Ok, so Mr. and I bought a house last winter in a cute little neighborhood that we loved at a great price (bottom of the market, baby!). We moved in, sort of met one set of neighbors but not many since they all seem to keep to themselves mostly. We've tried introducing ourselves while we are out and about in the neighborhood but not many people seem to care so we just carry on.
Mostly things were going well until this summer when I would come home from work and find things on our front porch had been moved around and messed with. At first I chalked it up to Mr. moving things around, but when I asked him he had no idea what I was talking about. A few times a week when I would come home our potted plants would be moved or my watering can would be full of rocks and the little red berries that grow on our front bushes... or the little bench by our front door would be askew. It was all very frustrating to me because the last thing I want to do when I have to water my plants was to try to pick out the rocks and berries from the watering can (not a fun task because the spout is thin and they get stuck so I have to pick them out one by one of the tiny hole at the top of the watering can where you put the water in) or clean up my porch so I don't trip when I walk up my front steps! We've tried a couple of times to talk to the neighbors, but the opportunities don't come up often because they pretty much avoid us (we have our theories as to why this is, but that is a separate post!). Also, we aren't sure which of the children are actually playing on our property because 4 of the houses close to us have small children that stay home during the days so we can't pinpoint who to talk to unless we see who is there.
As the summer progressed I noticed toys and small items being left in our driveway and in our front yard but figured kids must be dropping them as they run down the street. Then one day in early autumn I came home from work to find that all of the mothers on the block had let their kids leave toys in and around my drive way. I stopped as I got closer to my house so they could move them and they all looked at me like I was inconveniencing them! WTF?! They slowly moved the toys but left a few in my front yard. I kindly moved them from my yard to the neighbors yard and went in the house to get my mail key and feed the dogs. I came back out and they had MOVED THE TOYS BACK INTO MY YARD AND DRIVEWAY. So I did the only thing I could think of doing and walked up to the group of mom's and said, "Hey! Could I ask that you all not let your kids leave toys in my driveway..." but then stopped talking because 1 of the mom's flat out turned away from me and ignored me and the other pretended she didn't speak English (which I know she does because I've heard her speak fluent English many times before). I was so stunned I didn't know how to continue so I said a quick thanks and walked to check my mail.
The toys were absent for a few days after that, but then it started happening again. The women would all be outside and toys would be scattered across my driveway, yard and front porch. They would more quickly react when I came home, but it still bothered me that they were letting their children play in my yard, in my driveway and on my front porch- especially since Mr. and I don't have children that play with their children, we've never had any of them over to our home and most of our neighbors aren't very friendly. Then the other night Mr and I were home and I had to run a quick errand while Mr .tried to sleep off his cold. I ran to the store and was gone maybe 20 minutes. When I came back and turned down our street I saw two of our neighbors with their combined 3 children letting their kids race their tricycles down MY DRIVEWAY. I was SHOCKED! I waited for them to move, gave our neighbor a nasty look and stormed into the house. Mr. was already awake from his nap because the children playing in our driveway had aroused the suspicion of our dogs who then started barking. He was about to go out and talk to them when I pulled up. I told Mr. that I was so furious there was no way I could calmly discuss this with our neighbors at that moment because IT'S OUR DRIVEWAY, GET THE HELL OFF OF IT! That is where I park because it is my property, not a playground for your children! I needed to cool off first before telling them how I feel and asking them to kindly refrain from being on our property. By the time I cooled down it was after dinner and all of the lights in their house were off so I felt like it wasn't a good time to disturb them, but we HAVE to talk about it sometime!
I haven't actually seen any of my neighbors in a few days since this happened (because of the rain and wind, I suppose) so I haven't gotten to talk to any of them, but what do you guys think about this whole thing? I don't even come close to understanding this. I feel like this is a boundary that shouldn't be crossed! Am I wrong here? Here's the thing- there are 4 parks close to our house where they can easily take their children, or even to the end of our cul-de-sac where there is green space! I'm talking so close you could walk less than 2 blocks in each direction and get to a family friendly park with plenty of space for kids to play and ride bikes. I also feel like this is a violation of my privacy. I have not given anyone permission to be on my property (driveway, porch or front yard) so they shouldn't assume I am ok with them being there, especially when I am not home and they have not asked permission. The last thing I want to have happen is one of those kids trips on our steps and bashes their face in on the concrete OR eat some of the berries off of our bushes and be poisoned!
So I came up with a temporary solution to hopefully deter children and people from coming up to our front porch and driveway. Last night I installed a motion detector with alarm so that it faces our front streps and front door at around 3 feet above the ground so it should catch children's movements as well as possible adults. It should trigger a 120 db alarm when motion is sensed so if someone were to come up to our front porch or upper driveway. Hopefully this loud unexpected noise will be enough to keep the kids away and hopefully Mr. and I will have a chance to speak with our neighbors about this. I am a little bit thrilled about this, which makes me feel like a mean old lady, but we already sort of knew I was one (Mr. will confirm this).
Eventually I want to get a camera mounted there so we can see who is doing this, but we definitely don't want to do that unless we have to (like if it continues after we speak to the parents). Wish us luck!
What are your thoughts?
 |
| We bought 2 different motion detectors to try out. |
