How to handle this? Opinions Please.

[PineappleMama]

Those kids come on your property and get hurt... scrape a knee, trip and break a bone, drown, get bitten by a snake... whatever... and their parents can sue you... that alone should be reason enough to keep them off.

I'd find a form, maybe online? for a Release of Liability and send every child home with one... must be signed and notorized by BOTH parents (otherwise one or the other could still sue) ... and then returned. Until that is done, for their safety any further trespassing will be called in to the authorities.

If my kid came home with that (of course I don't let my kids run wild, but if I did) I'd wonder just what exactly is so dangerous that the owner wants that signed, and thus I wouldn't allow my children near just because I'm a paranoid nutcase.

They can't very well argue since they're allowing their children to go unsupervised onto a stranger's property aka trespassing on the kids' part and neglect on the parents'... might get their knickers in a bunch and they'll keep them away just because of that... the threat of authorities coming in on charges of tresspass OR neglect could do that too... but at least you don't have to worry about losing your home because those morons don't give a crap about their children.

 

[cparian]

Well I know for a fact the parents did know they were down here. As I said I heard them yelling. The boy was yelling at his little sister because they got all the way down to the creek & she told him she had to go back to the house to go to the bathroom. Then I heard his cell ring & he was yelling into the phone to his parent that yes he was waiting for his sister until she got back. Had he not been mad, screaming & yelling I might not have known they were even down there. If you talk in a normal voice I wouldn't be able to hear them down in the creek.

If my son was younger I wouldn't let him venture out like that without a resposible adult. I'm sure the parents don't know every one else that has property that borders the creek. There could be a sex offender living in one for all they know. Also some of you may have seen my post a while back about my doberman chasing a coyote that was trying to lure her into the woods. That coyote was the same size as my doberman! I have come across deer that have been killed & eaten by the coyotes. I know the deer was probably in a group & that didn't scare the coyote off, so I'm sure 3 kids wouldn't either. I don't expect people to smother their children, but at least have a grip on where you are sending them!

 

[welsummerchicks]

One of the problems of living out in the country is that people new to the country, tend to think that other people's property is not all that private, especially if there is something attractive there.

I've heard of people going on other people's property to enjoy riding their horses, to cut a lot of their pasture grass and take it home 'for their rabbits', to chase, tease their horses, pigs, sheep, goats or chickens, to do varous must-be-18 type activities in their gazebo, cabin or woods, to play in their pool, pond or creek, to open up their beehives (yes, one kid was allergic to bees), to take wood, lumber, pipe off their property 'that they didn't seem to need', harvesting fruit from an orchard or garden (NO, not just a wee taste) and in one case, to dump a truck load of about 50 broken toilets!!!! As well as do a little excavating and bury them!

It's a funny thing. In the country, a country type guy will make sure he stands on his side of the fence and asks if he can come over, rarely will he come marching across your field, but people who aren't used to the country will come marching up to you after walking over half your land as if it was their right...

I'm about to put up a perimeter fence, and my signage says, 'No Trespassing - Pastured Livestock - Loose Dogs will be Shot per State Law 955.28'