My first thought was to start this thread in AIBU but I thought that wasn't quite the right place for it as I think the kids are the ones being unreasonable. So the question is just how much would you personally tolerate?
I live in a typical terraced street where the houses on both sides have small 'gardens' at the front. The street is quite long but has a major road crossing it on the route of an old railway line with a subway for pedestrians/cyclists just past my house which makes my part of the street a dead end for cars. To the west there is a very large park which is about 5 minutes walk away although it does involve crossing 2 streets to get there. However we frequently see groups of youngsters heading there with their footballs.
There are 2 particular families causing problems. The (T)rouble family consist of Dad(DT), Mum(MT), Girl(GT) who is 16/17, Boy(BT) who is around 13/14 and young boy(YT) who is 10/11. So far this year we haven't seen MT kicking a ball around but we've seen the rest of the family. The other family is a single mum with 2 boys B and his younger brother(YB). Both families have caused problems since they moved into the street because they simply have no respect for other people or property.
When they have their balls out they don't care where they land. A few days ago GT kicked the ball high and hard and it bounced off the roof. Not many minutes later it she kicked it towards our roof but I didn't hear it hit. In the past balls have gone right over and into back gardens. They think it's acceptable to kick the ball straight at the houses and at cars. Last summer B & some other lads threw stones and broke the big bay window of an empty house. When the window got boarded up they would kick the ball straight at it.
I like to sit in my bay window with a magazine or crossword and on several occasions I've glanced up to see a ball headed straight for me. We've had balls hitting the windows and the front door but they never apologise. They never ask if they can have their ball back. They just get it and carry on with their game. YT likes playing 'tennis' and his dad will play with him but neither of them are any good so the tennis balls frequently go in the wrong direction.
My next door neighbour frequently moves his car out of the street because he doesn't want it to get damaged. His wife often sits on their front doorstep smoking and has been hit by balls.
So how much would you put up with?
