Kids playing football on the road until 11pm

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musicfan

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Just following on from another recent thread, I live in an estate where kids play football on the road just outside my house (they have a large green area on front of their house but don't play there for some reason!).

Most nights they play football until 11pm - the constant kicking, thumping, banging of a football is enought to drive you mad. The kids are playing on a public road so aren't on my property but what do other posters think - is 11pm too late to let your kids play outside on the road in the dark????

Cars can come around the corner - not at speed as such - but surely motorists aren't expecting kids to be playing football on the road this late in the dark?

Besides, lots of residents (myself included) have to be up very early in the morning for work - its not easy to go to sleep with the constant noise - it is unreasonable to expect kids to stop playing football at a certain time???
 
It is actually illegal for them to play football on a public road way. You should contact your local garda station or local community police officer and make a complaint. Have you a resident's association perhaps bring it up at one of their meetings.
 
It is a bit late in fairness to be out playing football on the road at that hour of the night. Have you a resident's association where you live? Perhaps you might get in touch with them and they might send a note around to all the houses in the estate to ask parents not to have their kids out till that hour playing football.

I'm amazed at the fact that with a green area that they still play on the road. It is dangerous and especially at night.
 
when i was young the green areas had no ball signs on em,we were bold kids and used em as posts.
 
Could you use a radio/music to drown out the noise of the ball and lull you to sleep?
 
You should contact your local garda station or local community police officer and make a complaint
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Ya because the blight of kids using their energy on constructive activity is the ruination of this country. Leave them alone.
 
In my last house kids used to congregate on a low wall opposite and chat ‘till 10.30-11.00 in the evening during the summer. They made a surprising amount of noise. As we had a young baby at the time this caused a problem so one evening I went outside and explained that we had a young baby and their chatter was keeping him awake and asked them if they would mind moving up or down the road a bit or using the nearby green. Since most teenaged kids are reasonable and nice people they apologised and the problem did not recur.
So, OP, have you tried explaining the problem to them and asking them (nicely) to move onto the green?
 
From my own memory of playing ball as a kid we always played on the streets as opposed to the green areas for a number of reasons..
(i)Better street lighting on the streets rather than the green.
(ii)Grass in green areas is not cut often enough to allow free flowing football.
(iii)Green areas in estates (rather than pitches) tend to have hidden booby traps like pot holes and dog poo.

But I would agree with Purple in his point above. Try talking with the lads in questions. Most young people are pretty reasonable and will appreciate the fact that you spoke to them. Complaining to the Gardai without first talking to them is a little OTT.
 
I must admit I don't consider 11pm late at all. And let's face it, kids playing football or chatting until that hour isn't particularly sinister in this day and age...it should be encouraged rather than discouraged. I'd echo what The Banker said because when we were kids we preferred to play smaller games on concrete or tarmac as it improved your close control and skill levels. We would have certainly played until 10 or 10.30 and never had any complaints (this would be 14 or 15 years ago) Ringing the Gardai about something like this would strike me as a bit extreme.
 
Don't worry. In a year or two, they will be gone beyond the stage of playing football on the public road at 11pm and instead will be well out of sight, drinking alcohol and sniffing solvents in a nearby field or waste ground area. Your problems will be at an end then :rolleyes:
 
i honestly dont see this as being a huge problem but im not the one living with it but if all there doing is chatting and playing football there not really doing any harm. could be worse you could have them drinking outside your garden throwing the rubbish in to the garden after. maybe if you just have a conversation with them and ask them to be a little quieter if they can. some places dont have green's for kids so all they have to gardens as goals.
 
I don't think any of ye really understand what the MusicFan is talking about! I moved into my new house 2 years ago.. my first house and was so excited! It was rented before as was the house next to me and the kids obviously used the front of these houses before as their football pitch! They started playing footballl at 6pm and were still there at 12pm every night kicking the football, shouting like "pass it here", screaming and shouting, sitting on the wall laughing. I understand your comments that they are only kids but there is a huge green 2 minutes away and can't understand if this is provided, why they can't use it. I like to think I am a reasonable person and this was tolerable from about 6am to 10pm but when you are in bed trying to read a book, relax after a 12 hour day, it is terrible. I couldn't sleep for weeks with the noice and the constant ball banging off either my front door, the house, the car etc. I went out a few times and asked them nicely to move to the green and i basically was told there were in the estate before me and to go F*ck myself. Charming eh! This is actually a really nice estate and I paid over €400,000 for my house! I perserved and everytime they started playing football after 10pm, i went and took the ball off them. They then woudl come to me in the morning and ask for it back and i then would explain to them why i took it and it was much easier explaining it to on boy rather than 20 boys just laughing at you. I was actually very intimidated as even though they are kids, there were up to 20 of them and some of them were taller than me! After about 2 weeks of this, they are now playing in the green and i have had no problems since!!! You should try this approach! Don't see why you shoudl pay so much for your house and not be able to sleep at night!
 
Don't worry. In a year or two, they will be gone beyond the stage of playing football on the public road at 11pm and instead will be well out of sight, drinking alcohol and sniffing solvents in a nearby field or waste ground area. Your problems will be at an end then
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Unfortunately, that often doesn't come soon enough, and there's always a new wave of (other people's) kids coming up behind.
Why can't they play wiis instead?

This thread seems to come up every few months. The responses are generally either;
1. Leave them alone, they're only kids, weren't you young once etc (from people who've never experienced the problem)
2. People expressing shear frustration at not being able to do anything about the situation.
 
I agree with you leghorn, I live in a small private estate and could see how this could be a problem, however the kids around here are all under 12-ish and are the nicest bunch you'll ever meet. friendly with very good manners. long may it last.
 
How much are those mosquito devises?

You could always hide one near where they gather and set some remote control on it.

Or you could just ask them; unless they’re skangers they will probably move.
 
Thanks for all your comments.

I do appreciate they are only kids and yes they are playing football - they could be doing worse but at the same time......

I've no problem with them playing on the road during the day - as I say they are not on my property but on the road a few yards from my window! But I just think its a bit much until 11pm on a school night to be out playing football - the 'thud' thud' of the ball for 5 hours every night is enough to send you insane!

I end up praying for rain every evening so it might deter them - unfortunately sometimes rain isn't even enough to stop it. I do have the tv or radio on - but it needs to be pretty loud to stop the noise! Not fair on my other neigbours!

I have asked them to move and to play on the green area in front of THEIR houses but they say they can't as there are holes in the ground - not that I'm a suspicious person but these were probably dug by their parents so they couldn't kick football on front of THEIR own house and to protect the new 08 cars surrounding the green areas!!!

Maybe cos I'm not a parent - but I just think its madness that parents would allow their young kids to play football on the road in the dark (just up from a bend in the road) where cars could come around quite quickly at 11pm.......
 
Well I am a parent and other parents’ ignorance never ceases to baffle me.

For instance my partner, son and I were enjoying a nice stroll in the Phoenix Park last weekend only to have it ruined by a very young child tearing up the footpaths on his quad bike. His parents were looking on beaming with pride. We ended up having to move to a different area.

If the kids are ignorant it’s a fair bet that the parents are ignorant also and if that’s the case I’m afraid there’s not much you can do.
 
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