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I feel your pain, but also see the fear/safety issue - we just moved out of a townhouse neighborhood where children (always supervised!) played in the street, and I always had to creep home at 2mph once I hit our street for fear of killing a toddler. The parents had gone so far as to get "Caution: Children playing!" signs that they would put up every evening - I get where they're coming from, but this was the ONLY road to my home, and they were ALWAYS there from around 5pm-7pm, just when everyone else was coming home from work. I would get death glares from the parents for daring to drive home - even as I went much slower than their kids on bicycles!
That to say, it may be 50/50 on this one. If it truly is not allowed as evidenced by written covenants, it seems you may be out of luck. If it is kind of a fuzzy rule, I'd recommend talking to neighbors about their concerns and obviously as you've said, never ever ever taking your eyes off the kids even for a moment. The terror of a child suddenly appearing between cars is hard to describe - help your neighbors not have a heart attack!
Good Lord.
It is one thing for teenagers to skateboard on the street or play a little street ball. Presumably, they can keep an eye out for traffic and have enough sense not to dash out in front of cars.
But to have toddlers wandering about while their parents glare at drivers for using the street!
I've never heard of such a thing.
I'm not from around here. Is this a common practice? Might this why the original poster believes it is unfair to prohibit his little ones from playing in the street?
Of course toddlers need constant supervision. But letters like this make me wonder how all my siblings (5) and literally dozens of cousins and friends survived playing on the streets and in the woods from sunup to sundown from about the age of 4 on up. The only rule was, "Come home when the street lights come on." We lived in the city, too.
There were no leash laws -- our first two dogs did not survive. The third did -- for 14 years -- and had quite a complex independent life. (And leash laws, of course, are absolutely necessary now.)
But now it's as if the HOAs here want leash laws for children.
Anybody who buys a house under the jurisdiction of an HOA is making a big mistake. You see why. These associations and their two-bit functionaries are basically midget-league fascists.
Regarding safety -- on a street with little or no traffic? Raleigh has become a city of sissies and helicopter adults, not oaks. How did earlier generations of kids survive playing stickball in streets and alleys? You can see the same mentality at work when it's time to decide whether or not to close the Wake County public schools at the first prediction of a snowflake, or "locking down" schools when a crime is committed five miles away. If a meteor hit your kid, it could be tragic, so you'd better take every precaution!
Glad you live here yet???
I lived in a small town and walked to kindergarten, by myself. I was 5 years old. Would I allow any 5 year old to walk anywhere by themselves in today's world? NO. Too many cars, too many perverts, etc., etc., etc. The world has changed.
I agree it is ridiculous. Is your question whether they are within their rights though? That I don't know, I would imagine it is something they could easily get away with since it is more than likely considered their property
I also grew up playing in the street all day long with no supervision. KNow what the difference was? When parents drove down our street, they did it at a sedate 10 - 15 mph (one guy drove an old truck and drove slow enough we could hop on while he was moving and get a ride) and they weren't texting/GPSing/bluetoothing/watching youtube on their smartphone while they drove. When a guy down the street got a motorcycle and began racing it up and down the road, our next door neighbor went out and stood in the road and told him to cut the ****....and he did.
It was a different, slower paced world back in those days....but people also had common sense and respect for others and could handle it when called out on their crap behavior by the neighbors.
Even if there are no HOA written covenants against children playing in the street, most of us would agree boys 2 and 4 should not be doing it unless adult is right there with them the entire time. We all know how quickly a little one can get away from us and get in trouble. I'm glad OP's sons were not hurt. I would suggest if there are no HOA covenants against it a parent station themselves right there with them, tell them not to ever get close to any car and the parents should take the child with him or her even if it is only seconds out of their sight.
Of course toddlers need constant supervision. But letters like this make me wonder how all my siblings (5) and literally dozens of cousins and friends survived playing on the streets and in the woods from sunup to sundown from about the age of 4 on up. The only rule was, "Come home when the street lights come on." We lived in the city, too.
There were no leash laws -- our first two dogs did not survive. The third did -- for 14 years -- and had quite a complex independent life. (And leash laws, of course, are absolutely necessary now.)
But now it's as if the HOAs here want leash laws for children.
Generally speaking I agree with this, but not in a town home community. There are just too many people and cars too close together.
I agree it is ridiculous. Is your question whether they are within their rights though? That I don't know, I would imagine it is something they could easily get away with since it is more than likely considered their property
The street is likely considered HOA common property and thus subject to HOA usage rules.
Generally speaking I agree with this, but not in a town home community. There are just too many people and cars too close together.
This.
It's one thing in a neighborhood, where kids might dash into the street for a stray ball but also have yards to fall back on. In a townhouse community where there is basically NO greenspace and the children use the street as their one and only playground...well, it's like driving a car through a playground.
I too grew up playing outside, sometimes in close quarters on a military base. I don't think the children should be locked indoors, and on a dead-end street there may certainly be more leniency than a through-way. But boundaries are necessary - children should never be given the opportunity to dart out into the street from between cars, and ideally if this is a dead end road, Mom or Dad is supervising from the top of the street so when any cars come heading that way She or He can shepherd the children to safety until they are old enough to have the sense to do it themselves.
If it was always prohitibited your landlord should be the one feeling bad about renting to family members with little children and not letting them know his little relatives would be captive indoors while around home.
Who is watching you so closely they know just where your kids went and just where you wife was?
Too weird.
So did you hear from the president. Or is it a situation of a neighbor saying officiously 'the president has been told'. Maybe the president would tell you....oh, that old nosey body is always complaining.
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