WWYD - Neighbor's Kids

Dogdragoness

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#62
Saw this meme on facebook. Couldn't help but think it was fitting.



I guess I'm just stuck on the fact that we have had to talk to them more than once. Call me crazy, but it's just common decency to respect other people's wishes, especially when they are very much so within the realm of reasonable.
LMBO I love grumpy cat! I really love the one that says "like a good neighbor ... STAY OVER THERE." xD

I'm sorry but I was raised that if something went over someone else's fence you went & knocked on their door & ASKED to get it, I actually see an epidemic of kids needing barrier control, I lost count how many kids I had to get on for crossing the fence into the walk way where the horses come out of the saddling paddock to get toys & whatnot (they have those games all over the place where you can win toys) a couple of times they tried it when the horses were coming!!!

So no ... It would be electric tape for me, though even I hsve to admit that barbed wire is a little excessive to use against kids.
 

GoingNowhere

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#63
A motion detector sprinkler set in the vicinity of the fence line?

A neighbor of mine had one to keep the rodents out of her garden and while I was petsitting, I went out to water her plants and ended up getting attacked by the sprinkler! I came back drenched. :p

I would've said the basket on the fence and buying them a pack of baseballs, but if you really don't think the nice guy approach will work, a sprinkler seems a lot less intense than barbed wire, but still an aversion.
 
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#64
I'm sorry but I was raised that if something went over someone else's fence you went & knocked on their door & ASKED to get it, I actually see an epidemic of kids needing barrier control, I lost count how many kids I had to get on for crossing the fence into the walk way where the horses come out of the saddling paddock to get toys & whatnot (they have those games all over the place where you can win toys) a couple of times they tried it when the horses were coming!!!
.
Honestly, I can pretty much guarantee this is an area where kids are not getting "worse". It used to be pretty much kids ran around and played outside throughout the neighborhood and through yards pretty much all the time. With more and more control, scheduled activity, tv/games, etc this is getting lower.

Kids running around unsupervised and being kids has change a lot in the last generation or two...Now you have people calling and reporting 7 and 8 year olds walking around the block without a parent where several generations ago that was the norm.
 

Dogdragoness

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#65
It's not the small kids I worry about its more the teenagers I worry about @_@.

I think people report it because they are worried more for the kids safety then the kid doing anything bad or something.

Yes at my house growing up we didn't even have cable, I think I had like ... 6 channels, 7 if you count the one that came in when the wind was blowing the antenna just right xD. But if one of my toys went I forge neighbors yard I always would go tell my mom & we would go over there together (when I was smaller) & politely ask for it back, usually they were very obliging & thankful we were thoughtful enough to ask.
 

noludoru

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#66
Eh, I grew up in the country and in the horse fence we had both barbed wire and hot wire. I came into contact with both plenty of times and somehow survived....
This. Hot tape zings but isn't a big deal. I could get through it with no problem if I wanted to. Barbed wire is unlikely to actually hurt you if you know where it is.

Now, running through a tangle of it in the middle of the woods is really unpleasant. :eek: But I've yet to climb more than a couple fences with it on them - and while I never hurt myself, if I had, it would have been my own **** fault. Now it's enough of a visual deterrent to keep me out.

Yeah, I don't see hot wire as harmful. Barbed wire isn't appropriate. If you don't know it's there and take care to avoid it, it can really maim skin and ruin clothes. If you do know it's there, it's easy to avoid and not much of a deterrent. Plus it rusts, and that becomes a health hazard if it punctures skin.

But hot wire? I know TONS of people who use it on urban fences because their dogs climb fences, or cats come in the yard and either make messes or put themselves at risk of being killed by prey driven dogs, or to protect their urban hens from being killed by marauding raccoons. And yes, even to deter fence hopping neighbors. I don't see it as cruel to put one up, especially if kids get a heads up that it's there. If the kids decide to hop the fence anyway, well, they were warned.

I used to climb cattle fences all the time as a kid. They were combo barbed wire and hot wire. Barbed wire is totally easy to avoid. Hot wire nails you sometimes. It's annoying and stings, but doesn't even leave a welt. That's even if you do something stupid and land in the watering trough with your wet head touching the wire. :eek:

I would not approach them with ANY concern about the kids/dogs causing injury to each other. That's practically admitting that your dog has the potential to hurt a child. If something horrible DID happen, that can totally be used against you in court.

Personally I'd stick with things along the lines of, "The fence is old and not made to be climbed on. I'm afraid you kids might fall, or break a board and the dogs would get loose and run over by a car," etc.
Such good advice I wanted it on this page.

It was pretty much-"if you touch it, it'll hurt" kind of deal.

I don't see it a specifically to hurt someone, it's specifically to keep people from trespassing.
It is not at all uncommon when you get out of town in this area to see barbed wire fences up with the intent of keeping people off the property. Barbed wire is a visible deterrent-shooting someone with a BB gun is a very different thing, IMHO.
I was going to type this but you beat me to it. It's cause = effect. Barbed wire is a GREAT visual deterrent. So is hot tape if the kids know what it is. If they're so stupid that they ignore your request and ignore your visual deterrents they will learn from a zing from a bit of hot tape.
 

puppydog

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#68
I'm sorry, its Darwinism. Touch a huge, 8 wire high, electric fence with danger signs all over you are clearly stupid. Mine doesn't sting. Mine maims.
 

Romy

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#69
I'm sorry, its Darwinism. Touch a huge, 8 wire high, electric fence with danger signs all over you are clearly stupid. Mine doesn't sting. Mine maims.
Your description makes me picture the T-rex fence enclosure from Jurassic Park. :p With the experiences you've had, you're pretty well justified in whatever makes you feel safe.
 

puppydog

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#70
Your description makes me picture the T-rex fence enclosure from Jurassic Park. :p With the experiences you've had, you're pretty well justified in whatever makes you feel safe.
Pretty close actually! LOL

Our complex put it up. We had a small one that has been upgraded. Strangely enough, not one incident since the installation. :rofl1:
 

Dogdragoness

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#71
The reason I said not to personally warn the kids (though I think putting "danger electric fence" & "no tresspassing" or "private property" signs would be enough warning) because then they might. Figure out how to get around it & the whole effort would be in vain.

I also wouldn't use the tape, I would use just the run of the mill wire, just like the animals, I would want the kids not to know which wire was hot, then they might leave the whole fence alone after hitting it once.
 

*blackrose

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#72
I guess for me, I don't like people being "on my property". I grew up in the country with no close neighbors...we would let our one close neighbor use our field to walk their pigs for 4H, but that was about the extent of people just helping themselves to our land. When we lived in the suburbs when I was very young, my mom said that neighbor kids would not only just pop in and out of the yard, if the garage door was left open and we were outside it was an open invitation for other kids to come over and help themselves to our toys. I mean, REALLY?

If I ever live in town, I would NOT be okay with any child coming into my fenced yard. And I would not be above putting hot wire around the fence and saying it was "for the dogs". Not to hurt the kids, or make them afraid of me...but as a deterrent. And I would certainly reward them coming and asking me for the toys.

That may also be because I grew up to respect fences. If there is fence, it means DO NOT ENTER. If you were stupid enough to enter, there was typically barbed wire, electric fencing that was set to keep cattle off (a nice kick in the pants), or angry livestock/dogs. A fence is a barrier, and you don't cross it without explicit permission from the owner of said fence.
 

~Jessie~

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#73
If they're 8-13 years old IMO they're young enough to be kind of dumb about things still. They're probably just thinking it's much easier/quicker/less bothersome for them to just jump the fence and grab their ball. Probably not meaning any harm by it.
This is what I'm thinking as well. They probably just think that it's not harming anyone to just quickly climb over and retrieve their balls.

Even though you said you've already talked to the children and grandparents, I'd still try to get a "fresh" start before making any changes to the fence. Express your concerns about how you don't want them in your fence, assure them you will return the balls, etc, etc.

Like I said earlier, I wouldn't want children inside my fence either. I just don't like the idea of putting maiming/hurting devices on my fence to keep out baseball playing kids :eek:
 

CaliTerp07

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#74
We hit a lot of balls and threw a bunch of frisbees over fences as kids. (That's what happens when you have a postage stamp California sized lot). If it was over the fence, it was gone. My parents would have beat my butt had they seen me climbing over fences into the neighbor's yard.

Can you put up a sign on the fence that says "Do not climb, please come knock" just as a last ditch effort to remind them before you go purchase/install some kind of deterrent?
 
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#75
BBs have the potential to cause quite a bit more damage. Plus, you have to actually see the kid to shoot him... much less malicious to say "HEY IM LEAVING THIS ELECTRIC TAPE ALONG MY SIDE OF THE FENCE, IF YOU HOP IT YOU'LL GET SHOCKED" than "Hey, I see you there so I'm going to shoot you."
Aheh. The only difference is that one is passive and one is active. In either case you are using a painful (to varying degrees) deterrent.

BBs don't really hurt IME. I have two older brothers and got nailed with my more than my fair share of BBs as a kid. We also had a BB gun shooter in my neighborhood when I was a kid and in all honestly it made a lot of kids MORE likely to cut through his yard... it was like a challenge, running a gauntlet -- could they make it through without getting nailed?

I don't think there's any way that shooting kids with a BB gun would fly in this day and age, though. I'm not even sure the hot tape or barbed wire would fly in some areas.
 
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#76
I'm a little surprised by the number of people that are really bothered by kids on their property. I live in a rural area of the state. My neighbors hike on our acreage and there are probably others that I don't know about. I don't remember them asking either. Kids cross into my property while playing too. I don't have a fence and fences aren't commonplace here.
 

xpaeanx

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#77
Meh, to me there is a huge difference between acre and acreage. If I own 1 acre and it's my backyard, no I don't want other people or other animals in it. If I own 10 acreas and someone crosses over the back corner I wouldn't be too bothered. I would still be bothered though if they walked around the area right up close to the house that was obviously the "yard." It really all depends on how close to my house and my "personal space" they are.

So living in a suburb/city setting there isn't really enough space and no, I wouldn't want them in my yard.
 

Dogdragoness

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#78
I'm a little surprised by the number of people that are really bothered by kids on their property. I live in a rural area of the state. My neighbors hike on our acreage and there are probably others that I don't know about. I don't remember them asking either. Kids cross into my property while playing too. I don't have a fence and fences aren't commonplace here.
Because you don't live in a state that borders a country controlled by vicious drug cartels. Trust me in this day & age & with all the development due to them finding a huge oil vein out this way, which as expected brings more people out this way, which also means more crime.

We had to lock our front gate we have signs posted all over that say "no trespassing". Technically I don't have to verbally war people but I have before, I have ran marauding teenagers off my land before & I would do it again, again you have to understand that oftentimes I am by myself out here in the middle of nowhere where there is no fire/rescue & no police.
 

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