kids kicking football outside gate.

Such a mountain out of such a little molehill ......................
 
Hear hear!!!!

People who make comments like this have either never been in this situation or else see absolutely no problem with their kids damaging other peoples properties.

Its parents with this attitude that make it impossible for situations like this to be resolved - they see no problem with their kids damaging other peoples houses and cars..............
 
There is nothing new about this old chestnut. For decades kids have played football on the roads in Dublin. Most families choose to live in estates so their children will have friends and the roads will not have as much traffic, cul de sacs being a particular favourite. Marie I do not know what age you are but I do remember Ballyfermot being a no go area in Dublin with skinhead gangs. Because the cost of houses has increased does not necessarily mean that some areas have improved. Could this be the cause of the problem? The original poster did say the 15 year old lived across the road.
 
Summer What point you are making, in response to which aspect of the subject under discussion? People don't appear to be reading this thread very carefully so I will recap briefly. This is my last post on the subject as I've said all I want to say and heard enough.

The original poster asked for advice and response on the stressful situation his family lives under where antisocial behaviour by children/young people in the environment are creating stress. His wife - who is there all day - is particularly affected.

Myself and a number of other respondents to the thread are in the same position. In addition we are having our property damaged.

Suggestions on how to deal with activities of young people in public which impact on those around them ranged from moving home, buying and installing CCTV, building walls higher, sitting outside monitoring the young peoples' behaviour, getting the police, informing parents, confiscating the football, threatening to inform schoolteachers, growing pyracanthus hedges, getting someone big and wild and hairy to scare the s**t out of them.

So far so good. However in the experience of those adults amongst us who have encountered these situations these strategies rarely work, singly or collectively. We then tried, collectively, to understand and contextualise how this situation - of adults being intimidated by children - had come about.

The answer emerged from the attitudes of a large number of respondents on this thread. These criticise those experiencing the intimidation as ridiculous and support the child perpetrators as harmless. This is (as you will confirm by re-reading the thread) precisely what the parents of these destructive illmannered children say when their children's activities are brought to their attention.

OK?
 
Just purchased a set of full size plastic goalposts from Smyths that fit perfectly between the pillars in my driveway, allowing my 9 and 10 year olds play in front of our house. They work a treat! One bonus is that our cars are safely protected in our driveway behind the nets which can easily be dragged aside should we want to go out! Other neighbours on our estate, including two neighbours opposite, are going to do the same.

The extra bonus is that they can be transported by the youngest of children and assembled on the communal green spaces too... when the same people who object to kids playing on the green are at work!

People (most have no kids) at the other end of the cul de sac are still complaining... mostly because they have to slow down when entering the cul de sac! What must these people be like to work with!



Spread the news! An Irish solution to an Irish problem!
 
Interesting thread this one and I can see both sides. We vontrapps have been subject to this for a year or more and to describe it as annoying is putting it mildly. We have had our porch window broken on two occasions which cost us €120 each time to have fixed. On both occasions we didn't know who did it but the fathers of the kids involved turned up within a few days having found out about it and offered to pay for the damage. I refused on the grounds that we hope to have kids one day ourselves and I could be on the other end of it. Plus it leaves the responsible parents on the hook should it happen again. Both times we were dropped in a bottle of wine for the inconvenience. We are lucky in that our neighbours did something about it once something happened.

However, when inevitably it restarts again the football does not happen outside the houses that these kids live in. The attitude of these parents is they'll buy off any inconvenience as long as the annoyance isn't in their own front yard.

Myself and the neighbours either side of me had a chat about it in the front garden one evening and we agreed that whenever it kicked off we'd all be out to tell them to clear off. Problem solved within a matter of weeks. To the original poster I suggest speaking with your other neighbours who no doubt are just as annoyed, and tackle it as a group.

But remember -- these are kids and they'll be back in a few weeks. Don't take it personally and don't think that getting angrier than you did last time will be more effective. If you measure your response on a scale of 1 to 5, you need to respond with a 1 or 2 each time, not 1 then 2 then 3 etc.

By the way there is a green area where the lads can play but they prefer tarmac "cos the ball bounces up better". I used to slag them and say "you think Steve Gerrard practices on tarmac?". Cue slagging and a move to the grass.
 
vontrapp said:
We have had our porch window broken on two occasions which cost us €120 each time to have fixed. On both occasions we didn't know who did it but the fathers of the kids involved turned up within a few days having found out about it and offered to pay for the damage.
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Fair play to them, and to you. Glass in our front door was broken last year and it cost around €250 to get fixed. Noboby came forward unfortunately.
 
Why the big issue over a game of ball????????
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Some posters are missing the point here. There is no issue over a game of ball - the issue is when this ball causes DAMAGE.

I know kids - play thats what they do but last time I looked in the dictionary the explanation for playing did not include causing damage to other people's property!!!!

Unfortunately not all parents are willing to take responsibility for their kids actions.......
 
Marie said:
Zag has put the point very well. Kids have always played on the streets and got into trouble from time to time. I grew up in Ballyfermot when it was "Bally-far-out", a satellite mega-estate at the time where there were no civic amenities. The new Leisure Centre has just arrived - 50 years after the people.......but 'sin e sceal eile'! Our exploits were legion and we were often in trouble. That's how we learned and changed. Any annoyance we created for neighbours was never intentional and never (in my own case anyway!) motivated by spite.

Kids still play 'in the streets' but apart from that everything else has changed Shared public areas are not cared for or valued, are regarded as someone else's responsibility; adults (including police and teachers) are not respected by many children who simply don't accept authority. Parents (even sensible thoughtful ones!)are between a rock and a hard place because the surrounding culture is one of instant gratification, irresponsibility and selfishness. Police and other authorities can do little about childrens' behaviour because of their status as minors they are exempt from the laws of the land as these apply to adults. However as a number of posters have already observed, children today are far, far more sophisticated than formerly. They (naturally!) exploit this immunity. Bad behaviour by young people in the public space is also - as has been pointed out - now more prevalent and their responses to being challenged more deadly - see recent headlines.

This, together with parents whose idea of child-rearing stops at buying their children the latest 'must-have' as soon as it appears - from football strips to high tech - makes for bored restless confused young people who have no experience of dialogue and no conception of others or of difference. They are shocked and angry and react with hostility and destructiveness when anything is expected of them because that has not been a factor in their socialisation.

This is not OK. In my professional experience narcissistic minors become dangerous teenagers and dysfunctional destructive adults. The journey, as they say, starts with the first step and youngsters who cause distress to their neighbours are well on their way along that highway. To suggest we all just sit back and let them practice on our persons and property for a future of antisocial greed is not responsible but unless the entire community puts reasonable standards of behaviour in place, and enforces them, individuals who try to stand against it alone are ****ing into the wind.
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I replied to this point. Summer
 
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carpedeum said:
Just purchased a set of full size plastic goalposts from Smyths that fit perfectly between the pillars in my driveway, allowing my 9 and 10 year olds play in front of our house. They work a treat! One bonus is that our cars are safely protected in our driveway behind the nets which can easily be dragged aside should we want to go out! Other neighbours on our estate, including two neighbours opposite, are going to do the same.

The extra bonus is that they can be transported by the youngest of children and assembled on the communal green spaces too... when the same people who object to kids playing on the green are at work!

People (most have no kids) at the other end of the cul de sac are still complaining... mostly because they have to slow down when entering the cul de sac! What must these people be like to work with!



Spread the news! An Irish solution to an Irish problem!
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If all parents did this then there wouldn't be a problem. But when they get fed up and say move that goalposts, I'm sick of it, blah! blah! , it will probably end back up across the drive of people who don't own it.
 
This has been mentioned before so didn't want to start a new thread.

I live in Nottingham, UK.

Kids kicking a football against the side of my house is driving me mad. The kids don't care and the council isn't interested.

How can I make it stop!?
 
Unless you move from Nottingham to Ireland RobRiley, you are unlikely to get advice on this site, sorry.
 
mathepac said:
Unless you move from Nottingham to Ireland RobRiley, you are unlikely to get advice on this site, sorry.
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Wouldn't agree.

OP have you tried contacting your Community Liaison Officer/Community Police Officer or Residents' Association to see if they can help?
 
I sympathise. I know how tortuous that kind of carry on can be. We have a problem with teenage skateboarders clattering and banging on the path and steps outside our apartment block. The noise would make you want to scream after about ten minutes. When a few of us raised it on our neighbourhood forum, we had a couple of people who live nowhere near where the problem occurs telling us 'ah shure it's only kids playing' and 'isn't it lovely to see them out doing something healthy instead of damaging propery' etc etc. It's amazing how 'tolerant' some people are on other people's behalf.
 
Could you open the gate? Or are they kicking into an open gate? I think talking to the parents has to be a first step.
 
carpedeum said:
Just purchased a set of full size plastic goalposts from Smyths that fit perfectly between the pillars in my driveway, allowing my 9 and 10 year olds play in front of our house. They work a treat! One bonus is that our cars are safely protected in our driveway behind the nets which can easily be dragged aside should we want to go out! Other neighbours on our estate, including two neighbours opposite, are going to do the same.

The extra bonus is that they can be transported by the youngest of children and assembled on the communal green spaces too... when the same people who object to kids playing on the green are at work!

People (most have no kids) at the other end of the cul de sac are still complaining... mostly because they have to slow down when entering the cul de sac! What must these people be like to work with!



Spread the news! An Irish solution to an Irish problem!
Click to expand...

By protecting your own cars you acknowledge its an issue but its ok to encourage them to play on the roads once yours are protected? Thats some solution.
 
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