BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids D@#n School!

lngilbert, that's tough ... send the letter, and I hope you won't get screaming kids arriving at 7:40 everyday ... *sigh*

Just because I'm CF doesn't mean I don't like kids. I just don't want my own. I've never had an issue with having kids next door, we have a lot of kids on the block, I taught gymnastics to kids for 6 years, babysat for 12. I LOVE kids. I know there are some people on this board who just can't stand them at all, but that is not me.

My mom bought this house 18 years ago, and I've lived here both with a roommate and alone after she got married and moved out in 2001(the house was paid off and she couldn't see the sense in me getting an apartment when we had a perfectly good house - I think she knew I was going to marry my husband.)

When my husband and I got married, she offered to sell the house to us for $75,000 less than the market value. At that time, we didn't really have any problems with the school. In fact, the whole time we lived here we didn't have problems. Kids always ignored me, I ignored them. When we had our last dog they all knew her name and would stand far away from the fence and watch her. Now they scream and shake the fence and kick at our dogs.

We'd had a few problems with people trespassing and pulling leaves off trees and stuff like that, but it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't until I got out of graduate school that I realized there was a problem. Because I wasn't out of the house 15 hours a day, I was sometimes home when kids were getting picked up and dropped off. That was when I noticed how disrespectful the parents were, trespassing, having picnics on my lawn, completely blocking my driveway and not letting me pull out even when I honked the horn, etc. etc. etc.

In talking with neighbors, they said that there had always been a slight problem, but it had intensified over the last year or so (so this has been going on about 4 years now.)

We'd also never had a problem with the kids messing with the dog until last year, and we've always had a dog.

These are all NEW problems, and I'm not going to move because of THEM.

The point is, this is a whole new batch of kids, and a whole new batch of parents. Things have changed so radically even from a few years ago, it's unbelievable.

I'm not going to sell my house because parents park on my driveway or my parkway, but I am going to [censored] about it. Besides, we got lucky in buying from my mom. We cannot afford to live in this town.

And the letter is NOT written in anger. I've dealt with them before on some issues (someone actually hit my car when picking their kid up, kids have thrown rocks and hit my dog, their fence fell down because kids were banging on it, etc.) Some have been resolved, some haven't. I think I have a good relationship with both the school and the school district.

Oh, and they are well aware that kids arrive early because they've sent letters home to parents telling them DON'T ARRIVE EARLY! They also send letters home saying don't block driveways.

The point is, parents don't give a [censored] and do whatever they want.

Update: The kids who have been arriving at 7:45 were here at 7:15 this morning, a full hour and 10 minutes before school starts. I am starting to think that their parent(s) work at the school.

BUT - that is no reason to let your kids go running around the playground screaming! My husband was very ill this morning (called in sick - he's only done that once before) and they woke him up!

I am wondering why this is allowed for them to be outside so early and screaming like banshees???

I think in order to make a point, I would park my car at the end of the drive way so they can't get in there. If they are parking on your lawn, put something in their way. I have noticed here the houses that are close to the beach have the same problem. They get reflector polls and put it in the yard so people can't park there. They also have signs threatening to have cars towed if someone parked there.

I think I might be tempted to turn the hose on people who were on my property without invitation. My Grandmother did this with GREAT affect when I was a child with a troublesome neighbor. Mr. Casy was a little nuts and often came to verbally abuse my Grandmother who was a sweet lady, one time she got enough of it, he was standing there screaming while she was watering her flowers, she turned the hose on him. He was SO shocked, he shut up and went away. It of course was the talk of the town.

People [censored] me off.

It wouldn't be so bad if the dogs weren't out in the morning (because then we go to work so I like to give them an hour or so outside) and then they bark because the kids are running around like maniacs. So it's not just the noise that the kids make, it's the dogs barking, and having to go out there and get them ...

They are trained not to bark when the kids are on the playground, so I don't know what bothers the dogs so much about these kids in the morning. The rest of the day if they are outside they just stand and watch, or otherwise completely ignore the kids.

I'm learning to ignore the other behavior. It's sad that I have to change my routines because people can't just be respectful. What makes me mad is that the people who park in front of my house tend to live 1.5 blocks away.

I feel so bad for you. My husband and I had terrible problems with a neighbor's children coming onto our property, teasing our dog through our front windows and being distructive to our property. We live in a very nice upscale neighborhood for our area as well, so just living somewhere nice doesn't mean you can avoid the crazies. They're everywhere!

How would your property look with a privacy fence that made your backyard not visible from the street? Or maybe you could put a picket type fence around your front yard with an automatic gate to get into your driveway? You could even landscape around the inside of the picket fence for additional privacy from the kids. I can't think of anything else. My husband and I are moving soon, and now I'll deffinatly pass up that house right next to a school now no matter great it is. I don't mind kids, but I can't stand rude inconsiderate people.

Also, the initial post you started on page one, where you and your husband go to get coffee and pass a woman who drove 2 blocks to drive her kid to school. That sort of thing annoys me to no end. This is why 2/3 of Americans are out of shape and pollution from vehicles is such a problem. People just don't care. She's also setting a great example for her child to follow in these ares.

Best of luck, sorry you're stuck in this situation.

I remember when I lived in New England we looked at a house with a church as the neighbor over the back fence. I was thinking how quiet it would be during the week. Then I realized what a NOISEY mess it would be every weekend.

I can't stand noise and annoyance like that.

I'm going to suggest to the school that they extend the privacy fence to cover the entire backyard.

In the front we don't have much of a yard, so a picket fence would be out of place. However, the privacy fence is picketed in the front yard (it's only on the side where the school is) so that the wind doesn't knock it down.

I planted morning glories and some evergreen bushes this spring. The morning glories are still in full bloom, and they cascade over the fence so beautifully. I've had several parents comment on how lovely they are.

And then in the winter, the evergreens should block out a lot of the school as well.

I've tried doing similar things in the backyard, but with the chainlink fence there, it just looks trashy.

I don't know what area you live in but maybe you can find a plant with thorns on it that would keep the kids away from the chain link fence. There should be something no matter what area you live in. I have heard that Yucca is terrible to touch and serves as a great deterent. Here in Florida bouganvielia has HUGE thorns on it, of course in most places you can grow roses. In Texas I used to grow an evergreen vine that had red berries or white flowers depending on the time of year and it had nice big thorns on it as well.