Footballs over the fence

Oh get a life, kids are not young and fancy free for very long, Chuck the balls back and have a joke with them about improving their dribbling skills, now they are too big for a bib! Kids actually love a bit of banter from a jokey adult.

We moved into a house, new neighbours, 10 year old son kicked a football over the fence straight into a cup of tea, loud crash and broken china everywhere. Lots of apologies, a lot of football in our garden later, their two babies grew bigger and returned the favour. We all had a very good laugh about it. I won't mention the drum kits later.

Why is it a problem ?
Why does the age of a youngster mean they obviously shouldn't be kicking a football in their back garden, according to you?
Is there anywhere near that he can safely go and kick a ball as an alternative?
Just chuck the balls back as you find them. I don't think there is a law such as trespass for footballs- would be a different thing if the 15 year old was climbing over the fence to get them back himself!

I guess all these generous folk who regard anyone complaining about balls kicked into their gardens as curmudgeons, haven't experienced balls landing in the middle of a patio table when entertaining outside or generally living in fear of a ball hitting them in the head as they garden...? This in addition to plants and vegetables with broken stems. Parents should take children to a park for a carefree kick-around if they cannot keep the ball within their own garden at least most of the time. A 15 year-old should take himself off to the park as he is quite old enough. Teaching children to behave considerately is essential as they don't magically acquire it when they are adults; witness the climb in anti-social behaviour that now causes so much distress in our society.

Balls coming over my fence get thrown back when I see them - so it might be next day if I'm out until after dark - with no problems at all.
What really gets me is when football is played in the street by teenagers - when I bought my last car, I'd only had it a couple of weeks when a football landed on the roof and dented it..! By the time I'd got out of my front door, the street was empty, and it would have cost me my no-claims bonus to fix, so I drove around in a car with a dented roof for three years..!!

We have a walled garden at the back and have given over the previous flowerbeds to wildflowers, so when the ball comes into the garden there is no damage done and the seven year old lad next door has lifetime permission to pop round and retrieve his ball. ?

I do think though that parents should monitor such things and ensure that their children are polite and do their best not to become a nuisance. My own boys were under strict instructions to play in such a way that noise levels were kept down and intrusions were kept to a minimum so as not to annoy the neighbours.

Sadly, for a time we had a voyeur visiting one of our neighbours whose property overlooked ours. My boys stopped going into the garden for a while as they felt very uncomfortable being watched. Eventually I challenged the neighbour about her guest and she moved shortly afterwards, but by then my boys had got used to playing elsewhere.

Just throw the balls back!

Good fences make good neighbours - so just lob the ball back when you are good and ready, unless they have asked you for it first. If they do break a plant, take them into the garden to see the damage wrought, and show them that their fun is costing you good money.

And the winner of the most Gransnet post of 2021 goes to “can I have my ball back mister?” ?

PaperMonster

Panda - never implied that about you at all. But own it if you want. But generally people complain about kids and screens - but then people also complain about children playing outside and their noise/balls. Just think children can’t win nowadays, criticism whatever they do. Just chuck the bloomin balls back and move on!

Absolutely!

I wish I could throw my neighbours three cats back over the fence when they come in my garden!!….?

We have a problem with footballs in the street. We live in a street of terraced houses that is a dead end for cars but is very busy with bikes and pedestrians who have to dodge the balls. They bounce off parked cars and hit the houses and have even gone right over the roofs into back gardens.

There is a park 5 minutes away with plenty of space for them to play but they prefer to make a nuisance of themselves.

I'm not talking about children kicking balls about. The main culprit is in his forties. There are other adult males and a couple of teenagers as well. This has been happening ever since the main culprit moved in a couple of years ago. The Police & council ASB officer stopped it last year but it's started up again so we've had to get them involved again.

Sadly NotSpaghetti,we didn`t live near a rec,and the neighbours never complained when the ball went over.
On one side they said just get yourself through the fence to get the ball and the other side just threw it back and vice versa.
We were lucky to have great neighbours.

timetogo I also had children who played football, and yes, occasionally it went over, BUT I (and they) were respectful of our neighbours and generally they took their ball up to the rec.

I don't understand people being mean about footballs over the fence (by puncturing them for example) but also I don't see why those who are plagued with repeated balls day after day (and all day long) shouldn't be allowed to complain.

Most families/young boys and girls are considerate, some don't give a thought about anyone else. It's hard to enjoy your garden if the balls come over all day every day. It's relentlessly being on ball-watch that is so grinding.

Having sons who played football in the garden when they were young,i would`t dream of moaning about balls coming over the fence.
I love the fact that they are doing what boys/girls should be doing rather than sat infront of a screen of some sort.

My sister had the same trouble many years ago with the young lad next door constantly kicking the ball at her fence. He was Wayne Rooney who went from playing with Everton to one of the top players in the world! However, I do sympathise, it can be very, very annoying.

I don't find it a problem - I just throw whatever (balls, foam arrows etc) lands in my garden back over the fence. Kids grow up, and the 15 year old will soon find girls and going out far more interesting!

Love to see kids playing, they have had so many restrictions lately, just chuck them back, or let them in to collect the balls, you never know you may get a bar of chocolate one day.

I just told them to come into my garden and collect their balls, no need to ask me first. A tall hedge and trees prevented balls coming into the back garden, so only the front was affected.

Oh how nasty redhead some truly mean folk around

Stick a sharp object in the ball and throw it back or throw it in another neighbours garden.

Until you’ve lived this (six, eight, ten times a day at weekends and summer holidays) you have no idea how annoying it is or how damaging to susceptible plants such as lilies, peonies etc or seedlings.
In our case they used to shout at us from the other side of the fence - sometimes we couldn’t find it and the shouting went on…

The neighbours the other side put up a massive tall net on top of their 6ft fence and trellis which looked pretty odd but did the job, mostly.

We had exceptional neighbours who removed a couple of slats from their fence and invited our boys to pop in and collect their balls whenever they knocked them over. Not only that, but when our cat walked into their kitchen when they were serving Sunday lunch, and walked off with the roast before the wife could carve any for herself, they didn't even mention it to us for six months!

I chuck my neighbours stuff/balls back over the fence but it has occasionally included shoes I honestly don't find it an issue at all. The last thing I want is to be irritated by small stuff from my neighbours as I have to live next door them EVERY SINGLE DAY