*gets up on soapbox*
So…all of the kids in the neighborhood line up for the school bus every morning in front of my house.
Yes, 7:10 am, and about 10 kids are in my yard screaming, hollering, throwing things against my house, leaving garbage, talking non-stop and driving me crazy!
I don’t have kids…
This is a choice we’ve made for a reason. And one of those reasons is to not deal with screaming yelling children every morning (not seriously, but it’s a perk).
Its getting on my nerves a little bit.
Okay, if I’m being honest…its on my last nerve. It’s a good thing the end of the school year is just around the corner. I’ve gone out there and yelled at them a couple times. Like that crotchety old lady with her fist raised: “You kids get off my lawn!”
But it doesn’t make a bit of difference.
I understand why they have to line up there…We have a street lamp and a fire hydrant in our yard which means that the spot in front of them are always clear for the bus to pull in…and technically it’s “city” property. But what if something were to happen? Who is liable legally? Whose to say those kid’s parents wouldn’t come back and sue us for something that happened while we were innocently inside our house going crazy from the screaming. I am not responsible to go out there and watch everyone else’s children every morning! That’s just crazy talk!
Our neighbor is just as concerned. The kids have ended up sitting on her front porch on her bench waiting for the bus. I’m just glad we don’t have any seating out there, or they might have all made themselves home on my front walk too. We have been steaming silently about it for awhile, but saw no way to change it. Our neighbor put in a complaint to the school bus garage and made a bit of a stink. Chris went down there and talked to them too… But alas, nothing can be change. All they can do is send out letters to the parents stating that they must be present while their child(ren) is waiting for the bus if they are under a certain age. Yeah, that’s going to happen…
And the city said that we need to up our homeowners insurance to cover ourselves in case anything ever happened on our property (that’s not really our property if everyone else’s kids get to wait there!). And who is going to pay for that, I might ask? Huh? I don’t have extra money for that!
I wish these types of things had been apparent when we bought our home. I wish we’d thought of how the neighborhood would develop and how many kids would end up running up and down the street and screaming well into the night. I wish we had some extra funds floating around to put up a big fence to keep everyone out!
Oh yeah…I’m totally a grumpy old lady neighbor right now.
*gets down off soapbox*
“Blog Every Day in May” challenge. Day 22: Rant about something. Get up on your soapbox and tell us how you really feel.
That seems absolutely crazy that they're putting that on you. When I was younger they had us wait at someone with kid's house, and the parents took turns watching. And we all had to put our back packs in a line as we got there, and we were allowed to play, but not allowed to go on grass. I'm completely willing to go out there and babysit them every morning. I can just invoice the parents later, right?;)
ReplyDeleteI tried to comment from my phone and not sure if it went through, so if there's duplicates, please disregard! What I said was basically that I would be extremely annoyed by this. We also have chosen not to have kids...which means i don't want everyone ELSE's kids hanging out in my yard either, especially if they're disrespectful of my property and loud. Maybe if you guys continue to complain, the city (or whoever is in charge) will finally get tired of you and change the bus stop. LOL Or here's an idea...what if you put up a large "Beware of Dog" sign on your garage door for awhile?!? ;)
ReplyDeleteYep, that would annoy me royally too. I like Heather's dog idea haha!
ReplyDeleteYou should go out there with a Halloween mask and freak them out so they don't come back. Okay maybe not. That might be terrifying and cause emotional scars. But seriously. That would be annoying, and how are you supposed to know things like that when you buy a house? Maybe you should try to befriend them with cupcakes and donuts and then see if they'll like you enough to be quiet.
ReplyDeleteOh, hell no! I would be out of my mind. I teach fifth grade and (usually) enjoy kids and can put up with their ruckus but that wouldn't fly with me. I don't like seeing or hearing the shenanigans before and after school and on weekends so if I were and parents weren't taking responsibility, I would be pulling out all stops.. parents, school bus company, school, city, police. Nothing irritates me more than when parents don't discipline their children or set certain standards for them when they are in public. Hoping the end of the school year comes quick for you!
ReplyDeleteDo you have a homeowner's association? If so, it might help to go to the HOA. In my neighborhood, the HOA regularly communicates (nicely) about appropriate behavior for kids in the neighborhood. Another idea - talk to (relentlessly) your local school board member. If your area is like mine, you have a board member (some places call them trustees) who represents you (you elect them). Finally, you can also talk to the principal and central office staff. Insist that the stop be moved. If all that doesn't work, I'd go with the cupcakes solution :-) Make the minis your friends.
ReplyDeleteThis would definitely be annoying! We have little kids who run around our street but their parents are always with them. How long have you lived there? Do you know any of the parents well enough to talk about it with them? I guess that's what I would do, but only if we were friends, otherwise it could get awkward. -S
ReplyDelete