Lately I have been thinking a lot about property lines and what they represent. My house and my yard belong to me and I feel a sense of protectiveness about them. And I am realizing just how territorial I really am.

I live in a neighborhood where the children on my street run ragged through every single yard on the block, front yard, back yard, driveways - everything. It doesn’t matter who owns which house, the children act as is the entire neighborhood is their own backyard. If you are sitting on your deck eating dinner it is not unusual for 10 young boys to come tearing through your yard screaming at the top of their lungs picking up dirt or sticks from your garden and hitting each other with them, rolling around on your driveway completely ignoring you while acting like they are on the playground, etc.

Let me preface this by saying that I like children and I am not a sour puss. But I cannot help being annoyed when several small boys use my yard as their own personal playground on a daily basis, throwing rocks at each other (that end up flying past my parked car), screaming, and doing other boy things. I was brought up to be respectful of other peoples’ property, from their shoes to their home. If I ever ran across the street and tried to play in a neighbor’s yard I would have been punished for weeks, it was just not something that was allowed. That is part of the reason I am having trouble understanding why the entire neighborhood thinks it is normal to play on other peoples’ property without permission. Is is really such an outdated thing, staying in your own yard or at least saying “Hey do you mind if we cut through?”

I have asked the kids to cool it once, politely, and they did. But I am torn about how to deal with this in the long term. Do I risk looking like a huge stick in the mud and ask their parents to please keep the partying in my yard to a minimum, do I grin and bear it, do I keep asking the kids to leave?

What would you do?

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