Off Leash in your own yard ...rude?

[kherbert05]

OP I think that all of you should take on the Crank Old Man Montra of - GET OFF MY LAWN. To the point of taking the kids to their parents and informing them to keep the kids off your property. If the kids are over the age of reason for your area - threaten to get the cops involved. Follow this up with complaints to landlord every time you chase them off the property. Hopefully the landlord won't let them renew.

[snowdragon]

I'm curious, do you know where the family moved from? I can't think of anywhere in the U.S where you'd be expected to let kids run around in your yard, but there are countries where neighborhoods are much more open and yards aren't really personal space.

   
 They moved in from the city of Buffalo, not another country.   I am not sure where they get the idea that rural/suburban folks are going to let their kids trespass and play whereever, whenever -my sister lives a few streets over from where they claim to have lived - no one there would be too tolerant of this either.

Kherbert05- That has been my mantra for ages. We have several houses on this street that have been converted to apartments and every once in awhile there are issues with the renters not knowing where the property lines lie - 9 times out 0f 10 it only takes a couple of days to straighten out. This is the 10th.
  The Landlord has been complained to, and yes every time I catch them I will be talking to the parents AND landlord.  The parents have point blank told people, that having kids in the yard is "part of being in a neighborhood".   
 At this point I pity the other occupants of their apartment building. If this is how they behave with yards on the street, what are they like about apartments in the same building?
 
 

[kherbert05]

   
 They moved in from the city of Buffalo, not another country.   I am not sure where they get the idea that rural/suburban folks are going to let their kids trespass and play whereever, whenever -my sister lives a few streets over from where they claim to have lived - no one there would be too tolerant of this either.

Kherbert05- That has been my mantra for ages. We have several houses on this street that have been converted to apartments and every once in awhile there are issues with the renters not knowing where the property lines lie - 9 times out 0f 10 it only takes a couple of days to straighten out. This is the 10th.
  The Landlord has been complained to, and yes every time I catch them I will be talking to the parents AND landlord.  The parents have point blank told people, that having kids in the yard is "part of being in a neighborhood".   
 At this point I pity the other occupants of their apartment building. If this is how they behave with yards on the street, what are they like about apartments in the same building?
 
 

Sounds like they think they are living in some 1980's movie of the 1950's were the kids played in all the yards up and down the street. I grew up running around our neighborhood - THe only time we got on someone's property to play it was an honest mistake -we thought the land belonged to one of the families with kids. Turned out it belonged to the lady that owned the land our street dead ended into. SHe actually gave us permission to climb the tree and eat the Mulberries, after talking to our parents. (the property was on "our" side of the ditch and friend's dad mowed it to help the other neighbor out - because nighbor's riding mower wouldn't make it through the ditch. We kids assumed the ditch was the property line.)

[artk2002]

The parents have point blank told people, that having kids in the yard is "part of being in a neighborhood". 

"Part of living in a neighborhood is respecting other people's property. Keep your kids off, or we start calling the cops for trespass. Do you understand me?"

I recommend a call to the police non-emergency number to find out what your options might be in your jurisdiction. Also, have a conversation with your insurance people. Having kids playing on your property is a potential liability. You need to know what steps the insurance company will consider sufficient to protect you if one of the kids is hurt, playing on your property without permission.

[JenJay]

Hey maybe somebody should walk the neighborhood with a petition requesting New Neighbors keep their kids restrained to their own yard! Not chained, of course, but one of those torso harnesses attached to a nice long lead so that they have full access to their entire yard and nobody else's? No? 

Seriously, I cannot get over the gimme-piggish attitude that a dog should be chained so that children who live elsewhere can have free run of the dog's yard!

[Raintree]

Hey maybe somebody should walk the neighborhood with a petition requesting New Neighbors keep their kids restrained to their own yard! Not chained, of course, but one of those torso harnesses attached to a nice long lead so that they have full access to their entire yard and nobody else's? No? 

I think that's a fine idea!! (In theory only of course).

These people sound completely off their rockers. OK, us kids used to play hide-and-seek amongst all the properties on the street sometimes, but if we hid on someone else's property (ie one that did not have kids participating in the game), it was always with a sense of sneakiness and guilt, not entitlement. And you knew which houses were welcoming of kids running across or through their properties, and which were not; which ones had large scary dogs to steer clear of, and which had fearsome old ladies who would pop their heads out and scream "You kids get out of my yard!!" The entitled, "we can go wherever we please" mentality never crossed our minds.

[Spring Water on Sundays]

I'm curious, do you know where the family moved from? I can't think of anywhere in the U.S where you'd be expected to let kids run around in your yard, but there are countries where neighborhoods are much more open and yards aren't really personal space.

   
 They moved in from the city of Buffalo, not another country.   I am not sure where they get the idea that rural/suburban folks are going to let their kids trespass and play whereever, whenever -my sister lives a few streets over from where they claim to have lived - no one there would be too tolerant of this either.

Kherbert05- That has been my mantra for ages. We have several houses on this street that have been converted to apartments and every once in awhile there are issues with the renters not knowing where the property lines lie - 9 times out 0f 10 it only takes a couple of days to straighten out. This is the 10th.
  The Landlord has been complained to, and yes every time I catch them I will be talking to the parents AND landlord.  The parents have point blank told people, that having kids in the yard is "part of being in a neighborhood".    
 At this point I pity the other occupants of their apartment building. If this is how they behave with yards on the street, what are they like about apartments in the same building?
 

re: the bolded

As a lifelong suburbanite, no, it's not. My siblings and I never played in other people's yards without permission, and if I found unsupervised kids in my yard, I would not hesitate to send them home and inform their parents what they were up to.

[kherbert05]

A few years ago when the boys down the street were learning to ride their bikes they were turning around on the sidewalk (OK for them to ride on the sidewalks here). I saw one of them fall into the street. So I told them it was ok to use my driveway to turn around in. Until then they would NOT step foot on my property.

[Eden]

Oh these people are just amazing! I suspect (although, I hope I'm wrong for the OP's sake) that this is not the last discussion that will be dedicated to them.

[Calistoga]

Maybe they're space aliens basing this on old episodes of Leave it To Beaver. Having kids in your yard is absolutely NOT part of living in a neighborhood, unless you happen to...you know...have children. Teaching your kids that it's OK to wander around other people's property is just setting them up for some very rude awakenings later in life.

[Texas Mom]

I would probably write a letter to the landlord complaining about the tenets harassing neighbors trying to get an already properly restrained dog cruelly tied up.

^
This

I'd also have the landlord on speed dial.