My neighbour’s kids prank me despite knowing I have a newborn – I asked their mum to help & her response left me stunned
A DISGRUNTLED mum shared how her neighbour’s were making parenting a newborn even more difficult.
The homeowner explained the dispute she had with the woman next door over a prank her son had pulled.
In her post on Mumsnet, the user shared how the kids in her area had been ding dong ditching her house.
“I live in a corner house beside a large green and approximatley twice a week, kids ring my door bell several times and run off,” she wrote.
The mum-of-three explained that the prank occurred so often that the electric buzzer on her gate had broken.
While the actions are difficult enough for her to deal with while minding her newborn, she added that the prank “upsets the middle child greatly.”
“It interrupts feeding my newborn and everything else a stay at home mum does for three small kids,” she said.
She explained that the children often look through her side window to see if anyone is home before ringing the bell.
“This evening, three boys came up my driveway and rang the bell approximately five times,” the poster said.
“They ran away laughing, I understand it’s just a funny prank to them.”
However, she was still fed up dealing with disturbance and having to console her young children over it.
“I recognised one of the boys who has done this before and walked around to his family home with my kids,” she wrote.
“I spoke to the mum, introduced myself, and respectfully requested that her child doesn’t do what he did again please.”
She described her attitude as “calm and friendly” while talking to the woman.
“Immediately the mother got very agressive, she said how dare I come to her home like this,” the Mumsnet user said.
According to her neighbour, she was busy working from home while hosting playdates for her kids and didn’t have time to deal with the issue.
“She said it was a circus that I’d brought my kids,” the poster explained.
The Top Five Reasons Neighbours Squabble
One study by Compare the Market revealed the top reason British neighbour's argue
- Broken fences – top of the board was broken fences and whose responsibility it was to fix it
- Parking: one of the leading drivers of neighbour disputes, with 54.1 per cent of people having issues with people parking in front of their house, parking bay or driveway
- Trees – complaints about a neighbour’s tree cracking your garden path was also common with nearly half of participants finding it frustrating
- Bin wars – outdoor bin etiquette continues to ignite the most furious debates between neighbours
- Nosy Neighbours – some people have their eyes and ears at the ready to have a peek causing problems for others
Since the woman was “clearly offended,” the young mum left, describing how she was “totally taken aback by her aggression.”
She added that the boy even admitted to the wrongdoing but his mum didn’t make any promises that it would stop.
“I’m now really beginning to hate my house as I feel so exposed,” she wrote.
“I know they are only kids but it’s not nice to see them coming up the driveway.
“It seems like a minor issue, I know, but I don’t like it happening.
“Apart from that I’m very happy at home with my children and getting out and about with them and my neighbours.
Mumsnet users shared their thoughts on the situation in the comments section.
“If it happens again I would open your door and yell at them that you’ve got them on camera and you’re calling the police,” wrote one reader.
“If it continues after that, report to police. Yes, it’s a silly prank but very annoying and they’ve been told to stop.”
“That’s what police community service officers were invented for. Speak to your local one,” suggested another person.
“I really think you should be involving the police, I really hope you get it sorted,” commented a third Mumsnet user.
Others advised the homeowner to take matters into her own hands.
One person recommended investing in “strategically spaced automatic sprinklers.”
“Get a water gun [and] squirt the little s**ts every time they do it out of an open window, they will soon stop,” wrote another reader.