The Apple Doesn't Fall Far....

[ZipTheWonder]

Tonight, I mentioned to my husband that, when one of our neighbors had a pizza delivered, one of the children of another neighbor snuck behind the delivery car with his skateboard and was 'surfing' as the driver pulled away. 

I also told him that last Friday, I had to call the school transportation department to tell them to warn our neighborhood's driver that she should be careful because I'd seen kids surfing behind her bus as she pulled away.

My husband said that the same day last week, when he pulled into the neighborhood from work, the mother of tonights Pizza Surfing child was towing three neighborhood children behind her car on their skateboards. His exact words were "She was teaching them to surf behind the car."

Do I report this (and to who?).........or do I just let them extinguish themselves?  Clearly, I will not be making any headway with Mommy.

[Kaylee]

My husband said that the same day last week, when he pulled into the neighborhood from work, the mother of tonights Pizza Surfing child was towing three neighborhood children behind her car on their skateboards. His exact words were "She was teaching them to surf behind the car."

Do I report this (and to who?).........or do I just let them extinguish themselves?  Clearly, I will not be making any headway with Mommy.

Oh, for...

You call CPS or the police, and let them deal with it.  Man, just when you think you've heard everything...

[Clara Bow]

Does she roll their joints for them too??
Deliver me from "cool moms"....
I think that I would call the police department and report it, but not CPS. CPS has been known to conduct witch-hunts and they shouldn't be called about anything unless there is real abuse or neglect going on. I mean, she may not have known the kids were back there...I hope....
I'd let the cops handle it. And is the cops talk to her and she continues to allow the behavior, then I might think a little more about CPS.

[Suze]

well -- Back to the Future has been on TV again.  I hear that every time it is on bumper surfing takes a rise.

Suze

[willow08]

Good move calling the transportation department. I'm sure, this Mom would have been  screaming and crying and suing the school district when one her children was injured or killed doing this.

I would definitely call the police. They will notify CPS as well when you tell them that the Mom is teaching the kids how to do this and is putting them in danger with her own car.

[ZipTheWonder]

This is the same family whose toddler wandered over to my house just after moving in a year ago and asked if she could come in.  (Mommy was busy shooting firecrackers with her older boys and their new neighborhood buddies who are, of course, enamoured with Best-Friends-Forever Mom.)

Mom *definitely* knew the children were behind her (at least according to the eye witness!) because my husband said she slowly pulled over, waved to let him pass and then she edged back out again.  She was training them.  At least one of these children was not hers.  They were all boys, and she has two boys and a girl.

This was only one of the incidents involving her children and their recruits last night.  They were shooting firecrackers (it's legal here but not for the under-14 set unsupervised), using foul language (including screaming the N word at one another), they swarmed the pizza woman when she opened her car door, they doorbell ditched our house three times (I was sitting at the window beside the door and busted them all three times -- which is how I witnessed all of this stuff.)  We had our sprinkler system overhauled this summer and we've had four sprinkler heads broken since Christmas vacation started and two shrubs damaged (obviously the victims of darting away after ditching the doorbell -- which has become a nightly occurence.)

I recognize that none of this is the end of the world, but we've never had a single problem in our once-beautiful neighborhood until this family moved in.  Their dog immediately formed a gang, and then their kids did the same thing.  The parents don't have the onboard tools to keep this from escalating.  My husband and I had a serious conversation this morning about finishing our remodeling projects ASAP and moving.  Our houses are not very close together, but technically these people would be our next-door neighbors, and the gang of dogs and kids includes the people who would techically be our other next-door neighbors, so there is constant going back-and-forth across our property.  In fact, they often stop to play on our yard.  So much so that one of my neighbors was out walking one day and told me "You have a lot of boys and a lot of dogs."  And I said "I have one boy and no dogs.  And my boy is upstairs doing is homework.  These aren't mine!"

I'm calling the Sheriff....

[Lisbeth]

Call the appropriate authorities.  Fast.

Hopefully an official visit will wake their mother up.

[ImperfctMe]

Do you still qualify for the Darwin Awards if through your own stupidity you eliminate your offspring?

[Balletmom]

I called the sheriff here when I saw a pick up truck pulling two kids on skateboards.

I told the kids I was doing it. One of them said, "He's not going very fast."

I said, "That won't matter when YOUR head hits the concrete."

 Mr. Balletmom thought I was being overly snickety. They were very much interested and said they'd send the patrol car around.

The next day, there was the report of an fatality for a teenager doing just that, in another city in our state.

I felt badly but indicated, but what an awful feeling, if I hadn't called, I would have felt even worse.

What is wrong with people, that they encourage their children to act dangerously? All you can do is keep calling the sheriff and if they make enough trips they will make a report to CPS as well.

[ZipTheWonder]

They are going to increase patrolling in our neighborhood.  In nine years, I have never seen a sheriff here, so I'm not quite sure what "increase patrolling" means.  Our neighborhood is quite isolated, very small, overpriced...a lot of thing that contribute to it being a sleepy little village where I guess they have never had much reason to pay us a call.  Until last December when all heck broke loose.

[Alida]

That's not cool, that's idiotic!

Cool Mom will find herself sued if anything happens to the Gang!

[andi]

i would have called to.  i think "mom" needs a talking to by someone - or one of those "see what happens when" films

we live on a corner lot - and i'm constantly asking the kids visiting our neighbor's not to cut across our yard - on bikes, skateboards, etc. 

[Suze]

i would have called to.  i think "mom" needs a talking to by someone - or one of those "see what happens when" films

we live on a corner lot - and i'm constantly asking the kids visiting our neighbor's not to cut across our yard - on bikes, skateboards, etc. 

We had one man in our town that got fed up with the corner cutting that he put up posts in the yard with wire strung across them.  (His house was on the way to school)

It didn't stop all the "walkers" but it did stop the ones on wheels. 

[cnada]

i would have called to.  i think "mom" needs a talking to by someone - or one of those "see what happens when" films

we live on a corner lot - and i'm constantly asking the kids visiting our neighbor's not to cut across our yard - on bikes, skateboards, etc. 

How much would you like to wager that she'll be saying "That's not going to happen to us!"?