Some neighbors just don’t understand boundaries until they’re forced to.

What would you do if the family across the street kept treating your yard like a public walkway, strolling through with their kids and even their dog, no matter how many times you asked them to stop? Would you just back down to keep the peace? Or would you finally draw a line and call the police?

In the following story, one couple faces this exact situation and wonders how to handle it. Here’s what’s going on.

AITA for not wanting this lady walking through my yard

My boyfriend and I moved into this house in March this year, and before we did, it was vacant for a few months. It’s in town.

Our neighbors across the street and their kids are friends with people who live on the street behind us. They use the side of our yard like it’s an alley a decent amount of time. At first, it was just the kids, and we let it go for a little while, thinking the parents would tell them not to do that (didn’t happen).

The one time we told the kids they couldn’t just walk through people’s yards, the kids went and told their mom across the street, and the mom said, “Don’t pay attention to them; you guys are just kids.”

The boyfriend ended up confronting them, but it didn’t really work.

The parents also started walking with them through our yard. One time, it was just the one lady with no kids, and my boyfriend told her she couldn’t be walking through our yard.

She responded that she was not walking through it (she was, and he clearly told her our yard boundaries), and when he said she was in our yard, she said, “Well, I’m not doing anything anyway.”

After that, it stopped for the tiniest bit, but it’s happening again.

The one time recently that same lady walked through our yard with her one kid and a dog, now too. It just happened again today, the one mom and like five kids just casually walked through our yard like it’s a sidewalk.

She gets it, but still, it’s not their yard.

The other thing that really bothers me is the actual sidewalk to go to the street they need to is maybe 20-30ft away at the most. We have cameras up, so we have multiple clips of them doing it, including the interaction between my boyfriend and the one mom.

I know they’re not doing anything to damage our property or anything, but I just don’t really want people in our yard. We’re about to put no trespassing signs up (I know we should’ve already just from a legal standpoint), but once we do, if they keep doing it, what’s the next step?

Should we call the non-emergency line and report it? Before we are able to put them up, if they do it again, should we call the non-emergency line or wait until we have them up? I don’t want to seem like an angry old person waving my fists, telling people to get off my yard, but it makes me uncomfortable and feels like an intrusion on my privacy on my own property.

AITA?

Wow! Talk about entitlement!

Let’s check out how the folks over at Reddit feel about what’s going on here.

The motion sprinklers would be hilarious.

This reader explains the insurance issue.

Here’s someone who dealt with someone similar.

For this person, it’s about trying different methods.

She needs to do something. Whether it’s putting up the signs, calling the police, or installing motion sprinklers, this needs to be fixed before someone gets hurt.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.