Football in the street

Playing football is fine but should not be done to interfere with the lives of others. A football match right outside your door is very annoying and causes lots of excessive noise, shouting and the ball bangs off windows, doors, cars etc. I know as I.ve experienced it. Kids don't realise generally that they're being an annoyance, it's up to their parents to watch that they are not interfering with others. If they want to play football, an adult --their parents--should lay down the rules so that others living near by are not upset by it. After all everyone on the road / estate should have a right to the peaceful enjoyment of their home. To the OP I would say go speak to the parents as if they're any way decent they will sort out this problem. Let them know how it is interfering with your life, they probably don't realise it!!!!!!!!!!
 
SarahMc said:
If you cannot cope with children playing outside your house, you really shouldnt live in an estate.
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This is an absolute bugbear of mine! Where does it say on the purchase agreement that by buying a home in a housing estate you accept excessive noise, potential damage to your property, direspect and disregard by your neighbours and their children???

Once ONE person shows me such clause, I will agree that the OP and anyone else who has issues with children causing all kinds of racket outside of their house (including myself) is over-reacting! I agree that it's a lot more favourable that children play outside rather than sit inside glued to their computers and TV, but for goodnss sake, somebody please tell them that it's possible to communicate without screeching their heads off and take them to the park if they want to play football.
 

Can you show us the clause where children are banned from playing on the street or making any sort of noise in case it upsets you? Or where you are automatically entitled to respect? It's a neighbourhood that you buy into. Warts and all.

If your property gets damaged, there are laws to deal with that. If there is anti-social behaviour, there are laws to deal with that. As far as I know, playing and maybe shouting during the day/early evening is not against any law.
 

If you live in an apartment, there are rules against keeping pets such as cats and dogs, having wooden flooring, leaving your bycycle or pushchir on the landing, hanging your laundry outside AND children playing in the communal areas, including the underground or surface car parks. It is not the law but rules which make everyone's life a lot easier and everyone more comfortable. If you live in a house, you have the added benefit of being able to keep pets, have a floor of your choice and hang up your laundry in your back garden. If apartment residents are entitled not to be stumbling over bikes and pushchairs, not to have their car damaged by a football as well as to peace and quiet when they get home, why is it different for house owners?

There are children on my road who are sent outside to play in front of other people's houses because mummy and daddy have had a long day and want to watch Coronation Street. It seems that if you complain, you are not just the 'grumpy neighbour' and therefore left alone but the one who should be made to put up with whatever they complained about and punished for having the cheek to complain. Respect, regard and consideration for others? Sure, what do we need them for?

The laws you mentioned don't deal with anything because nobody wants to enforce them in housing estates. If your car gets damaged by a neghbourhood children's football, the Gardai will tell you that it wasn't intentional (criminal damage) and therefore you should claim off your own insurance for the repair.
 
If you wanna live in an apartment, live in an apartment. If you wanna live in a housing estate, live in a housing estate. If you wanna live in the country, live in the country.

But, leave the children play. We were all young once.
 


Because the house rules are included in their lease. The rules are clear at time of purchase. You signed a lease without any of those rules.
 
Sunny said:
Because the house rules are included in their lease. The rules are clear at time of purchase. You signed a lease without any of those rules.
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This just bolsters my point that unless there is a written rule or a law, some people feel entitled to do what they like without any consideration for others.
 
Yachtie said:
This just bolsters my point that unless there is a written rule or a law, some people feel entitled to do what they like without any consideration for others.
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But you bought a house in an estate where there are no rules concerning communal living or being considerate neighbours. You could have great neighbours. You could have the neighbours from hell. You knew that when you bought. Why should the kids on the street live by your rules with regard to what is acceptable noise levels or not? (and I am not talking about damaging property or real anti social behaviour).

If your neighbours feel the same as you, set up a residents committee and see what can be done.
 
Sunny said:
But you bought a house in an estate where there are no rules concerning communal living or being considerate neighbours.
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So therefore people are perfectly entitled to be inconsiderate?! The people with the kids also chose to buy into an estate as much as the people without. That does not give them any automatic entitlements just because they're parents.

Sunny said:
Why should the kids on the street live by your rules with regard to what is acceptable noise levels or not?
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Why should the people on the street live by what the kids regard to be acceptable noise levels?

This is all about reasonable give and take. I personally don't have a problem with kids running around playing and making noise, I can understand how people might though. I do have a problem though with the potential for my property to get damaged. Whos going to pay when something expensive gets broken? I know some of the parents around are reasonable people who would be mortified if one of their children caused damage. Sod's Law being so, you can guarantee that it'll be Indignant Parent that you'll have to go talk to who'll take the "Sure they were only playing" line and "This is an estate, they've every right to be on your property".
 
Just to clarify, I am a parent to a very lively 2.5 year old boy who every once in a while decides to excercise his right to 'terrible twos' through screeching his head off and running around like a looper. However, I don't feel that he is entitled to screech in front of other people's front window or run into their flower beds and wreck their plants. Even thought of that happening mortifies me so when he starts, he is quickly picked up and brought into the house in order not to bother others. As a parent and a reasonably intelligent person, I don't need the resident's association or a rule book to tell me that my child is not as adorable and precious to other people as he is to me.
 

Good for you. Come back in 20 years and tell us what he did as a teenager. I was a good kid. Never even had detention in school. Never smoked. Never drank. Never got in trouble with the guards. However, I played football and games outside my house and my neighbours houses with friends almost every single evening. We all did. Never realised I was such a scumbag.
 

Who has said anyone has a right to be on your property? Who is saying anyone has the right to cause damage? Nobody is talking automatic rights. You know what you buy when you decide to live in an estate. That doesn't mean your life should be a misery but it does mean you will have to put up with some things that you would rather do without.
 
= you can guarantee that it'll be Indignant Parent that you'll have to go talk to who'll take the "Sure they were only playing" line and "This is an estate, they've every right to be on your property".
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I had a window put out with a stone a number of years ago. I saw the lad that did it, when I went to the lads parents, she turned an asked him if he did it, and he said "no", her answer "if he said he didn't do it he didn't do it goodby"
 
roker said:
I had a window put out with a stone a number of years ago. I saw the lad that did it, when I went to the lads parents, she turned an asked him if he did it, and he said "no", her answer "if he said he didn't do it he didn't do it goodby"
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There are idiots everywhere. Vast majority of patents are no different to you and me though and would take these things seriously.
 
Sunny said:
You know what you buy when you decide to live in an estate.
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The vast majority of people who bought a house over the last 15 years had little or no choice BUT to buy in an estate, whether they wanted to or not.
 
Sunny said:
You know what you buy when you decide to live in an estate.
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The issue raised by the OP is not exclusive to housing estates. There are many, many residential areas in this country which are not estates. Probably all of older parts of any city. The likes of Ranelagh, Tempelogue, Dartry,... for example.

How do you argue your point(s) when people from such high density areas with ample outdoor playgrounds and parks complain about football being played in their cul-de-sac instead of in the park just around the corner?

You are taking the discussion very personally. Nobody called you a scumbag! Albeit, I do consider one particular family on my street to be scumbags because they have absolutely no consideration for anyone else's needs, comfort or safety. Their children will kick their football into your window or wall, walk into your front garden as if they own it trampling over any plant that may be in their path and even scowl at you if you see them. Then their bikes, hoola-hoops, skateboards and who knows what else are strewn all over the road and one other neighbour has to move one thing or another almost every morning in order to reverse out of his driveway. Those children produce as much noise as a pack of angry gorillas, an elderly lady from the road parallel to ours has remarked. It's all different circumstances and different levels of annoyance but I really don't think that it's simple as 'ah you bought into it' and 'it's not illegal'. It's not illegal not to let an elderly person or a pregnant lady have your seat on the Luas or on the bus but nice and decent people still get up and afford a fellow passenger just a tiny bit of extra safety and comfort, even though they knew that there may be old or pregnant people on board when they bought their tickets / have paid the same full fare and are equally 'entitled' to a seat / ... .
 
The country is changing by the hour these days. Ireland Ltd used to change by the decade, but we've had recessions, booms and now back into a recession that nobody knows when it will end (if ever). Back in the 60's we had bonfires at crossroads even in the city, even platform dancing in some parts of the country. The 70's brough loads of tourism especially from the USA, the 80's brought so many more Yanks that we could ignore the best tourists of all, the Brits, the 90's brought some affluence along with the start of the boom, then into the noughties where many wanted to forget the past because times got so good.

Call the Fire Brigade to quench that bonfire. Get the Gardaí to arrest those somewhat voiciferous revellers after a few drinks, our road is a bit above the next one so stop those kids from playing football. The bikes, hula-hoops etc are an eyesore and should be unseen. Certainly the kids should be unheard. Let's have silence.

Be careful, we might get that silence and when we get it, it will be the last thing we need. Children playing on the street are our protectors and living witnesses to anything happening on that road. Take the kids off the street and suddenly there is open season for house-breakers and other criminals.

I can think of lots to complain about, but football in the street is not one.
 
No one is saying that kids shouldn't be allowed play outside. They're saying they shouldn't be allowed play in a way that causes damage to other people's property or unduly annoys the neighbours. They are also saying that, where a green or park is available, children should be encouraged to play there and not out on the street.
Obviously when you live in an estate you have to accept that there's going to be a certain amount of noise from neighbours. But also, when you live in an estate you're going to have to accept, as a parent, that your children will have to learn a level of consideration for the other people living close by. Unfortunately some parents think consideration is a one way street and anyone who complains about their kids is just a moaner and shouldn't be living in an estate if they don't like kids kicking footballs against their cars or skateboarding up and down the road at 11 o'clock at night or whatever.
It's not just parents of course. There are also people who seem to see nothing wrong with their dog keeping the neighbours awake all night, or with loudly revving their car at 6 o'clock every morning etc.
 
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