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You say your tolerance is "running out" but frankly, I don't see that you are really showing any. You are offended by a child's remark about your dogs enough to TEXT your concerns to their parent? That is the epitomy of petty helicopter parenting, and children pick up bad habits from examples such as this.
In the long run your children will learn a multitude of coping/social skills and thrive by you butting out and allowing them to utilize logic on their own to deal with situations such as this.
People have a right to not like other people's pets. That doesn't make them mean horrible people...especially when you are talking about 5 year olds! Maybe they fear your dogs. Maybe they barked at them one time and they took that as a sign that the dogs don't like them. If they are outside with the children maybe they don't like them running all around them when they are trying to play. Remember your talking about 5 year olds!
Rather than sending a text to the parents you could have walked across the street and said that you were worried that maybe their children were fearful of your dogs and that you wanted them to be as comfortable as possible when they visited. Ask them if they have been around dogs much and if not maybe invite the parents and the children over to have a meet and greet with your dogs.
As for the parent not responding to your text, I wouldn't either. And as another poster stated your boys are 8 and 9. They need to learn to deal with people saying things they may not like. Just wait until they are in high school. If you don't provide them with the tools to deal with these issues now......they are going to have a VERY difficult time later on in life!
I would have grabbed a baseball bat or tire iron - something hard and easy to swing - and marched over to the twins' house and smashed the mother's car to pieces then thrown rocks through her windows. Uh huh, and then I would upload a virus to her cell phone that auto-downloads kiddie porn and then call the police on her. Yeah .... then I'd wave as CPS took the two 5 year-old girls away to a foster home where they will be wards of the state AND far away from my kids.
That'll show those anti-dog clowns who rules the roost in MY neighborhood, by golly!
Just imagine what I would do if anyone really -did- bully my kids!!
Heh heh, well, I'm sure you know I'm only kidding. I agree with most people who said that not liking your dogs just wasn't a serious enough "offense" to get involved over. Yeah, it's frustrating, you want to vent, you want to do -something- but seriously I didn't always like my friends' pets, either, especially the crotch-sniffers.
Just gotta live with the fact that not everyone is going to see your entire family, including pets, as the picture perfect model of how a family ought to be.
Just don't sweat it. In fact, you and the twins' mother ought to be together laughing about it because, as you know, kids can sometimes be brutally honest and say the darndest things. Right? Besides, being angry on behalf of your dogs - who obviously did not take the comments personally - is a thorough waste of time.
Good luck and remember that you're neighbors with these people - you're going to have to find a way to co-exist if you plan on staying in your house.
You know, I don't like my neighbors dogs and they don't like mine. Other people's dogs are pains in the butt. They bark when you are doing yard work, or first thing in the morning when they go out to potty. They dig under your fence and freak your dogs out. They sometimes get loose and run crazy around the neighborhood.
OP, you sound like a neighbor I wouldn't want. A five year old tells your older sons that they don't like your dogs, and you think it's important enough to text the kid's mom about? What? Why in the world would you do that? It was an innocent comment by a FIVE YEAR OLD CHILD. Are you so paranoid that you think all the neighbors will overhear a five year old child saying that no one likes your dogs and they will all band together to gossip behind your back about your dogs? I don't even get how this became an issue for you.
I have to vent. We live with meanness next door to us AND across the street. My 2 boys (8 and 9) are very active and (most of the time) sweet. Next door are 3 girls, 10yo and twins 8yo. Their mother is (to be nice) like a rattlesnake. Gossips, intolerant, I could go on. It is rubbing off on the younger twins, the older 10yo is (what I notice anyway) sweeter and might escape the bad attitude of her mom.
Across the street the parents seem nicer, and have twins as well, they are 5yo girls.
About 2 wks ago, the nicer mom from the younger twins across street, brought one of them over to apologize and return a 'taken' item. She had (unbeknownst to us) taken a seashell that was in a chalk box on our front porch when they were over here playing earlier that day.
Yesterday, my 9yo came in and said that these younger twins said something mean to him about our dogs. She (or both of them) said 'nobody likes your dogs'. Well, he wasn't uber upset or anything...and by now, is getting used to the meanness that is constantly doled out to them by ONE or another of these total of 5 mean girls. Well, really 4 if you don't include the older, sweet one from next door. I am getting sick of it and tolerance is running out.
SO, last night I texted the mom from across the street, with the younger twins who told son that nobody liked his dogs. I said this: (names are replaced) "Billy said Alexis & (or?) Belle told him that nobody likes our dogs. Yikes. It's not true ()......but good thing he wasn't upset."
That's all I wrote, I wasn't mean or nasty, just 'alerting' her......she did not reply. I am fine with that. I don't need one. But, the silence is telling.
For what it's worth, these girls are afraid of our dogs. So is the mom. The larger dog is sweeter than sweet and the smaller is a mere 4 pounds!! We just hatched out chickens from an incubator and they were also afraid of the newborn chicks which were the size of a golf ball.
Thankfully, we DO have nice neighbors across and over one house! Their (nice) kids LOVE our dogs!
I usually wouldn't have texted the mom this, but you know what? We all here, in some way, have had to endure such meanness from this neighbor next door (the parents AND the 8yo twins who have learned from parents) and now these 2 girls across the street are going to join in? #1 I would want to know so I could address the mean attitude and #2 I am sick and tired and to put it out there to the mom, does help me to release some frustration.
Thanks for listening. Support would be helpful.
I find thread so funny, you complain about your neighbor being a gossip, and then you come to the forum and do the same thing. Choose your battles wisely.
I hope you feel better after venting, but kids need to learn to brush off things that are irrelevant. You mentioned that the little girls were learning to be mean from their mother. What are your boys learning from you? My reply to my kids would have been something along the lines of, "It's unfortunate that "little girl" doesn't like our dogs. We know that they are nice."
I could see five-year-old kids getting this from being told by a parent to stay away from dogs. I wish more parents would do the same. Your dogs could be the sweetest dogs in the world, but that's not the point here.
Our neighbors have dogs. I don't like dogs but have learned to live with the situation. Another one of our neighbors hates kids(I've heard her say 'noisy brats') but she still smiles and greets us politely (my daughter and I).
That is what us adults do. We may not always agree on everything but we learn to tolerate and try to be polite.
Regarding the text to the nice neighbor about the dogs, you said:
"she did not reply. I am fine with that. I don't need one. But, the silence is telling."
Really, the silence isn't telling you anything because you were not asking for a response. Sometimes the best thing to do when someone says or writes something odd to you is just to smile and wave. No written or verbal response needed.
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)......but good thing he wasn't upset."
