Couple Lets Neighbors’ Kids Play In Their Backyard But Changes Their Mind After Neighborhood Karen Demands They Get Rid Of Their 2 Dogs
We all like to encourage being kind to each other and sharing things with people, because it builds a sense of community and is just a nice thing to do.
However, nobody ever warns you about the cluster-truck that might result after you have shared something with someone because people are complicated creatures and that’s why we can’t have nice things.
One couple shared a story of just that—how they ended up acquiring a piece of land that was historically treated as a neighborhood park, which they were cool with, but then some kids got smeared in some dog dung, leading to some angry parents who got so mad, they had to ruin it for everyone.
More info: Reddit
Dog poop can ruin more than just your day—in this guy’s case, it also caused a lot of drama in the neighborhood
Image credits: mslavick (not the actual photo)
A couple in their mid 30s has recently acquired a house with some pretty sweet land attached to it. The previous owners were a childless old couple who would let the neighbors’ kids play and enjoy life in their huge backyard. And once this new couple moved in and the neighbors approached them about this, they were fine with continuing this tradition.
They did, however, point out some guidelines to follow, namely that the if the kids ended up hurting themselves, it wouldn’t be the couple’s fault, and that they wouldn’t be at all expected to watch over them while they played. The neighbors were cool with that.
Usually, they would see groups of kids running around, or kids with adults supervising them without any incidents. All fine and dandy.
A man turned to Reddit to figure out if he was wrong to stop allowing kids to play in his giant backyard
Image credits: u/aitakidslawn
So, one day, the guy’s parents decided to move to a retirement home, which meant that they had now inherited two lovely pooches—an 11-year-old Belgian shepherd and a 12-year-old German shepherd and Belgian mix.
As you might have guessed by now, the dogs became somewhat permanent inhabitants of the backyard. And as you probably might not have guessed, they were good dogs and, no, they had no problems with all of the people coming to visit. The local kids even took them on walks. All was well.
A couple bought a house with a lot of lawn space where the whole neighborhood used to hang out
Image credits: u/aitakidslawn
The point where conflict started was actually when all of the pooping began. Now, the couple did go out into the backyard once a week to scoop up all of the poop, so regular upkeep was established.
However, one day an unknown lady came up to the wife and just went ballistic, demanding they get rid of the dogs. Apparently, her 6-year-old and his friends, who frequented this little park, returned home with their hands smeared in dog poop. Unfortunately, there is no official explanation as to why this happened, but OP speculated in the comments that they were likely playing as there were faces drawn on the tree in poo.
Then two dogs appeared, which left a lot of unsupervised poop that unsupervised kids decided to mess with
Image credits: u/aitakidslawn
Whatever the case, the woman started demanding they get rid of the dogs, or else her kids wouldn’t come over any more and she would press charges for child endangerment. The wife told her off, and pointed out that if she would have simply supervised her kids, this wouldn’t have happened.
One stormed-off Karen later, she returned with a petition with about 6 signatures demanding they get rid of the dogs. The owners of the lovely property did the complete opposite—they simply closed off the area and left a sign explaining why.
And then a wild Karen showed up with demands after one of her 6-year-olds came back home smeared in said poop!
Image credits: u/aitakidslawn
Some of the nice neighbors came by after the incident, begging the couple to change their minds, but they simply don’t want to risk another conflict like this, and they ain’t gonna supervise the kids. Sadly, they are now arguing with the remaining part of the neighborhood who feel it’s unfair everyone is punished because of this one person. This is what prompted the OP to turn to the internet for some perspective.
The folks of Reddit sided with the owners of the land, not just because it’s their land, dogs, and decision, but also because the neighbors should actually be directing their anger at the person who ruined it for them.
People online weren’t taking any of it and decided that OP is not at fault here
Besides that, people called the “Karen” super entitled thinking she can just come over and demand someone gets rid of their dogs, putting them into distress.
Yet one other commenter pointed out that on a legal level, if he allows people to play on the land, it is ultimately his own responsibility, no matter what they agree upon, so he can never win in this situation.
The community ruled that OP is not the a-hole, and the post got a modest 5,700 upvotes with a bit over 20 Reddit awards. You can check out the entire post here, but don’t go just yet!
We have a slew of other Am I The A-Hole posts that you can check out here, and you can also share your thoughts on this in the comment section below!
Hold up- so this lady thought it was ok to ask someone to get rid of dogs from THEIR PRIVATE property because HER KIDS got poop on their hands while being on said private property??? I mean, the audacity. And then to get signatures, which im sure she forged.
A signature means nothing without a name. So I'm guessing full names are there, and you now know who these neighbours truly are.
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No way. I would have nipped this in the bud the moment I signed the papers and my house became mine. What the previous owners did with their property is their business but now that it's mine there's no way that I would continue this. My backyard isn't a park or a playground. I'd sell that stuff to neighbors with kids.
It's better this way anyway. Even though the parents promised not to sue you know that would be a lie the moment anything did happen. I just don't get why so many people think they're entitled to someone's property when there's new owners. I went through this too to a lesser extent. A woman showed up saying she'd helped the previous owner plant flowers and vegetables on the land and wanted to take some. She kept showing up, and the plants were attracting too many bugs, so I just dug everything up to make her go away.
You can tell this it's about america from all the worries about liability.
United States of America. Other countries on (North, South and Central American) continent not as concerned with liability. I suspect the problem stems from not have universal health care, so people are (almost) forced to sue so they are not completely out of pocket for medical bills.
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Are we just going to overlook the face that the kids had poop on their hands because THEY WERE DRAWING ON TREES WITH IT!??? Not once when I was a child did I even consider picking up poop and playing with it.. seems like maybe the mom needs to parent a bit better.. 🤷
Unfortunately liability can not be limited by any wavier/release; check your homeowners insurance details.Way too many variables beyond OP control. As soon as the word endangerment is used all bets are off. Definitely NTA here. Post signs on your locked fence referring all inquiries to the KaKa neighbor. I'm sure that will clear up what's truly up. Gee, Jr got poo'd how? By drawing with poo. Perhaps KaKa mom plans on Jr to become a performance artist in the future.
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I have two dogs too. I certainly wouldn't allow the neighbourhood kids into my garden. Mind you we clean up our dogs mess several times a day not once a week. Yuk.
Puppies are like poop machines, but a healthy adult or senior dog doesn't. If your dog is pooping so much you need to pick up several times a day, you may want to talk to your vet.
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I'd put up a sign that says to direct all complaints and blame to the one lady.
A friend at Mom's church was an electrician. He had some sort of electrical issue in his backyard that he was working on. Documented EVERYTHING, blocked and roped the area off, and made sure all the neighbors (parents and kids) knew not to go near it. One evening while the family was out to dinner or some such, one of the neighborhood kids snuck into the yard, went to poke around where he wasn't supposed to. The family came home to a fried kid, dead in their yard. Luckily everything was documented and while it went to court the judge sided with Mom's friend that he had done everything necessary for safety
Is it just me or have kids gotten stupider? I’m 65 and we did lots of stupid dangerous unsupervised stuff. But messing around with clearly marked scary electrical things? Nope. Oh, unless a dare was involved, of course!
Load More Replies... Go around and get the neighborhood to sign a petition about how wrong that mother was and then STILL don't let the kids in. Put copies of that petition on your fence showing people agree what she did was wrong.
Who let's a 6 year old run around the neighborhood unsupervised! 6 is way too young for that.
Thank you! Just what I thought! And what the hell is wrong with a kid who PLAYS with dog poop for gods sake
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This is why most seemingly ridiculous laws have been implemented everywhere. Because one rotten apple feeling entitled to misuse their privilege by (threathening to) sueing the providers of the privilege. (Biting the hand that feeds you-syndrome). This applies to every single aspect of law. So ultimately, everything grows stricter and more and more limited, until as a civilian, you have no freedom left anymore.
The entitlement of some people just amazes me. I had a neighbor once that came over while my husband was away (we'd just married and they didn't know me well) to tell me that my dog was barking too much. It was his dog, and there was a bad thunderstorm. She was inside and was scared. I was trying to calm her during all this. I apologized but she insisted that we get her "de-barked"........ I told her to eff off and slammed the door in her face. De bark my dog Bc she's scared. If she barked all the time, I MIGHT be more understanding, but she was sick a wonderful dog- well trained, obedient, and just a sweetheart. Still makes me mad
Yep my immediate thought was about liability. I know OP told the parents that if something happened, they weren't responsible. That's not going to fly legally if someone gets hurt. Plus one of the kids (or parents that want the dogs gone,) could let the dogs out. With or without the dogs, it's too big of risk.
Where I live, the land owner is inherently liable for anything that happens on their property, even trespassers, so there is no way in h*** to protect yourself from the liability. Even a signed waiver only limits your liability but it can never eliminate it. My other concern is for the unsupervised children having the opportunity to mistreat the dogs, not all children have been taught how to treat animals properly.
So there are no public playgrounds in the US? In here if you have a public playground, you must make sure it's in good condition, but otherewise it's the parents' problem... It is really weird that owner should be responsible for random people on their property in a country where tresspassing is a crime.
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I’d make it a rule that if the kids want to play there, then they must clean up the poo as a chore in exchange. If they don’t want to, then they can’t play there. Win win
Probably for the best anyway -- despite any oral agreement you had with the parents about liabilty if any of the kids get hurt, if one of them fell out of a tree and broke their neck, they'd be coming after you for liabilty.
Or god forbid hurt their violin, tennis, polo, lacrosse, fencing, ballet or skiing limb.
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Post the complaint letter next to the signs you put up about no more playing in the yard. Direct them to go talk to the neighbor who complained. She let a 6 year old play with no supervision? I think, regardless of what the owners say, she expects them to take that mantle.
To be honest, I wouldn't have allowed the kids in the yard right from the word go. Regardless of what the "agreement" was, if a child gets hurt, it's the owner of the properties fault. Hard no from me.
Excuse me! This is your property, no one has the right to tell you to get rid of your pets on your property. If these people want a park to play in tell him to petition their mayor or their HOA to build them one.
The self-entitlement on some people really astounds me. My only hope is that their kids, grow up to be entirely different from these sewer scum of parents.
You should only let some ppl in who you know. I know ppl with a big yard and only friends from their son could come over sometimes. You could have only let some nice neighbours come in, but if one may come, the other wants too and one may sue. Too bad. Just close the gate. It's for the dogs now.
Ah well, all it takes is one Karen to ruin the fun for everyone. I'd have considered letting the other children come back and maybe leaving the poo scooper out on a nail on the fence and having the kids scoop the poop to the end of the yard or a poo pail at the end of the yard. No reason for the other kids to suffer because one neighbor was an unreasonable itch.
Once a week cleaning up the poop is not enough though. Come summertime it will smell badly and people will complain about that. Nor is it very sanitary to have your yard full of dog poop.
How is she gonna get mad at someone for that? The kids aren't being supervised, the owners had no obligations to and they themselves (The kids) Saw poop and thought it was okay to play with it?
I wouldn't have been comfortable from a legal standpoint for having unsupervised kids playing in my yard from the beginning. If anyone were injured the homeowner would definitely be liable..
Wow. A whole *six* signatures? Out of a neighbourhood of *how* many?
Haha, I love that the Karen neighbor really thought it was somehow a THREAT to say "well my snotty little brats won't come over anymore!" Good b***h! Have fun cleaning up the dog s**t and watch your own damned kids from now on 🖕
My wife has a blackbelt in kung fu. Called Gong fu in China. She is also ex-military (PLA) and an ex policed officer. I would have told her to render #karen unconscious, then called the police to report a property trespass and claim "Stand Your Ground" as this is FL. #karen would be in jail right now begging the 6 signatories to bail her out...
There would be a solution for this. Just make every parents sign waivers. What is mindboggeling is that someone would demand that people get rid of their dogs on teir won private property. Unbelievable.
Pet peeve (no pun intended): Why does BP keep using the name Karen to imply an unpleasant person? This site is so woke, except to people actually named Karen apparently. What if someone wrote "Ha ha, that dude was being so a dumb, a real Robertas." Not so fun is it? Oh how the turntables. (I don't think that by the way, you seem like an awesome dude.)
It's literally what everyone calls entitled twats now a days. It isn't Bored Panda, they're just reposting someone else's original post.
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I'm f*****g tired of the use of "Karen" in a derogatory manner. If the person in question is named Karen then fine. If not, let her actions disparage her own f*****g name. And the people who use Karen in a derogatory manner can go f**k themselves too.
I too am offended by collections of letters. /s Both of you have used offensive words. Get bent, hypocrites
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Anyone catch that they substitute s**t with shirt and f**k off with get out? I found the s**t/shirt thing very funny. Also, what a Karen.
My record-scratch moment was: only once a week, they clean up after their TWO dogs. We had ONE dog for 16 years and we cleaned up every day, or every other if we were busy/away from home. Goodness.
It's their yard. They could literally never pick up the dog poop if they wanted
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Hold up- so this lady thought it was ok to ask someone to get rid of dogs from THEIR PRIVATE property because HER KIDS got poop on their hands while being on said private property??? I mean, the audacity. And then to get signatures, which im sure she forged.
A signature means nothing without a name. So I'm guessing full names are there, and you now know who these neighbours truly are.
Load More Replies... No way. I would have nipped this in the bud the moment I signed the papers and my house became mine. What the previous owners did with their property is their business but now that it's mine there's no way that I would continue this. My backyard isn't a park or a playground. I'd sell that stuff to neighbors with kids.
It's better this way anyway. Even though the parents promised not to sue you know that would be a lie the moment anything did happen. I just don't get why so many people think they're entitled to someone's property when there's new owners. I went through this too to a lesser extent. A woman showed up saying she'd helped the previous owner plant flowers and vegetables on the land and wanted to take some. She kept showing up, and the plants were attracting too many bugs, so I just dug everything up to make her go away.
You can tell this it's about america from all the worries about liability.
United States of America. Other countries on (North, South and Central American) continent not as concerned with liability. I suspect the problem stems from not have universal health care, so people are (almost) forced to sue so they are not completely out of pocket for medical bills.
Load More Replies... Are we just going to overlook the face that the kids had poop on their hands because THEY WERE DRAWING ON TREES WITH IT!??? Not once when I was a child did I even consider picking up poop and playing with it.. seems like maybe the mom needs to parent a bit better.. 🤷
Unfortunately liability can not be limited by any wavier/release; check your homeowners insurance details.Way too many variables beyond OP control. As soon as the word endangerment is used all bets are off. Definitely NTA here. Post signs on your locked fence referring all inquiries to the KaKa neighbor. I'm sure that will clear up what's truly up. Gee, Jr got poo'd how? By drawing with poo. Perhaps KaKa mom plans on Jr to become a performance artist in the future.
Load More Replies... I have two dogs too. I certainly wouldn't allow the neighbourhood kids into my garden. Mind you we clean up our dogs mess several times a day not once a week. Yuk.
Puppies are like poop machines, but a healthy adult or senior dog doesn't. If your dog is pooping so much you need to pick up several times a day, you may want to talk to your vet.
Load More Replies... I'd put up a sign that says to direct all complaints and blame to the one lady.
A friend at Mom's church was an electrician. He had some sort of electrical issue in his backyard that he was working on. Documented EVERYTHING, blocked and roped the area off, and made sure all the neighbors (parents and kids) knew not to go near it. One evening while the family was out to dinner or some such, one of the neighborhood kids snuck into the yard, went to poke around where he wasn't supposed to. The family came home to a fried kid, dead in their yard. Luckily everything was documented and while it went to court the judge sided with Mom's friend that he had done everything necessary for safety
Is it just me or have kids gotten stupider? I’m 65 and we did lots of stupid dangerous unsupervised stuff. But messing around with clearly marked scary electrical things? Nope. Oh, unless a dare was involved, of course!
Load More Replies... Go around and get the neighborhood to sign a petition about how wrong that mother was and then STILL don't let the kids in. Put copies of that petition on your fence showing people agree what she did was wrong.
Who let's a 6 year old run around the neighborhood unsupervised! 6 is way too young for that.
Thank you! Just what I thought! And what the hell is wrong with a kid who PLAYS with dog poop for gods sake
Load More Replies... This is why most seemingly ridiculous laws have been implemented everywhere. Because one rotten apple feeling entitled to misuse their privilege by (threathening to) sueing the providers of the privilege. (Biting the hand that feeds you-syndrome). This applies to every single aspect of law. So ultimately, everything grows stricter and more and more limited, until as a civilian, you have no freedom left anymore.
The entitlement of some people just amazes me. I had a neighbor once that came over while my husband was away (we'd just married and they didn't know me well) to tell me that my dog was barking too much. It was his dog, and there was a bad thunderstorm. She was inside and was scared. I was trying to calm her during all this. I apologized but she insisted that we get her "de-barked"........ I told her to eff off and slammed the door in her face. De bark my dog Bc she's scared. If she barked all the time, I MIGHT be more understanding, but she was sick a wonderful dog- well trained, obedient, and just a sweetheart. Still makes me mad
Yep my immediate thought was about liability. I know OP told the parents that if something happened, they weren't responsible. That's not going to fly legally if someone gets hurt. Plus one of the kids (or parents that want the dogs gone,) could let the dogs out. With or without the dogs, it's too big of risk.
Where I live, the land owner is inherently liable for anything that happens on their property, even trespassers, so there is no way in h*** to protect yourself from the liability. Even a signed waiver only limits your liability but it can never eliminate it. My other concern is for the unsupervised children having the opportunity to mistreat the dogs, not all children have been taught how to treat animals properly.
So there are no public playgrounds in the US? In here if you have a public playground, you must make sure it's in good condition, but otherewise it's the parents' problem... It is really weird that owner should be responsible for random people on their property in a country where tresspassing is a crime.
Load More Replies... I’d make it a rule that if the kids want to play there, then they must clean up the poo as a chore in exchange. If they don’t want to, then they can’t play there. Win win
Probably for the best anyway -- despite any oral agreement you had with the parents about liabilty if any of the kids get hurt, if one of them fell out of a tree and broke their neck, they'd be coming after you for liabilty.
Or god forbid hurt their violin, tennis, polo, lacrosse, fencing, ballet or skiing limb.
Load More Replies... Post the complaint letter next to the signs you put up about no more playing in the yard. Direct them to go talk to the neighbor who complained. She let a 6 year old play with no supervision? I think, regardless of what the owners say, she expects them to take that mantle.
To be honest, I wouldn't have allowed the kids in the yard right from the word go. Regardless of what the "agreement" was, if a child gets hurt, it's the owner of the properties fault. Hard no from me.
Excuse me! This is your property, no one has the right to tell you to get rid of your pets on your property. If these people want a park to play in tell him to petition their mayor or their HOA to build them one.
The self-entitlement on some people really astounds me. My only hope is that their kids, grow up to be entirely different from these sewer scum of parents.
You should only let some ppl in who you know. I know ppl with a big yard and only friends from their son could come over sometimes. You could have only let some nice neighbours come in, but if one may come, the other wants too and one may sue. Too bad. Just close the gate. It's for the dogs now.
Ah well, all it takes is one Karen to ruin the fun for everyone. I'd have considered letting the other children come back and maybe leaving the poo scooper out on a nail on the fence and having the kids scoop the poop to the end of the yard or a poo pail at the end of the yard. No reason for the other kids to suffer because one neighbor was an unreasonable itch.
Once a week cleaning up the poop is not enough though. Come summertime it will smell badly and people will complain about that. Nor is it very sanitary to have your yard full of dog poop.
How is she gonna get mad at someone for that? The kids aren't being supervised, the owners had no obligations to and they themselves (The kids) Saw poop and thought it was okay to play with it?
I wouldn't have been comfortable from a legal standpoint for having unsupervised kids playing in my yard from the beginning. If anyone were injured the homeowner would definitely be liable..
Wow. A whole *six* signatures? Out of a neighbourhood of *how* many?
Haha, I love that the Karen neighbor really thought it was somehow a THREAT to say "well my snotty little brats won't come over anymore!" Good b***h! Have fun cleaning up the dog s**t and watch your own damned kids from now on 🖕
My wife has a blackbelt in kung fu. Called Gong fu in China. She is also ex-military (PLA) and an ex policed officer. I would have told her to render #karen unconscious, then called the police to report a property trespass and claim "Stand Your Ground" as this is FL. #karen would be in jail right now begging the 6 signatories to bail her out...
There would be a solution for this. Just make every parents sign waivers. What is mindboggeling is that someone would demand that people get rid of their dogs on teir won private property. Unbelievable.
Pet peeve (no pun intended): Why does BP keep using the name Karen to imply an unpleasant person? This site is so woke, except to people actually named Karen apparently. What if someone wrote "Ha ha, that dude was being so a dumb, a real Robertas." Not so fun is it? Oh how the turntables. (I don't think that by the way, you seem like an awesome dude.)
It's literally what everyone calls entitled twats now a days. It isn't Bored Panda, they're just reposting someone else's original post.
Load More Replies... I'm f*****g tired of the use of "Karen" in a derogatory manner. If the person in question is named Karen then fine. If not, let her actions disparage her own f*****g name. And the people who use Karen in a derogatory manner can go f**k themselves too.
I too am offended by collections of letters. /s Both of you have used offensive words. Get bent, hypocrites
Load More Replies... Anyone catch that they substitute s**t with shirt and f**k off with get out? I found the s**t/shirt thing very funny. Also, what a Karen.
My record-scratch moment was: only once a week, they clean up after their TWO dogs. We had ONE dog for 16 years and we cleaned up every day, or every other if we were busy/away from home. Goodness.
It's their yard. They could literally never pick up the dog poop if they wanted
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