How do you deal with neighbourly disputes involving children?
Over the years I’ve had issues with my neighbour over her kids causing damage to our front and back yard. They’ve damaged the fence between our properties and then did nothing to fix it when it finally gave in. They constantly throw toys, rubbish, balls and all sorts over the fence (I’ve seen them literally throw stuff over, not by accident) and when I ask her to ask them to stop she just says they’re kids and there’s nothing she can do or she starts shouting at me. I’ve also seen her ignore them as they’re either dropping stuff or pulling apart the decking on the front stairs and I’ve also seen other concerning things that she’s ignored).
The kids are young (around 5) so I’m trying to be understanding but her attitude and the fact that every time without fail I go into the garden there’s a broken plant or a wrappers and toys in the pots to the point where I hate going out there because I’ll just get annoyed.
Even the adult guests have the same flippant attitude and called my mum a bad neighbour because she didn’t want to give one of the balls back since they’ll just throw it over again.
I had to talk to them again today after the incident with my mum and didn’t really get anywhere and it’s making me wonder if I’m just over reacting because of the kids ages. How would you handle this?