Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
1st time home buyer/ New neighbors and their kids
My husband and I recently bought our first house and we are moving in tomorrow. We have been doing some work on the house the last week and we have noticed that our neighbors kid's have been playing and running around in our yard and today we noticed that they were play with their basketball around our cars. Then while we were working on a few last minute things today, the kids kept coming and ringing our doorbell and running away. We are not quite sure how to handle this. We don't want to be the mean new neighbors but at the same time, we want to feel comfortable in our new house with out being hassled by the kids. What would you do? We know that kids will be kids, and because of that we don't want to set a situation where the kids in the neighborhood will start playing more pranks on us. We would like any and all advice.
Thanks!
Re: 1st time home buyer/ New neighbors and their kids
I don't have much advice except for maybe give it a day or two and then talk with the parents??
I do want to wish you good luck though. . ya'll are the 'newbies' on the block, but that's still uncool. Congrats on your new home though!!
We had a problem with kids in our neighborhood ringing the doorbell and then running. Fortunately we have a very friendly, but mouthy (barks a lot) dog. So he was going crazy when the doorbell rang. One time (the last time) after they rang the doorbell, I saw where they ran and were hiding. I brought my dog out on the front porch barking his head off holding him back by the collar and yelled to them asking if they would like for me to let him go! They haven't been back since! I was considering actually letting him run after them since I knew the worst he would do would be lick them to death. But I figured that would blow my cover!
I would wait until you are moved in and see if it doesn't calm down. I would also make a point to be outside while they are playing and introduce yourself and try to be their friend. I always figured that if they knew you were the "cool" neighbors then they wouldn't bother you. We did this with the kids that live within 2-3 houses of us and they have been awesome (even ring the bell to ask if our dog can come out to play!). If you can't win them over with kindness, I would try to become friends with their parents. And that way you can form a relationship with them before you have to complain about their kids!
I agree with this 100%. My guess is that maybe they had friends that lived in your house previously and in their mind, whoever moved in was going to be a "meanie". The best way to combat that is to be the opposite, and maybe bring some cookies with you when you introduce yourselves to them. Not that you have to pander, but how could anyone think a lady with cookies was mean?
depending on how old the kids are, I might talk to them myself. Luckily, our neighbors kids are very well behaved. The basketball thing would really make my BP rise...I would probably be visible so they know I'm watching them and hey, if they hit my car (damage or no damage), getting the parents involved then would surely scare them into not messing with you. The ring and runs would bother me too...especially with the baby at home with me, they'd be getting yelled at or spoken to no matter what age and I would also talk to their parents. It's just disrespectful.
I would let it slide in the beginning. Hopefully they'll get bored and leave you alone. If it continues, then do something about it. If they are older kids, I would think they are trying to intimidate you but if they are younger they are probably just playing around with the ring and runs. I know when we played pranks on the neighbors, we didn't really know or care who the neighbor was...it was just funny and stupid and probably a dare...so try not to take it personally.