u/Broad_Signal6429

For context: I don’t live in the US. Also sorry if my rant is dumb and kind of childish, I feel crazy for being bothered by this

I'm older Gen Z and, due to personal circumstances, live with my parents in my childhood home, in a gated middle-class neighborhood. Every house has a small, unfenced front yard, but people generally understand that someone else's garden isn't public property.

We have a blackberry tree in our front yard that my parents planted for me when we moved in. It's my favorite tree. I love making juice with the berries, and it attracts birds and other little animals that I enjoy watching while I work.

I've never had an issue with people grabbing a berry or two while walking past. When I was younger, neighbors and their kids would even knock and ask if they could pick some. No problem, I’m not the female version of that old guy from Monster House.

But over the past five years, the newer families in the neighborhood have become increasingly obnoxious. Kids regularly walk into our yard, climb onto our bench, yank branches, and trample flowers to grab berries. My parents have had to scold them more than once.

A few days ago, I woke up to children fucking screeching and a woman laughing loudly outside my window. It wasn't even 8 AM. I sometimes work late into the night, so I was already pissed about being woken up. Then I realized the noise was coming from our garden.

Some woman in her mid-30s had brought her FOUR small kids and a large basket to help themselves to our blackberries. They were pulling at the tree, her brats were even ripping leaves off and acting like our yard was an extension of their house.

Mind you, we'd had storms for several days, so I hadn't even gotten the chance to harvest any berries myself. Most of the ripe ones had already fallen or been eaten by birds.

I loudly opened my blinds, they are those that make a lot of noise, and the woman immediately realized she was being watched. Suddenly, she started this ridiculous performance of "scolding" her kids, loudly announcing how terrible she felt about not asking the homeowners first and telling them to hurry up, laughing nervously and loudly like an idiot. She didn’t  even stop, just grabbed as many berries as she could, dumped them into her basket, and rushed off with her whining children. I even heard her telling them she'd find ANOTHER house with a fruit tree so they could take some from there. So apparently this wasn't even a one-time thing. This woman was literally taking her kids around the neighborhood to raid people's gardens.

And I’m in the wrong for being upset over it.

When I complained to family and friends, I got told I was being cruel and unreasonable because "they're just kids". Some of them even brought up the fact that I don't like children, as if that automatically invalidates every complaint I make about their behavior. Even my parents who have witnessed this kind of thing more than once told me I was being dramatic and bitter.

I'm so fucking tired of this. Apparently, because I don't particularly enjoy being around kids, I'm incapable of having a legitimate grievance involving them. No matter what happens, I'm just the bitter childfree woman being mean to some poor innocent mommy and her precious babies.

For fuck’s sake. She could've knocked. She could've asked. Would I have told her no? Yeah of course, it wasn’t even 8 AM yet. But she could've used the opportunity to teach her children basic manners and respect for other people's belongings. Instead, she taught them to grab whatever they want and run off when someone notices.

And before anyone brings up the possibility that they needed food, this is a comfortable middle-class neighborhood. Nothing about the situation suggested desperation. She even brought a basket specifically to collect fruit from other people's yards.

I grew up playing outside with the neighborhood kids all day, and we NEVER entered someone's property without permission, my mom would've killed me if I did lol. It really isn't that difficult a concept.

I'm beyond sick of entitled parents treating the entire neighborhood like their children's personal playground, and I'm even more sick of people acting like disliking kids means I have to tolerate whatever bullshit they or their parents pull. If I could, I would've make a complaint, or put up a sign, but knowing the country I live in, I just know I would be treated like a crazy person

As a little girl, I never understood baby dolls, much to the dismay of my mom.

I had stuffed animals, dinosaurs, those little plastic animals that came in tubes, I loved all of them. Baby dolls, though? Lame. Babies in general seemed kind of gross to me, the big heads and floppy limbs freaked me out, plus the noises were annoying. Also, what kind of dinosaur adventure is a life-sized baby supposed to participate in?

At school, I’d watch the other girls play with their dolls and it just looked like… chores. Feeding them, changing them, putting them to sleep. I already had a baby brother I helped take care of. I could not understand how having imaginary responsibilities was supposed to be any fun.

Eventually, when I was around 7 I felt I was being left out of playing with my friends, so I convinced myself I needed a doll too. My mom was absolutely THRILLED, I didn’t even need to ask twice. She bought me a fancy one that cried, babbled, had extra clothes, accessories, the whole deal.

I played with it for maybe three days.

The crying drove me insane, it would randomly start crying at night, not even my brother did that. At the time, 7 year old me was convinced this doll was deliberately tormenting me. In hindsight, I was probably leaving it in a position that triggered the sensors or something like that lol.

By day four, I had removed the batteries and banished it to the bottom of my wardrobe, where she resides to this day.

Never even got to take her to school to show my friends. I just went straight back to my dinosaurs and stuffed animals.

Looking back, that doll was probably my free trial to motherhood and I just noped out of it.