an estate, surely they have the right to peace and quiet in their own house and not have other kids making their life a misery.............
 
One neighbour who bullies the kids sees no problem in his dog, sometimes wandering the cul de sac without a lead, soiling the footpaths and gardens where children of all ages play.
Call the dog warden at your local authority.
 
We have much the same here too. We live in a small cul de sac with a good sized green in between the road thats next to ours. The people at the green end are always out ordering the kids to play outside their own houses or at the entry to the cul de sac, which leads on to a busy main road - the green being the safest option from every angle. They don't want the balls hitting off their garden walls and damaging the paint! Bit daft I think because there is thick shrubbery between. Even apart from football, they don't want the kids playing there at all - yet late at night the gangs with cider, etc. arrive and find it a good hiding place. Yet same people won't call the gardai - us further down end up doing that! People can be very odd?
 
in respectable society we are all entitled to live as we please, AS LONG AS we don't intrude on the privacy of someone else and their enjoyment of their own home.

Carpenter, you ummed up in a nutshell - anybody that doesn't agree, i hope you're soon subject to same kind of thing as OP - then'll you'll change your tune..

plonkers!
 
Get some thick, dirty, greasy oil and smear it all over the gates. The ball will be covered in it, and so will their clothes. Should do the trick. :D
 
A friend of mine had a similar problem and informed the guys quietly that if they continued playing ball in front of his house he would go immediately to their school (bluffed that he knew where they attended) and report them to the Principal. It worked! I think sometimes they are more scared of being hauled over the coals at school than by their parents.
 
Get some thick, dirty, greasy oil and smear it all over the gates. The ball will be covered in it, and so will their clothes. Should do the trick. :D

As daft as it sounds I think that's a great idea. They are annoying you so annoy them or at least their parents in a non treathening way. If anything it'll give you a laugh.
 
Having read quickly through this thread,Its obvious that some of you are obsessed with these ball kickers. Why on earth would anyone sign up for estate living if you cant get along with your neighbours, old and young.
Shouldn't that be the biggest priority not some shaggin piece of 07 metal in your driveway.

When I was young we had a fabulous goal post at the gates of a neighbours house ( a district Justice) Every so often the lovely old gent would come out and apologise that he had to interrupt the game as he needed to reverse the car out. No problems what so ever, not with him, not with anyone. Just kids growing up, hanging out, kicking ball.

My own conclusion is that people nowadays are venting right left and centre, blowing fuses for the slightest thing that encroaches on their perfect world, their perfect houses and their perfect shining cars. Have we really become this nation of highly stressed materialistic, "me me" people. Its absolutely disgusting.
 
Why on earth would anyone sign up for estate living if you cant get along with your neighbours, old and young.
Shouldn't that be the biggest priority not some shaggin piece of 07 metal in your driveway.

You're making a lot of assumptions there. Many people can't afford a house in the country, and live in estates because they have to.

I drive a 10 year old car, but I still like to take care of it because I worked hard for it. Even if I was into cars why can't my piece of 07 metal be my biggest priority? Why should I have to put up with people damaging it?
 
Leghorn my friend, Just remember that somethings in life are free and giving is more satisfying than receiving.................

Dont squander all your living days measuring everything in terms of affordability. Concentrate on value, not price.
 
Leghorn my friend, Just remember that somethings in life are free and giving is more satisfying than receiving.................

Dont squander all your living days measuring everything in terms of affordability. Concentrate on value, not price.

What has that got to do with the price of fish oh wonderous oracle? - This thread is about kids kicking footballs off of other people's property.

"Love thy neighbour as thyself" springs to mind.
 
Maybe I'm missing something, but why doesn't the OP just close their gates?
 
Why on earth would anyone sign up for estate living if you cant get along with your neighbours, old and young.
Shouldn't that be the biggest priority not some shaggin piece of 07 metal in your driveway.

My own conclusion is that people nowadays are venting right left and centre, blowing fuses for the slightest thing that encroaches on their perfect world, their perfect houses and their perfect shining cars. Have we really become this nation of highly stressed materialistic, "me me" people. Its absolutely disgusting.


There is a huge difference between getting on with your neighours and allowing other peoples 'darling' kids to wreck your property!!!!

And if somebody is working hard to pay for that piece of '07 metal in your driveway' or to pay off a huge mortage of course they are entitled to treat this as their priority! I have paid for my car and my property with my hard earned money so why should I allow other people's kids to destroy it?????? Particularly when these kids are only playing football beside my house because their parents don't want their own '07 metal in their own driveway and their house wrecked by their own kids...............
 
eh, if you mean the stabbing by the two 16 year olds then I actually wrote that...and what did you say to the kids to provoke them? Anyway where are we going on here? Have these kids threathened anyone? Did they dent a car? Did anyone say anything about windows? No they ..use a gate as a goalpost.

My advice, get them some nets and maybe even jerseys...a bit of positivity might calm down all the violent tendancies floating around...I guarantee alot of the posters here will run into greater difficulty when their teenage child gets into something more serious...and to think of it, imagine how you would feel if they were your children, kicking a ball in an estate and being threatened with death or the potential of fully grown men actually going to hunt them down and tackle them?

Alot of ye seem well out of touch with the youth of today...

No - I don't think the posters here who have had difficulties with neighbouring childrens' behaviour are 'out of touch with the youth of today'. Perhaps those defending 'the youth of today' haven't really picked up the seriousness of the situation. Three youngsters who live at the end of my road kick their ball against a high wall adjacent to my house. When it gets caught in the branches of the trees behind the wall they throw sticks and branches up to dislodge it, or bring out their mountain-bikes and prop them against the wall, then stand on each other's shoulders to reach it.........above my new car. Incidentally this is a one-way system with a 45degree hill leading up to my house whichi s on a sharp bend so motorists coming round are faced with these three boys in the middle of the road. When my chest-pains from the stress and anger got to frightening proportions by last Sunday afternoon I went out, went up to them and very politely and quietly pointed out the danger they were putting themselves in, the concern I had about my car, the potential source of accident to approaching motorists. I got jeered at, one of the boys actually turning his back pointedly and bouncing the ball on the ground to drown out what I was saying. I tried to engage the youngest boy, reminding him there was a large, safe park with goal-posts 5 minutes walk away. I got more jeers. I phoned the police who wearily said they would try to release someone to send them out to 'have a look at the situation'.

A neighbour's Lexus was badly scratched along the side recently by these kids scraping along it with their mountain bikes and skateboards. He went to the parents who ridiculed him on the grounds they were 'only children'.

And yes - we have all been children, and all started out self-centred and thinking only of what we wanted and ourselves.............until we were trained and educated by parents and teachers and by the values of the surrounding society to be aware of the presence and rights of others which must be respected. That certainly has changed. My Lexus-owning neighbour is planning to move to a more rural location where he can garage his car; a friend who went through the 'football on the street' torture for years has actually sold up and moved to another (less lawless!) city. I am strongly considering it, though in every other way where I live suits me fine. One of my lasting childhood memories is of my grandmother who was a gifted gardner, who after three warnings to the local kids who kicked their ball into the garden and damaged her creation came out with a scissors, held the ball aloft and punctured it firmly before throwing it contemptuously back amongst them. Unfortunately this clear, clean, direct dealing with children is no longer possible because of the muddled thinking and values which now pass for 'childrearing' and 'love'. Pah!!
 
Having read quickly through this thread,Its obvious that some of you are obsessed with these ball kickers. Why on earth would anyone sign up for estate living if you cant get along with your neighbours, old and young.
Shouldn't that be the biggest priority not some shaggin piece of 07 metal in your driveway.

When I was young we had a fabulous goal post at the gates of a neighbours house ( a district Justice) Every so often the lovely old gent would come out and apologise that he had to interrupt the game as he needed to reverse the car out. No problems what so ever, not with him, not with anyone. Just kids growing up, hanging out, kicking ball.

My own conclusion is that people nowadays are venting right left and centre, blowing fuses for the slightest thing that encroaches on their perfect world, their perfect houses and their perfect shining cars. Have we really become this nation of highly stressed materialistic, "me me" people. Its absolutely disgusting.

This makes me very, very angry! I work extremely hard in a stressfull job in public-sector psychiatric services. The hospital I work in is 16 miles from my home and there is no direct public transport. I need my car to see my patients. I also need peace in my domestic environment in order to be able to fulfil my social role. This thread is getting wilder and wilder. Dragging in red herrings like 'lack of green areas' and recommending to people whose peaceful occupancy of their homes are being destroyed by CHILDREN that they cover their environment with diesel, move, buy devices that destroy the hearing of those around them, knock down their walls, leave their doors open, concrete over their flower-beds etc., etc., is extraordinary! No! No! No! The CHILDREN must STOP!
 
...........and the children are breaking the law of the land. It is illegal to play football on the public highway.
 
I am involved in a project which sought to preserve and encourage traditional street games for children and young people. There are huge advantages for children both physically and socially.

I find the suggestion that children be confined to playing in their own gardens incredibly sad. Children have been playing together in communal spaces for generations. The only difference now is the prevalence of cars, so I suppose it depends on your value system.

I find this whole thread depressing. And yes, I'm also a mother, and although not the mother of kick the kerb playing teenagers, I suspect the chalk from the hopscotch could be offensive to some posters on here!
 
I find the suggestion that children be confined to playing in their own gardens incredibly sad. Children have been playing together in communal spaces for generations. The only difference now is the prevalence of cars, so I suppose it depends on your value system.

Where was that suggestion made?
Ireland is full of parks and open spaces that can be used.

I am involved in a project which sought to preserve and encourage traditional street games for children and young people.
You're encouraging children to play on the street? FFS.
 
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