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So what do you suggest your neighbors should do? ...
Yeap, it's called "overpopulation" in the context of an environment's "carrying capacity". We're all outta luck.
In America pretty much everyone grows up with this notion that EVERYONE should have their own "little castle", with lots of space inside, and preferably outside too; so they can withdraw in their own sufficiently large private spaces and not really have to deal with...gasp...other fellow humans.
Everyone obviously cannot have that; so our houses and driveways become closer, our yards smaller, and any public spaces where people might be able to just stroll, window watch, congregate, sit on the sidewalk at a coffee shop and communicate with one another...well...inexistent. While house lots become closer, neighbors become more alienated from each other, less tolerant and subconsciously resentful of each other's existence on Earth.
Some book recs for you: "Last child in the woods" by Richard Louv and "Bottleneck: humanity's impending impasse" by William Catton.
Those should help you make sense of what's REALLY going on.
I think the problem is more that people simply do not respect each other's belongings or space whether it is a large space or small. I personally feel people are entitled to their own space. In my case, I am wondering if you read my whole post. We live on acre lots, that is not exactly on top of each other. I commented on that the fact that the kids seem to take over the cul de sac and my driveway when they have an acre in their own backyard to roam. As far as what I think the neighbors should do...hmm...maybe realize they share the cul de sac with two other families? Or maybe they could think about how a neighbor would prefer to back out of their driveway without moving bikes and other toys left in the way? Or decreasing my snow load removal because the county avoids our cul de sac like the plague so their children can have a snow hill when it is not permitted?
I don't know if its a situation of being resentful of other's existence as I had mentioned I do like kids but I think its more of a situation where people need to realize, there are other people in existence. If parents do not teach their children to respect others property or space then the problems start. People then go to the extremes like "well we just band kids from doing this or that." When I was a kid, neighbors had no problem telling each other's kids to stop doing something. It takes a village sort of mentality but now you can't say anything to anyone's child. Heck, you might be lucky if you can reason with a parent.
Umm..thanks for the book recommendations but again not sure why you suggested them to me. I would think my neighbor children would learn more about nature running around their acre lot filled with trees and flowers verses the hot asphalt circle in the front of the house.
1. "Move to an area that is child-friendly."
- Those child-friendly amenities make places cost more, some families cannot afford that, sometimes cheap places with not a lot of space is what some people can afford. Trust me I would know. I didn't live in a house till I was 14 years old, I lived in apartments and townhomes and those common areas and parking lots were really the ONLY places. Granted I grew up in the 90's and people didn't suck as much back then we would wait till the "club house" of the apartment closed down and all the people who worked in the office left and we would bring out our ramps and would ride bikes and everything.
2. "Children should go play somewhere else."
- These kids probably have parents that have to work to pay for what they have and probably don't have time to shuffle their kids around all day or after school and playing outside is what options is there for those kids. They are smaller kids and cannot drive themselves and at that age they aren't going to choose to not play.
I have lived in places that were kid friendly, I have lived in places that were not kid friendly. Luckily I was in my teen years when I lived in the non-friendly kid places.
I remember being about 13 and 14 and climbing trees with my friends, an old woman came storming out of her house yelling at us, I was upside down hanging from my legs as she bickered that if I fell and broke my arm they whole apartment community (which was geared for older people) would all have to chip in a pay my medical bills, I replied, "I have something called health insurance." and looked away and continued playing, she eventually huffed back into her house when she knew what she was saying falling on deaf ears. My mom knew if I broke my arm that it was my own doing and that my health insurance would pay for it. Thankfully we moved out after 9 months of hell.
What strikes me as sad in these posts is that there is apparently no relationship between neighbors. Is it really so hard to go next door and share your concerns about the snow hill, etc?
AGAIN... listen to yourselves. Can you possibly sound any older and more bitter? Just because YOU can't get out and do anything active, don't penalize or belittle the children.
I am LOL (that is "LAUGHING OUT LOUD" for you old folks) at how bitter you are. Let the children play and have fun. Maybe you could actually get out there and HAVE SOME FUN with them. Just a thought.
You can sit around and b**ch all day about the younger generation... OR... get out there and try to have some influence on them.
I don't live in Florida. I'm not old. And I -do- get out, and ride my bike, and enjoy watching kids play on swings in the park down the street. I now live in a neighborhood of free-standing houses. If the next door neighbor's parents don't mind their children digging up their front lawn and turning their driveway into a skate park, then that's fine by me. I have nothing to care about; they're not doing it on my property, and I'm not responsible for paying to have the landscaper come and fix whatever their kids ruin.
In a condo complex, those parents do *not* own the yard. It is owned jointly by everyone who owns a condo in the complex. The kids do NOT have the right to dig up the yard, or turn the driveway into a skate park, because it does not belong to them, OR exclusively to their parents. And it is the entire association of homeowners who live in the complex, who are responsible for paying to have it fixed.
Maybe it works differently in trailer parks. But in upscale condo complexes in Connecticut, they have rules for a reason. And when people come in with no intention of following (or even reading) the rules, then everyone suffers as a result.
"Common" suggests, well, common, right? And the children are residents, right? So why shouldn't they have access to common areas the same as every other common person in the development?
Most kids don't "wreak havoc," and if they do, then presumably steps can be taken to address that, same as if an older person were doing things that were harmful or destructive. But kids playing tag or riding their bikes? That sounds perfectly reasonable.
Because the common areas are not designed in a way that can support the safety of kids riding their bikes. These are parking lots, which spider off a main 2-way street that has no sidewalks. The other side of these parking lots end abruptly with trees, and at the top of the hill is someone else's private home and is fenced.
As to txtqueen who says the kid-friendly place is expensive, no, it isn't. It was built to be affordable housing for families. When we bought in the area, the average price of our complex was around $160,000. The average price of the condos in the kid-friendly complex was around $120,000.
We moved there when I was 30, it wasn't for "older" adults. It was just not designed for children. It had been planned for seniors but they never got approval and instead of having to rebuild to accommodate children (which is a zoning ordinance in the town it was in), they just didn't advertise it as a kid-friendly place. Most of the people who lived there were in their mid-20's. In the 1980's they would've been called yuppies - young upwardly mobile people who hadn't started their families yet and wanted to live in a place that would give them a return on the investment when they moved out, instead of just renting an apartment.
They can enjoy their home as long as they don't encroach on everyone else. Kids can get hurt in their own home without exposing the association and homeowners to legal liability. Condos, apartments and townhomes are NOT places where kids should be given free rein... move them to a house with a yard.
I live in a condo, and my former next-door neighbors had 5, FIVE, kids in a 2 bedroom unit. FIVE! DID YOU HEAR ME??? FIVE!!!! Was NOT pleasant listening to them bouncing a basketball against my exterior walls. Wasn't fun finding their toys and other crap in MY patio. Wasn't fun having them constantly knocking on my door asking me to retrieve said toys. Oh yes, wasn't fun finding their dog in my living room when I got home from work (he was small, and squeezed under the fence and came in thru the dog door to play with my dog). But at least I liked the dog.
I finally remedied the basketball thing by not returning it to them. Told them I threw it out, since it wasn't mine. And that I would continue to do that with the rest of their toys. And as for the dog... well, since he was never contained in any form or fashion, the animal control picked him up. I went and adopted him, brought him home, and refused to return the dog to them. Yup, kids got upset, lost their ball, toys, AND THEIR DOG.
Lucky for the dog I liked him. He was a lot less trouble than those kids.
You took their dog??? So their dog lived next door and they couldn't play with him??? Holy crap.
The article says that the rule is written with the words "common grounds." There's grass in that picture too. All of the grass is "common grounds" too.
I can't believe it's possible for someone could be so heartless and nasty. What a terrible thing to do to anyone.
I didn't do anything "to" anyone. That was their own fault. As I said in a previous answer, it's not like they were going to get the dog out. Tough Moderator cut: language for them.
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 04-02-2011 at 08:17 PM..
Reason: Please use appropriate language
Go figure: children can scatter some toys in front of the house! And they can bounce a ball on a wall! I'll take that sound over tomb-level silence any second.
Pray tell, and what kind of disaster could happen if you found one of those toys in front of YOUR house or on YOUR patio??...or anywhere in YOUR sacred private existence?!!!
Gee, people - no wonder you guys die lonely, in desolate, cold nursing homes, after you adopt such "I-dare-anyone-disturb-me-from-now-on!!" attitudes as soon as you whisk your own kids out the door at the age of 18. Hope the image of a picture perfect patio will keep you warm in those bi*chy old days...or perhaps, by that time, you will have frozen completely to the point where you're not going to care either way.
Way to go.
Oh, quit the drama. I didn't say anything about toys strewn about my front yard. I don't have a front yard. I said I live in a condo. Perhaps you have trouble with comprehension. Did you ride the short bus to school? You're suggesting that I just tolerate having my property look like crap with all the crap they THREW into my patio? I don't have a yard, nut. And a basketball against a wall outside MY F'N FRONT DOOR is something that does not have to be tolerated.
And yes, a picture perfect patio will keep me warm in my b*tchy old day. I expect to not get hit by some little ankle bite throwing crap over my fence. Glad the kids are gone.
You took their dog??? So their dog lived next door and they couldn't play with him??? Holy crap.
Lots of failure to comprehend on this board.
I didn't take the dog. I formally adopted him from the POUND a week after he was picked up BY the pound. And why was picked up, because he was running loose ALL THE TIME.
Now think about it people. I couldn't have adopted him until he was available to the PUBLIC. Meaning the parents never went to get him out. All I did was spare the dog from being put down. I kept him all of 2 months and I re-homed him, which was my intent in the first place.
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So their dog lived next door and they couldn't play with him??? Holy crap.
