I hate my neighborhood.

And I hate living on a cul de sac. All the neighborhood kids come here to play. I wouldn’t mind that - I can tune out the noise and the constant thud-thud-thud of a dribbled basketball. I’ve figured out that the bike crashes are all part of the game.

But, I’m sick of the basketballs always coming into my yard and down my driveway and into my shrubs. I had more broken flowers last year than I could count. I’m tired of the kids riding their bikes across my grass. I’m tired of the kids riding their skates and skateboards across my grass. Correction - not grass - it’s dirt, due to the kids chasing balls and riding bikes and skates…

I hate being the neighborhood grouch. But I’m sick to death of kids who have no respect for property. And frankly, I’m terrified at the prospect of one of them getting hurt on one of my stepping stones and me being sued because of it. I’m fed up with putting hours into trying to make my yard look decent, only to find broken stems and branches, and ruts, and garbage. Today I was a heartbeat away from calling the police because some kids dragged a full size trampoline into the middle of the cul de sac.

Where are their parents? I’m thinking about attending our next association meeting - I’ve missed the last 3 because I was out of town. One neighbor said they were supposed to address respect for property - I haven’t seen it yet.

15 more months. I’m going to start counting the days till I can get out of here. I really hate my neighborhood.

I hate living in a cul-de-sac (well, I live on the edge of a cul-de-sac) because every house in it has about fifteen cars and trucks, plus dogs and children in the middle and it’s hard to turn around to park my car.

Does your association allow fences put up around your yard? That would solve the problem, except, of course, when the ball lands inside the fence, they’ll be asking you to go get it. Which is an annoyance, but at least you’d be the one retrieving it.

No street parking here, so that’s a plus. Garage or driveway only.

Fences are allowed, but they have to be 6’ wooden fences - and I don’t think they’re allowed to be closer to the street than the front wall of the house. I thought about a hedge along the curb, but that wouldn’t stop balls from bouncing over. And I can’t afford that many shrubs. And since I’m moving next year, I’m trying not to invest too much in the property any more.

Something else that bugs me - I’ve just contracted for a lawn service - to make the yard presentable when we go on the market this time next year. So these kids in their bare feet may be running across a yard that’s got all sorts of nasty chemicals on it.

I’m so ready to get out of here…

I think there is a plant thats called “walk on me carpet” I think I saw it in a Gurney’s plant catalogue you get it and like with in a year if you plant them the way it says to you can have some greenery that is actually made for heavy traffic. Now I could be B. S-ing you but if you go to your local gree house or what every you call you “plant person” They’d either know what I’m talking about or can suggest something else.

People in my neighborhood have no respect, either.

They allow their dogs to run at large in the neighborhood, despite explicit rules to the contrary. One of these dogs knocked my husband down when he was bringing take-out into the house. (The owner actually talked about how funny it was watching our food go all over the ground.)

These dogs knock our trash cans over and rip open the bags. After the third or fourth time of picking up garbage out of my yard, I had to go buy those type of trashcans which have the locking lid. (Not that it was hugely expensive or anything, but I resented having to pay money out of my own pocket because others refuse to obey the rules.)

Imagine my surprise when I saw one of our neighbors walk her dog to our lawn to poop. I couldn’t believe it. I saw her leave her house, walk the dog over here, wait until it was finished, and then march back into her house.

My dog is hostile to strangers, so I’m very careful to keep her away from people. Imagine my surprise when I went to let her outside on her tie-out line and found two little girls lying in my grass and chatting. I had to wait until they left before I could let my dog out.

She has gotten in at least four fights with dogs which are roaming around the neighborhood. I’m terrified that one day she’ll be badly hurt, or hurt the other dogs. (It’s not the dogs’ fault that their owners are assholes.) I obey the rules by keeping her on a tie-out line when she’s outside, but that doesn’t protect her from other dogs coming into our yard. (Fences are forbidden.)

Another neighbor kept a dog in a little kennel outside, and never cleaned it. The pen smelt to high-heaven in the summer time. The poor lonely dog barked almost twenty-four hours a day at first, until it gave up a few weeks later. The neighbors never interacted with the dog except to throw food on the ground in the cage, or to shout at it to shut up as they walked by.

I’m also tired of kids playing in our yard. Our neighborhood actually has a private park right across our residential street. It’s absolutely huge, and well-cared-for. Nevertheless, the kids seem to prefer playing in my yard, knocking over my lawn furiniture, and trampling my plants.

Yeah! Damn those awful children for enjoying themselves! They should all be set in cages and wheeled about by helper monkeys! Never should their feet stray from the sidewalk.

Imagine them abusing your GRASS! Woe unto them should they dare to LOOK upon your mansion! Damn them all! They should be set to work at the nearest textile factory post haste!

Buncha grumps!

(BTW, as a homeowner I don’t give two shits what the neighborhood kids do to my lawn. It’s just grass and dirt, for crying out loud!)

Hey, I like kids, but I don’t like them trampling my flowers or using my yard as their personal play area. I live across the street from a playground, and we get a lot of trash in our yard from kids throwing their drink bottles on the ground, and so on.

When I was growing up, I knew that I could play in my yard, or in a park. If my ball went into a neighbor’s yard, the way to retrieve it was to be very respectful of their property and not dare damage anything. If it happened a lot, I knew that I had to play a bit farther away from the lot line, or be more careful about where I threw.

If I’m grumpy because I hate taking out a trash bag every few days to clean up the candy wrappers, bottles, chip bags, and so on in my yard, and because I hate seeing hard work of mine on my flower beds and vegetable plantings wrecked by kids that don’t think or don’t care about respecting other people’s yards, then fine, I’m grumpy. I can live with that. I don’t think I should have to see things that I paid for and worked for get wrecked on my own property.

I recommend sitting in a rocking chair on your porch, with a shotgun across your lap, and yelling “Damn kids, stay off my lawn!” every time they come by. Maybe blow up a basketball or three…

jin I would like you to know I am looking forewad to the day I own a house for that very reason.

I’m an asshole. I’m a grump. I don’t like kids (I can just tolerate my own) and I do not at all appreciate our neighbors breaking the rules by letting thier goddam mutt walk around without a leash so it can piss on my car and house.

I don’t chase the neighbor kids away when they play in my front yard, as they are all very young and I have no use for a front yard, but the noise they make drives me up the wall.

I sometimes chase them out of the back yard because there is usually at least a few mounds of stinking dog poop out there that they should not be playing with and they drive my own stupid mutt crazy. And the noise. ERK!!!

My wife and friends have all commented my needing a rocking chair for the front porch, but they cost money and I don’t like to sit outside anyway.

Well, I feel better now. And I sympathize with the rest of you.

I’m weird.

I actually encourage the neighborhood children to use my yard if they wish. I also like the playing noises.

However, I do not have a landscaped yard and I have had little vandalism problems.

It’s when they become 14-16 that I worry :wink: and so should you…and so should you…especially since you’ll be a lightning rod since you’re the one with the grump reputation…BAWHAAHAAHAAAHAAAA…

Have a nice day :slight_smile:

It may just be grass and dirt (or mostly dirt in the case of mine) but I’ve been cited by the HOA for the condition of my yard. The secretary suggested I resod my yard. Sure, I’ve got $600-700 dollars to spare. Obviously, I’m to blame for the builder installing crap sod that was mostly weed.

Because of the placement of the neighborhood, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to have to cross my yard. We back onto a protected wetland area. The state has said that we are not to disturb anything back there. There’s nothing back there but foliage and mud - I think eventually the wet gathers and forms a small branch that leads to a creek, but from the map, it looks to be at least half a mile into the woods. Regardless, my property is not an access route to that area.

And I don’t stop kids from retreiving their balls or frisbees. I don’t try to quiet them or chase them away. But I sure don’t appreciate having my landscaping efforts being for nothing. As for the kids who live on the cul de sac - there are 2 toddlers and 3 kids in primary grades, and my teenager who’s hardly ever home. The ones who are congregating are mostly middle schoolers. Being older, you’d think they’d have learned some consideration for others. Silly me, to expect that.

Whatever. I still hate my neighborhood.

How would you like it if your bedding plants/flowers were getting trampled? That costs money and takes time to replace. Someone that wants a nice yard shouldn’t have to give up or spend their cash just because some brats dont give a shit about property that isn’t theirs. I find many children lacking common respect of others, and it’s sad.

[sub]betcha $10 that if a kid poked his eye out with a tree branch or tripped and hurt himself on her yard the same parents that don’t give-a-shit what their kids do woud probably try to sue fairychatmom.[/sub]

I don’t know what HOA means, but if it’s the homeowner’s association then it’s your fault for living someplace that has one.

See, I live on a block. A very nice tree lined child filled block. I don’t live in a new sub with butchered woods and awful sparse withered replacements.

Well, the only flowers on my property come from rosebushes, so I imagine that anyone who trampled them would learn quite a painful lesson indeed! :slight_smile:

I’m not completely uncaring towards all you lawn people, it’s just that growing up there were some people who were such asses if you even walked on their grass for two feet that I can’t stand to listen to people grousing about rotten kids anymore.

If you have a problem with your stuff getting trampled, maybe you should put up one of those little barrier wire fence things (you know, a clear border of where not to walk.)

“But it doesn’t look as good!” you say. Tough. Either learn to live with kids (who no matter what you do will smash your precious flowers) or move. But it seems the op is moving anyhoo so that problem should solve itself.

My, aren’t we an ass? I can’t believe this, “I’m better than you are because I live on a street & not a cul-de-sac”?

Once upon a time, your block was the edge of the city (the suburbs) & was its lot was blasted flat of trees & little houses were built eight & ten to the acre. The trees were replanted & looked like withered replacements.

Some anti-urban-sprawl advocate who’s logic is “I got mine, now go away.”

A friend of mine once planted stinging nettles around her garage to discourage the neighbor kids from hunkering down behind her garage to smoke cigarettes where their parents couldn’t see them…

I don’t usually return to fix typos but this was pretty bad.

Substitute: “…& its lot was blasted flat…”

Yes, you’re right. I’m completely at fault. I see the error of my ways. I’m going to make cookies and lemonade now and run outside to serve all the little darlings… Then I’ll give them hoes and shovels and maybe rent a little bulldozer so they can have all the fun they want. That’ll keep them out of the street. How could I have missed something so simple??

I don’t get it. What’s so awful about asking people to not trespass on your property? When did asking people to respect your private property become “asshole” behavior? I don’t go into their yards, so I don’t necessarily see it as “mean” to ask them to stay out of mine.

Simply put: you do not have a right to play where ever you wish. The entire neighborhood does not belong to you. Anyone who shouted at you as a kid for invading their property were perfectly within their rights to do so. You were the one in the wrong.

My mother would have knocked my head off if she caught me playing in someone else’s yard without permission, especially if I was damaging their plants/flowers. I came from an odd family, I guess, who taught me to respect other people’s things and to stay off of their property.

Kids need to learn barriers. Many people who never learn the difference between “yours” and “mine” end up doing hard time in a state facility.

And what if one of those little trespassers should be hurt on my property? I would be responsible, despite the fact that they’re there without my permission.

Aww. I’m tearing up. Another SDMB success story. Glad you saw the error of your ways, FCM!

(Upon reading your OP, my first response was going to be barberry bushes, but I don’t know if they’d thrive in your zone. Think thorns.)