July 21, 2021 - Entitled Parents Being Entitled.
Dear Prudence,
My house sits outside a housing development on two acres. We have the only real trees since the developer cut all their old growth down and put up fragile little twigs that give no shade. There are no parks nearby.
During the pandemic, we noticed that the local mothers would bring their children to the far side of our property and let them play in the shade. My husband and I put out a nice wooden picnic bench and a tire swing off a tree. Everything was fine for months until we noticed a lot of trash left there. We put out on the local social media page for our neighbors to be mindful this was private property and to please pick up after themselves. It still continued.
We had to take the tire swing down because children were using it dangerously (and even trying to climb our trees), and their mothers were not paying any attention. Then we started getting complaints from people. The straw that broke us was finding our picnic bench had been vandalized with profanity carved into it. My husband had made the bench himself. We dragged the bench back behind the house and posted again on social media that our generosity was at its limit, and for people to please stay off our property. We also got outside cameras based on advice from friends.
What happened then is that one of our neighbors decided to have a family party on our property and got miffed the picnic table was gone, so they went right behind our home and dragged it back to its original position. My husband came home to find the party in full swing. He went up and asked them what the hell they thought they were doing. There was a confrontation: No violence, but threats to call the police came from both sides. My husband told them we had cameras and to leave. They did, but on the video you can see them making obscene gestures and the license plates of their cars.
We ended up contacting the HOA of the development over everything, since social media and common courtesy has netted us nothing. They put in an official reprimand to all residents about leaving us alone, but they also want the video of the people from the party so they can make an example out of the trespassers. My husband has gotten very bitter about this entire affair and wants to give them the videos. I just want this over with. We tried to be good neighbors, only for it to blow up into this. What should we do?
â Want a Good Fence
