Next-door neighbors can be annoying, that’s nothing new.

In this story, a couple goes from having the world’s quietest neighbor to a gaggle of rowdy kids.

But is it a matter for the authorities? Let’s not beat around the bush here…

WIBTA for calling the police on my neighbors’ kids?

My wife and I bought our house 4 years ago, and when we moved in we had an elderly gentleman who lived next door.

He kept to himself and was a good neighbor.

Fast forward to two years ago and his granddaughter and her family moved into this house.

She and her husband have 4 kids, with the oldest being 13/14 and ranging down to 5/6.

Correct to assume this family of six is going to be rowdier than one grandpa?

We introduced ourselves and they seemed like nice enough people.

After they moved in, we could immediately tell their kids had no respect for our property.

The first incident was playing baseball in their backyard.

We park our cars in our driveway (we don’t have space in the garage to park two cars) and a few times balls flew over and hit our cars.

We’ve all been kids with runaway toys… but will they get the hint and reign it in?

I had a talk with the dad about this and he said he would talk to the kids.

After the talk we still had more baseballs fly over.

We ended up hiring someone to put a privacy fence between our yards, hoping that would end it.

Will this fence put a stop to the shenanigans?

The kids then moved to playing in the front yard.

Almost every day from March to October, the kids next door as well as a few other kids from across the street (ages 10-15) will play kickball/football/soccer in their front yard.

The problem is, they play in our front yard as well.

They don’t just play in their yard and sometimes a ball rolls into our yard; they use our front yard as an extension of their own.

Nope. Will OP be able to mend fences now?

This has resulted in them hitting our house multiple times with these different balls.

We spoke again to the parents about this, and we were promised the kids would play at the big community park at the end of our street.

That never happened.

We’ve also politely asked the kids multiple times to stop playing in the yard, that did nothing.

With warmer months approaching, we are trying to decide whether or not to get the police involved if this starts back up again.

Uh-oh, five-oh? But could the cops even really help?

I don’t want to be THAT neighbor, because I understand kids are kids.

However, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask the 6-8 kids who do this everyday to stop.

AITA for possibly starting what I feel like will inevitably end up becoming a neighbor war?

Should these children’s games turn into an all-out war?

Let’s see what the comments think?

One person says, sprinkle in some hints…

Another person says, trespassing is a crime.

This user says, plants over police.

Someone else is like, the cops aren’t gonna stop kids from playing?

Another poster seconds the natural route.

When does child’s play turn into a police matter?

Apparently when the neighbor decides.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.