After a day of dancing out at Dupont Circle this Sunday I rode back home with the intention of collasping on the bed and passing out. But I couldn’t because of the ruckus in the alley behind the house. Thinking I heard something in my yard, I looked out the window and about 5 boys around the age of 10 or 12 where bouncing a ball around between their tiny yard and the alley. I watched them because last year when they got a homemade basketball hoop up, rough play kept banging against my fence and my fence is not strong enough for that. For the longest while they were figuring out their play, bounce the ball, bang wood, run around or talk smack about girls. Another neighbor, attracted by the noise came out for a while and later yelled to someone inside the house to call the police when the boys started banging wood in a vacant yard.
Kids have no sense of private property.
Oh, they understand yours, mine, and theirs. But they don’t seem to give a second thought into wandering into someone’s yard, or even hitting balls on someone else’s wall or fence.
I caught Kwan with his new kitty in someone’s front yard standing on some stone edgers. I believe the cat was looking at the yard like a litter box and Kwan was focused on the cat, not on the fact he was stepping all over someone’s front yard. I told him he could fall standing on the edgers and got him out of that yard. It didn’t help that the yard did not have a fence.
Kids will also abuse fences. They will swing on the gate, sit on the fence, lean on the fence, and depending on the amount of give, bounce off the fence. Some of the fences on our block are not anchored well and bounce back when kids ram into them. Or just remain leaned back. When I do replace my fence, it will be kid proof.
4 thoughts on “Kids! Whatsamatta wit kids today?”
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Kids have no sense of private property.
Oh, they understand yours, mine, and theirs. But they don’t seem to give a second thought into wandering into someone’s yard, or even hitting balls on someone else’s wall or fence.
Well, I think some things never change. I certainly didn’t give much thought to notions of “private property” when I was 10 or 12 (except for my own toys, of course, for which I had a very strong private-property interest).
I pretend to water my plants and hose the kids off. They don’t come near my fence anymore.
TH
gotta say, my friends and i wandered into the yards of all the house on our block when we were children. we climbed everyones fences. we drank water from everyones hoses. shortcuts through all the yards.
kids feel a stronger sense of neighborhood than anyone, i’d say.
and that sense is that is theirs.
kids playing are kids playing.
Yes 10 or 12 year olds playing ball is just fine with me. Of course when they turn 14 they aren’t so much interested in ball anymore. Suddenly your car looks a lot more interesting.
Enjoy ’em while they’re young because its pretty much dowhill from there…