Parents Who Don't Care (Apparently)

We had this problem in Arkansas with a mom who would let her kids come over, but not watch them. They lived across the street and her son would run back and forth across the street without ever looking and she never even checked on them. It would not bother me, except if something happened to him while he was "at our house" I would not want to be held responsible, especially since the child was never "invited" over.

We are having that problem here to, but to a worse degree. The child in Arkansas was in second or third grade. The children here are in kindergarten and his (I am guessing) three year old sister.

I really don't mind the kids playing with other kids and I also don't mind them playing in our driveway. UNTIL tonight. These two kids came over, they were all in our garage, messing with the dogs (which one bites!), etc. I told the boys it was time to come in and eat and to tell their friends they would be back out later. These two stayed in our garage, going through our stuff.

I went out and told them that the boys were eating dinner and they would be out in a while. He said okay. I told him to stay out of our garage while we were inside and he said okay and got on his bike. I come inside, sit down at the table and notice him going back into the garage - where his sister also was. Paul goes out and tells them they need to go home while we eat. The little boy said "My mommy told me to come play over here." Paul told him to go home until we were done and he said okay and they left.

Not five minutes later, he was back. Paul again went outside to tell them to go home. The little boy told him that his Mommy told him to stay over at OUR house until she calls him.

I am sorry....what?

I have never met these people...EVER. Never even said as much as a hello to them. She is going to send her kids to my house for ME to babysit? They don't even live next door or across the street - they live at least four houses down the street!!

They left, Paul came inside and before he could even sit down, the little boy was riding in our driveway again. I was going to ignore him as long as he did not go in the garage. Then I look out the window and he is taking off on Isaac's scooter. I go chase him down the sidewalk, tell him he cannot run off with our stuff and he needs to go play closer to HIS house so we could eat our dinner (notice I did not tell him to GO to HIS house - where he is evidently not wanted at the moment), or he was not going to be able to play at our house anymore.

That seemed to do the trick, I did not see him again. It is not the child's fault - the mother should not be sending him to a strangers house. He is deaf (has a hearing aid) and the little girl is young enough that she is riding her tricycle over here with a pacifier in her mouth. From what I have seen they have three kids - hello LADY - if I can keep up with my four while fixing dinner, doing homework for three and everything else we have to do in the evenings, you should be able to handle your three and not pawn them off on me.

I feel bad because I don't even want the kid over here anymore, but it isn't his fault. At the same time, if something were to happen to her kids while they were over here (say a dog bites them when they are sticking their hands into the dog kennel or they get hit by a car,or....or...or...) it would be on ME. Unfortunately, this is the type of world we live in. I can't trust the parents to not sue me if something happens to their kids while they are ignoring them! These kids even walked into our house - no knocking, no asking - our boys came in to eat dinner and a couple of seconds later, these two kids just walked in.

We will have a fence soon! Then they can only stand at the gate and ask to be let in!!