Stop Barging into my Home!
By betsyraeduke
@betsyraeduke (2669)
United States
January 20, 2009 4:11pm CST
I live in an apartment complex which is located downtown and the main street of the city I live in. Due to the location of this complex, there is, of course, no yard. I have two young children, both boys ages 7 and 8 years. We don't currently have a car and most of my childrens' friends do not live close enough for me to allow my children to go their houses by themselves, given that we live on a busy street and most of their friends live a mile away or further and many streets have to be crossed along the way. Because of the lack of yard and distance from their friend's houses, and our not having a car, until recently my kids were stuck at home, inside after school, which was often quite frustrating for them.
However, about four or five weeks ago, some new neighbors moved in a few doors down from us. These neighbors do not live in our apartment complex, but they do live in the apartment complex right next to ours and both of these buildings are attached to each other. Our new neighbors also have an 8 year old boy who rides the bus to school in the morning with my kids.
When these neighbors first moved in I thought, wonderful, a playmate for my children who lives close by! Now my kids had a friend whom they can go visit for a while from time to time after school and their new friend can come over to our place sometimes as well. I thought that was going to awesome at first, now I am not so sure.
The new kid and my kids have indeed become friends. They do take turns visiting each other at their homes and they do have a lot of fun together. It does indeed make my kids very happy to have a playmate living so close to them. However, the experience is beginning to prove slightly frustrating to me.
For one thing, when this neighbor kid comes over to our apartment to play, he never knocks on the door. If the door is unlocked, he will just open the door right up, without knocking first, and barge right in! If the door is locked, he will try to open it and barge in. When he discovers that the door is locked, instead of knocking he will stand out in the hallway and loudly call my kids by name, demanding that one of them come and let him in! What's even worse then that, there have been a number of times in which this kid has come over to our place, barged in, and announced to me, "My mom wants me to stay here and play for a while because she has to go, (fill in the blank here)." His mother does not bother to ask if we have any plans or if we are available to babysit, she just sends her kid over and assumes that it is alright for him to stay at our place for two hours or three hours or whatever. Later she will come pick the kid up and say, "thanks for babysitting". But, as I said, she does not ask if it is okay before hand, she doesn't offer any compensation for the service either. (Most of the time I probably wouldn't mind watching the kid and I probably wouldn't charge for it either, but it's just the principle of the matter here, that she just assumes that it is okay for her to do this).
I also find this behavior of this boy's mother to be a bit strange since she does not even really know us! I have talked to her briefly a few times here and there while our children have been waiting for the bus together, aside from that, we don't know each other at all! It makes me wonder, does she trust just anyone with the care of her child?
In any case, the fact that this kid has a habit of just barging in and the fact that his mother seems to think it is okay to volunteer me for free babysitting whenever she wants is a bit annoying.
Have you ever had a situation like this with one of your neighbors? How would you feel in this situation?
1 response
@urbandekay (18278)
•
20 Jan 09
You should clearly make it plain to the child that it is unacceptable not to knock and one time when the kid comes round and makes the announcement send him straight back saying you are going out yourselves, then go
all the best urban
@betsyraeduke (2669)
• United States
21 Jan 09
I have on no uncertain terms told this kid more then once that he needs to knock on our door before entering. He says okay, but the next time he comes over, he barges right in without knocking again. One time when he did that I sent him right back home and told him he could not come back over and play until he learned to knock. This upset my kids who of course wanted to play with him and also did no good as a couple days later, the kid came over again and did the very same thing again. I spoke to this kid's mother about the kid not knocking and stuff as well, but that seems to have been pointless also. Not that I'm surprised, going by both the actions of the kid and the mother, manners don't seem to be a strong point with that family. At this point, the only way I can think of to get this kid to stop barging in or yelling for my kids out in the hallway if our door happens to be locked is to ban him from coming over all together. The thing is, I am hesitant to do that because then it feels like I am punishing my kids by taking away the only near by playmate they have.
@urbandekay (18278)
•
21 Jan 09
Thing is, you have to send him home each and every time he doesn't knock, soon enough he'll be knocking!
all the best urban


