Imagine moving into a house that has a lot of land, and on part of the land there’s a really nice playground. Would you be okay with the neighborhood kids playing on the playground, or would you worry the parents might sue you if their kids got hurt?

In this story, one family is in this situation, and they are perfectly happy to let the neighborhood kids use the playground until one day when a parent threatens to sue them.

They put up a fence, but they’re wondering if it was wrong to tell the neighbors why they put up a fence.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for telling the parents of the neighborhood the real reason why their kids can no longer play in my yard/playground?

My grandparents owned the lot next to their house, they just used it for more yard space. But when my sister and I were born grandpa knocked down the old shed on the empty lot and built a playground for us.

Everything was made with his own two hands.

It was a kid’s dream and we both played there any chance we got. And after we grew up they let the kids of their neighborhood use the place to play with no issues.

But then some years later they passed and the house went to my mom.

But now, they live in this house.

I found out I’m expecting so my husband “Andre” and I started seriously looking for a house when we’d only been half trying before.

Mom suggested we buy my grandparent’s house since we know it’s a good place and us buying it would keep it in the family.

It’s still in good shape, has no HOA, and is close to a good school. So we bought it for a steal and moved in asap.

The neighbors seem to treat the playground like a neighborhood park.

Right away we noticed parents hanging out at the playground with their kids.

We didn’t mind at first and used the chance to introduce ourselves.

Everyone was lovely and younger than I’d expected but it seems a bunch of couples with kids had taken over the street in the past 5 or so years.

The problem arose when Neighbor Witch (NW) brought her kid over one afternoon.

Yikes! This sounds dangerous!

I happened to be by the window and saw a flash of red outside. It was a kid in a red shirt literally standing on the ROOF of one of the 2 story playhouses, almost 10 feet off the ground.

I ran outside, thinking he was alone and said he needed to get down right now.

That’s when NW stormed over from who knows where and yelled at me to back off and not tell her kid anything.

OP explained the situation.

I asked if she was his mom and after getting a yes I asked her to make her son get down before he got hurt.

She argued saying I couldn’t make them do anything.

So I told her this was my property and yes I could.

That’s when the kid fell, thankfully once he was halfway down and only onto the grass but he still wailed like he was dying.

Thankfully, he wasn’t dying.

He was fine. He got up without issue and ran over to NW.

She picked him up and said if he’d been hurt she’d have sued me.

So I threatened her with the cops if she didn’t leave.

She flipped me off and called me a “gin jockey” (random af, I don’t drink at all, let alone gin) but left.

They don’t want to get sued.

Andre was worried other people might try to sue us if their kids got hurt on our land (I hadn’t even thought of that) so we put up a fence.

Parents came by asking why the fence.

So I told them why, and they can thank NW.

She feels kind of bad for the little boy.

I heard she’s been shunned by the other parents and none of them will let their kids play with hers.

I feel guilty her son is getting punished for her actions.

Maybe just saying we wanted a fence up instead of telling them about NW would have been kinder? AITA?

Was it wrong to tell the neighbors exactly why they put up the fence?

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This person thinks the fence was the right thing to do.

Another person thinks it was fine to tell the truth.

This person doesn’t think they did anything wrong.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who got fed up with all of the cars parking illegally on his vacation land, so he had them all towed.

Nobody thinks they did anything wrong.

I think we can all agree that the fence was a good idea. Being kind and neighborly isn’t worth it if the neighbors turn around and sue you.

The real question is if it would’ve been better not to tell the neighbors why they decided to put up a fence. Would it have been better to be vague so the neighbors wouldn’t retaliate against the little boy and the boy’s mom?

Honestly, honesty is the best policy. It is too bad for the little boy though.