HELP! Neighbor’s child constantly on our property
Hey everyone, so I wanted to ask if anyone has experience in regards to this situation and the best way to go about it.
New neighbors moved in on our block and they have a son that’s the same age as my son. One day, my fiancé and I were out with our kids, my son and my daughter playing in our yard. The neighbors son road his bike on our driveway and automatically just started playing with our son. There was no introduction or anything I had no idea where he came from. I did ask him Politely if his mother knew where he was you, he’s five. He never would give me a response. I did tell him that if he wanted to continue coming on our property to play that he would have to ask his mother. When he came a second time, I did ask him where his mother was so I could formally introduce myself mind you this all made me feel a bit uncomfortable. The kid was very pushy and adamant about playing with our son which I understand for his age, but it just was baffling to me that there was no adult supervising him and we just kind of felt ambushed. I politely introduced myself to his mother and just told her that he’s always welcome to play when we have toys out on our yard there’s always an adult supervising the kids and that I just wanted to make sure I met his parents before him just coming on to our property. I was hoping that conversation would invite her to understand that her son is riding his bike around the neighborhood let alone on our property maybe she should keep an eye out on him. She seem nice after the conversation she went back on her phone and said that she would be back to get him a little later because they were going to go to the library. Otherwise it just felt like she wasn’t too concerned about where exactly he was, and she kind of saw us as some type of daycare and that’s what I was concerned about. Then we saw on our ring camera one random day that he would be riding his bike around our car on the driveway when nobody is outside. I understood I needed to set some boundaries with him. Unfortunately, our driveway does not have a closed gate so anyone could just come into the property. It was clear that there was no adult supervision and that was something that was normalized. I have no anger or animosity towards the child. There would be times where we’re putting groceries away in our home and he’s driving into our driveway with his bike asking to play. I kindly told him that when he sees us out with toys on our yard he’s more than welcome to ask us to play and he’s welcome to play with our kids. Typically, when we’re in our house or for loading groceries, that means we’re too busy to start playing out in the yard. Yesterday I was cooking and had the windows open. He wrote by our window along with his friend and I kindly told him to please leave and that I had already talk to him about when we have toys out that’s when he’s welcome to come and ask to play but right now it’s not a good time. At this point I feel harassed I feel like perhaps we were just too nice and I have to now set a very stern boundary. I don’t know how to get the message across that. We don’t want to constantly have a kid come up to us to ask to play. There are times where I want to be out on my yard with my kids and maybe just have family time and I will politely let him know that. But now I feel like I have to constantly look over my shoulder. I find it very disrespectfulthat there’s a little child just feeling comfortable to run up on our property like this however I am not upset with him again this is just all about boundaries. We are first time homeowners. I am new to this as a young parent and if anyone could please let us know how to politely get this message that would be great. In my opinion, no judgment to his mother however it is a huge red flag that she is not supervising her child and I don’t know how to go about this anymore.
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