Parent bans neighborhood kids from playing in driveway after destroying his property, neighbors accuse him of flaunting wealth after building backyard playground for his own kid: 'They became increasingly reckless'

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
Apr 21, 2025 9:00 AM EDT

There's nothing quite as nostalgic as daydreaming back to playing in the neighborhood as a kid. The whole block was basically your playground, riding bikes in the street, setting up capture the flag across backyards, hopping fences to grab a rogue ball. Parents didn't seem to care much, as long as you were outside and not glued to a screen (or at least not bothering them). Someone's yard, driveway, or treehouse was always fair game as a kid.

But once you become a homeowner, that carefree attitude starts to shift. Suddenly, the cracks in your driveway and dents in your car aren't just part of the fun anymore. This dad tried to be understanding, but after one too many property-damaging incidents, he kicked the neighbor kids out and built a backyard playground just for his own kid, which didn't seem to go over too well. 

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  • Cheezburger Image 10495565568
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

  • "AITA for buying my kid a "playground" after "denying" the neighbor kids a place to play?"

    This seems ridiculous to me and I'm pretty confident I'm in the right but here goes. For the last year my neighbors kids have been. running amuck on my
    via Bitter_Remote_5213
  • driveway. At first I was empathetic as they don't have much of a yard and we don't live on a culdasac. (They have their own driveway though).
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  • Cheezburger Image 10495566080
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+
  • Over the last year I've nicely requested they stop doing something when it threatened my home or car, for example throwing bills/Frisbee and repeatedly hitting my windows. When things
    via Bitter_Remote_5213
  • like this would happen I would go outside, calmly, and ask them to not play directly in front of my house or on my driveway. They became increasingly more confident, and
    via Bitter_Remote_5213
  • reckless. Breaking large rocks on my driveway with a hammer and throwing the chunks at my walls. So finally, I called the cops and had them trespassed because
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  • the parents knew but didn't care as long as their kids are outside and not bugging them. This has coincided with my daughters mobility
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  • reaching the point where she wants to climb and play outside, and the weather's nice so I want to put up a swingset/slide playhouse for her in the backyard.
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  • I babysit so I'm getting one that can support two or three little kids weight. A friend told me that I was an AH because I had "eliminated" their space
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  • to play and now I was going to "flaunt" my "wealth" by putting up a "playground" in my backyard that they would get to stare at from their house windows.
    via Bitter_Remote_5213

    Maybe the kids shouldn't have pushed their limits!

  • The worst part is I probably would have let the neighbor kids come over and use it if they hadn't been such turds this year.
    via Bitter_Remote_5213

  • And sometimes, you wish you just didn't have neighbors at all. 

    Up next: 23 Neighbor Memes for When You’d Rather Pretend You Didn’t See Them

  • Dry_release02 Your friend is an idiot. NTA
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  • CarmenSweet your yard isn't a public park, and you don't owe anyone access to your property, especially not
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  • kids who've disrespected it. Do what's best for your child and ignore the guilt trips; you're not flaunting anything, you're parenting.
    via CarmenSweet
  • Gen-Xwmn What? Your friend is ridiculous. You don't owe your private yard to anyone.
    via Gen-Xwmn
  • Constantly_Curious- Opening your home to neighborhood kids to play on your playground equipment is opening
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  • yourself to legal liability. If the parents don't care how they've trashed your area in the past, you can expect more of the same with your new stuff.
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  • Your yard is your yard. Your home is your home. Your playground is your playground. If you give in, you'll regret it. The person
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  • who is the AH who said: I had "eliminated" their space to play and now I was going to "flaunt" my "wealth" by putting up a
    via Constantly_Curious-
  • "playground" in my backyard that they would get to stare at from their house windows. You don't owe anyone
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  • anything especially when they've disrespected you in the past.
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  • Apprehensive Ruin692 NTA They are completely unrelated
    via Apprehensive_Ruin692
  • Dazzling_Flight_3365 Drop this "friend" because they really aren't.
    via Dazzling_Flight_3365
  • SuccessSoggy3529 If you don't have a fence around your back yard and play set, you m8ght consider getting one, just
    via SuccessSoggy3529
  • for liability reasons. Sure, the kids could climb over, but you could argue that it's fenced and therefore no one should be in the yard.
    via SuccessSoggy3529

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Tags

neighbors lawn kids neighborhood yard neighborhood-drama petty revenge playground parenting swing backyard playset Bad Neighbor trespassing karma children entitled people
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