Annoying neighbor kids GGRR!

I remember when I was a kid and it never involved playing in someones else's yard with out permission. I might feel bad if these kids didn't have 4 acres on which to roam, but they have plenty of room to play that doesn't involve my property.

They haven't been over since last week when I reminded them where the line was, so hopefully their parents finally got it through their thick skulls and realized that we are not a daycare service.

I don't know what world some of you live in but the one I do is full of sue happy people who have no idea how to handle themselves around animals. I would not be a pleased person if I had to sell or euthinize an animal because it was doing what came naturally to it.

Anyway, I will be putting up signs and this spring when the snow is gone (the fence won't work with all this snow) the fence will be on, for my animals safety. Since my fence does not run the entire line, I will also be marking the line very clearly.

I strongly suggest you fence your property to the surveyed limit. The fence should be to the legal height limit and strong enough to serve as a deterrent.

Then talk to the parents, and inform them of the problem.

Also mention that you are having problems eradicating the poison ivy on your property. They should keep their children off of your property.

The electric fence will get you sued right away. Don't do it.

It is too bad any fool can have children. You can't put a porch on your house or pave a drive way without a permit, but it seems everyone has the right to breed.

It seems like parents are too busy, too lazy, too stoned or too drunk to take care of kids nowdays. I feel for the little critters.

Rufus

Well, the fence is already up. It's been up for 4 years.

Have plenty of poison ivy though.

line the fence with poison ivy, and tell the kids it's strawberry.

Quote:
when we lived in Mt Juliet, Tennessee, a small little place outside of nashville, a place where richer folks have their horses and show them off and enjoy the good life.. a man put up an electric fence to protect his horses..
His four year old daughter grabbed the fence while standing in a small rain puddle of water.. She died fast. I dont like those things.. do not like them....
Id rather have the kids kill my horse or chickens than kill the kids. even if i am not liable.. even if i am in the right.. even if i lose all i have. i wont endanger a kid.
if its coyotes. deer or whatever that im trying to keep away.. ok but if im trying to keep kids away...id feel pretty badly to kill a kid for any reason.
to keep kids away make friends of them.. it can be done with even the worst of them.. pay em even.. cheaper than killing em.. judy

I happen to agree that kids these days have no respect for other people's property.

I've had to kick kids out of my yard because they wanted to cut through to tease Slifer...If I knew I wouldn't get sued, I would've let them meet the Cantakerous Bag of Feathers up close and personal...But with two inch spurs I wasn't going to take the chance of her making the brats into Swiss Cheese.

And they're taught (or not) by their parents. I've taught my son that if his ball or frisbee or whatever goes into the neighbour's yard that you knock on the door and ask permission, because that's how *I* was brought up.

I feel for you. Are you sure you're not in PA? I think we had similarly frustrating kid neighbors when we lived there. The mom would let her kids run all over Heck's Half-Acre and call them in at night at the top of her lungs, then scream at them for literally hours on end about the chores they had not done, till about 2am...Well, duh, the kids were over a mile away at the convenience store, shoplifting candy, not doing chores. Somehow the mom never did figure it out that screaming at them nightly hadn't been working for several years, despite waking up all her neighbors routinely. The oldest kid was a known arsonist under house arrest as a teenager. These were not the sort of kids that you would want in your yard, much less roaming the streets--they were the sort of kids who desperately needed to be put in juvenile detention and/or foster homes, who had mental illnesses and all sorts of very serious problems that no kindly neighborhood mentor is capable of fixing. Once, the youngest (9y.o.) caught a wild bird at our neighbor's bird feeder, and got a scissors and cut its wings off. Our neighbor caught her in the act and called Child Protective Services to report it, to no avail. Not all kids can be saved, unfortunately, some are too dangerous to others, and some I believe are born sociopaths.

Anyway, about your neighbors: Agree with others who have said, they will probably sue at the drop of a hat. Conversely, they may be afraid of you suing them, too--is there any way that you could make them afraid of being sued themselves? Like, put a webcam near the part of the fence they are crossing?

Poison ivy will help. So will nettles and thickets of thorny bushes. Have you ever heard of the medieval method of peasant control, the haha? Basically a trench that can't easily be climbed, with sheer sides, but it's a lot of digging.

WRT the olden days, when I was a kid, if you ran in someone else's yard and got hurt somehow, you expected to get hurt at least three more times: once from the neighbors righteously calling the police to have your behind hauled away to juvie, and then again from your parents giving you a good whupping for troubling the neighbors and making a nuisance of yourself, and then a third time for whatever punishment the neighbors dreamt up so's you could apologize for trespassing. If it meant shoveling their driveway all winter, raking leaves all fall, then you did it with no complaints. Sad that those days are long gone, though.

Be interesting to talk to lawyer about it because:

1) If put up Beware of Dog sign, then you are aware that your dog is dangerous and therefore a threat to people. Might make you more liable since you can't claim ignorance.

2) Electric fence or anything of that type, would again be considered dangerous and therefore make you liable even tho they are trespassing--especially if court decided it was to keep kids out and not keep your animals in.

3) compost piles probably won't stop any young child since odors are not a big factor for them.

4) prickly plants seem like best solution.

Angie,

I know it's not a short term solution, but how about planting some barberry. We used to call it "prickerbush" when I was a kid. Grows like crazy in Maine climate,a dn very cheap at Home DEpot or where-ever once they start getting plants in. It's kind of spready and invasive, which helps it fill in quickly. It is nasty stuff and kids will stay out of it...... But it wouold probably take at least one summer to fill in.

Stacey

I have a sinular problem. I love kids I really do, I don't care if they run and play in my woods and by the creek. On the other hand we have caught them hacking down young trees, pulling bark off older trees, carving up trees. To top it off going in my duck pens and chasing my ducklings and ducks half to death. I have to resort to locking the pens and coops and don't like to do that incase of fire, but if I don't the ducklings will be handled to death and the adults stresses to death!
I have asked them several times to please stay out and for the most part they comply, but for some reason they just can't help but destroy the trees. We busted them the other day red handed and they denyed it. We haven't talked to the parents yet, but we will, we wanted to give the kids a chance with out getting the parents involved.
We want to build our son a tree house, but fear they won't stay out. So the parents are nice enough, we don't want to make enemys, but something need to give!
We are going to put up a fence, so our ducks can free roam a little safer and they want to get a horse so electric fence seems will benifit them too, but I fear they will get hurt cuz the are dumb enough to play with the fence!
So sometimes there isjust nothing you can do with out being the bad guy, and that just stinks!
We also have a pool, we are waiting to find them in it one night, oh boy, I know it will happen!
Good Luck,
Brenda