Dear Neighbors
Dear Neighbors,
I have just enough time and energy to entertain, supervise, teach, and discipline my two children. I absolutely do not want to be responsible for yours as well.
If your kids are bored, figure out something to occupy their minds. Don't just send them out into the neighborhood to roam from house to house looking for somebody to play with.
It also unnerves me greatly that you haven't taught them to respect other people's property. When I see your kids in my garage rummaging through my stuff and acting like what's mine is theirs, well, I just have to think you forgot to teach them a really important life lesson.
You see, I don't want to watch your kids. I don't want to lecture them, scold them, tell jokes to them, take them to the park, or anything else beyond simply being a friendly neighbor.
Sorry, but I refuse to play babysitter to every kid on the block. Unless you want to pay me by the hour... Maybe then we can work something out.
I have just enough time and energy to entertain, supervise, teach, and discipline my two children. I absolutely do not want to be responsible for yours as well.
If your kids are bored, figure out something to occupy their minds. Don't just send them out into the neighborhood to roam from house to house looking for somebody to play with.
It also unnerves me greatly that you haven't taught them to respect other people's property. When I see your kids in my garage rummaging through my stuff and acting like what's mine is theirs, well, I just have to think you forgot to teach them a really important life lesson.
You see, I don't want to watch your kids. I don't want to lecture them, scold them, tell jokes to them, take them to the park, or anything else beyond simply being a friendly neighbor.
Sorry, but I refuse to play babysitter to every kid on the block. Unless you want to pay me by the hour... Maybe then we can work something out.
Permalink posted by Idaho Dad at 1:01 AM
11 Comments:
Phil,
I completely sympathize. I had a little "situation" at Starbucks yesterday involving misbehaved kids. When will someone (parents) pick up the clue phone and realize something? Ugh.
Hang in there, man. I feel for ya. One day those little shits are gonna get what's coming to them. (kidding!) (okay, maybe only half) ;)
We're right at the culdesac, so we often end up with every kid in the 'hood hanging out in the circle in front of our house. Some come from the other end of the block and I don't even know who their parents are. I don't really mind except there's this one boy who is always throwing balls at our house and calling people Stupid-Heads and wanting to use our bathroom. There's a little old lady next door who comes out and does the yelling and lecturing ... She's great.
Awesome letter...now maybe you could pass along your blog address to all neighbors of all people out there...I don't mind the kids coming to play (I am BLESSED with GREAT NEIGHBORS!!!)...but there are a few who TAKE ADVANTAGE of the situation...I will admit to completely cutting myself off from the family (very casually) and that situation has been cured...???
:) love this post lol and with my job, people presume that I DONT MIND all there kids coming here to hang out......... well, maties of me lads Im fine with, no problems....... but geeeeez not everyone that wants FREE daycare :)
licking and sticking your post and pinning it on me front door lol
x
I completely understand where you're coming from! I've been tempted to go knock on a few doors and ask for my paycheck, but I haven't been pushed quite that far....yet
I have not had to deal with this as of yet. We've got some older kids in the neighborhood (like 12ish, I think) but they just kind of run around doing their own thing. I have a feeling a few years back or so they were probably left to their own devices and were looking for neighbors to babysit them. I still have yet to meet any of their parents!
Wait a minute. Do my neighbors have a house up there, too? They never looked live 'vacation home people' to me.
You beat me to the punch on writing this letter!
We have a neighbor next door that is five and isn't that friendly, so she tries to play with our daughter because no one else really plays with her.
Thursday evening I was cutting my grass, the wife and children were inside, and as I finish I walk in to our garage to find the little girl from next door looking through our fridge in the garage, drinking one of our juice boxes.
Her parents never watch her and she's five, I don't get it at all. I always send her home and tell her she can't hang out in our yard, because I can't be responsible for you. Of course she has no clue.
UGH!
At least I'm not alone in my thinking on this topic.
I told my kids they could only take stuff from your garage if it wasn't nailed down.
That's okay, right?
Whit, as long as they're pulling stuff from the "To Give Away At The Next Garage Sale Because I'm Too Lazy To Haul It To The Dump" pile, then I'm okay with it!
Oh wow, gotta share this letter with my sister. She and I were commiserating just this past weekend over this issue. Her current problem involves a neighbor lady watching out her window for when my sister takes her kids out to play. Once my sis is out with my nieces, the neighbor lady brings her kids over to play and then says, "Hey, I'm just going to go down the street to talk to Mary Sue while the kids keep playing."
Last week, I watched a child of a "friend" recently for the first and last time as she hasn't taken the time to teach him respect for authority or for property of others.
I could tell more stories.
Emily
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