What. The. Hell.!! During my lunch break I ran to pick up our mail at the post office and stop at the hardware store for some caulk. On my way back, as I turn (slowly - I always drive slow in town) onto our street I spot the boy out in the middle of the street riding one of their motorized toy cars. I quickly look around to see where the little 2-3 year old is. She's standing behind her mom's SUV, near the street. So I inch along toward my driveway and pull in. I no sooner get out of my car and the little girl is standing right behind my car. OMG! What if I had decided to back up for some reason??!!!!I didn't see the mom anywhere.
I went inside and was telling DH and he said he's already this morning had to tell the kids to stop playing in our driveway - AGAIN!. I went back outside to see if the mom was out there or if not, I was going to knock on their door. She was outside yelling at the little girl about something and I walked over to our fence between us and called her name and told her what happened. I said I could have ran her over! "Oh...geez...ya, that is scary. I'll talk to her". Talk to a 2 year old?!! How about fricking WATCHING your 2 year old instead of letting her run around with no supervision. I don't care if I lived out in the sticks or in the suburbs - I would never have let my 2 year old out of my sight.
There is absolutely no reason those kids need to be in our driveway whatsoever. They have their own driveway, a front and back yard, a 1/4 acre field on the other side of their house and an acre field across the street to play in, not to mention a playground a block away.
Are people really just that stupid?
IN my State that would be neglect. I would call Social Services if this keeps happening. A two year old is not capable to take care of themselves outside alone.
ReplyDeleteI was honestly just thinking this same thing. If it happens again I am seriously going to consider it. My SIL is a social worker (in another state) and I'm going to get her opinion.
DeleteYes both stupid and lazy. Cheryl
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm sure laziness is a huge part of it
DeleteHeavens they sound very neglectful!!! Yes call SIL
ReplyDeleteWe can tell those kids are dying for attention - that's why they try to get our attention every time they see us. I'm sorry, but I already raised my kids and I'm not going to be responsible for theirs. I know that if we even for a minute let their kids come over and sit on our porch with us or something like that they'd take that as an open invitation to head back into their house or garage and be more than happy to let us watch them. The mom just wants to be inside the house and smoke, the dad just wants to work on his junk cars and tell the kids to "go play". The even sadder part is the dad works two jobs (he is a hard worker, I'll give him that)so he is never home to see his kids. He leaves at 6am, gets home at 9:30pm so they never see him all week. When he is home he's working on his stuff and not giving them any attention.
DeleteThat is scary! I do think someone needs to be aware of these parents' parenting skills.
ReplyDeleteThe couple that lives across from us we talk to quite often and she works for the school and made a comment once something like "ya, we are familiar with the mom at school". I'm not exactly sure what she meant but I took it to mean they weren't too impressed with her
DeleteHow dangerous for that little one. Totally irresponsible and neglectful on the part of the parents to allow this to happen. I'd be filing a complaint for the good of the child.
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't want to cause problems with/for them and everyone can make a mistake with their kids, but if it happens again we will be finding someone to talk to about it. If it happens again it's not a mistake, it's neglect.
Delete"Are people really just that stupid?'
ReplyDeleteYes, yes they are. It's incredible, isn't it? I don't even let my 6 year old play outside unsupervised and he doesn't even leave our property, there's no way I'd leave my almost 2 year old unsupervised!!! I always thought there should be some sort of testing before people can procreate lol. It's sad though, it seems like these kids are just dying for some attention. :( Not your responsibility though.
it is incredible. I wouldn't even leave a 5 year old outside by himself - even in our fenced yard!. It's not our responsibility to be the attention for those kids. We tried to be really friendly with them at first when we moved in 6 months ago but saw right off that was a mistake because the kids (and parents) know no boundaries. The little one just turned 3. I knew she couldn't be much more than that. It's not quite so bad most days because the boy in in school (but only half days) and the girl was at daycare all day. Some days they were home with their teenaged sister. Next year will be better because the boy will be in school all day during the week.
DeleteWe've got a family like that too. I mentioned on my blog that I'm thinking of gating off access to my back garden because their then 6 year old came into my garden and stole/broke stuff. Another neighbour found him IN her house playing when she left the door open. When he was 2 my friend Stan used to go nuts because he too was out playing on the street unsupervised. Stan does and will discipline then when they come to his café - dad tries but mom thinks it's funny. And this is the woman with 7 kids (by 2 fathers) who was telling us she decided to retire at age 42 (as a nursing assistant) - but all except the last one were teenagers and up!! And the same woman I saw picking up food bank stuff when I dropped off our donation - and the same woman I saw later at Stan's buying vodka. I don't think I need to go on do I? Anna
ReplyDeleteoh my goodness! This mom will stand there on her porch smoking her cigarette and watch her kids annoying us LOL. When we first moved in we were standing at the fence talking to the dad. The little was one was being extra annoying so what does he do? picks her up and plops her into our yard! So while he and DH are talking I have to deal with her trying to get into all our stuff! That's when we realized we were keeping our distance after that LOL
DeleteI would have my husband plop her right back over the fence! My ex would tell any child they could come over anytime. I thought he was grooming them. He said he did not want to be rude to them. However, he could be rude to me by allowing them to interrupt our conversation we were having while sitting and lying on a blanket in the back yard. He turned all his attention to the five-year-old and forgot the conversation with me. We had kids looking in our windows, riding their bikes off the front porch and into new shrubs, all because he said they were welcome.
DeleteWe still say to each other why didn't we just pick her right up and put her back over. That's our problem - we try to be so nice and then people just take that as an open invitation. DH enjoys talking to kids, but none of them know a little goes a long way.
Delete