AITA For walling off my backyard because I dislike 2 kids and depriving everyone else as a result?

A Reddit user shared their concerns about their sister’s upcoming destination wedding, which has caused tension within their family. The wedding requires significant travel expenses, making it difficult for many relatives to attend, and the user feels their sister isn’t considering the impact on others.

After expressing their worries, the sister accused them of ruining her happiness, and now other family members are siding against the user. To find out more about the situation and how others have responded, read the full story below…

‘ AITA For walling off my backyard because I dislike 2 kids and depriving everyone else as a result?’

I sure feel like TA but I don’t think I am so help me out here. I live in a non English speaking European country and because of history that means land borders between properties are sometimes very weird. Well that is the case with my house and the neighbors,

all our houses are about the same size yet out of all the land behind our houses my area is huge I own like 90% of all land there reaching all the way to the woods far behind our houses, meanwhile all my neighbors essentially got tiny strip right behind their houses.

Now the part right behind my house is fenced off yet the rest is pretty much open and my wife and daughters like to use it for gardening. The field is used by most of the neighborhood boys to play football on as it is the only flat piece of grassland around they always ask for permission to use it before hand and I always allow it on the condition I get no complaints if I tell them to leave and they don’t litter.

I also recently had a pool installed to the far back of my property and fenced it off, this is important later. Well this is where the issue starts, recently a new family moved in and they seem to think it is public land. I kept catching their kids running around through the flowers and vegetable garden and they even moved their grill on the field and held a picnic on my land.

I keep telling them off and informing it is my land, but they just ignore me and the kids sometimes wont leave when I tell them to. A month ago the kids even climbed over the fence around the pool and when I got them out and went to their parents they just said “Oh we figured it was a public pool”,

I had hoped that was the end of it yet these people build a fire pit in the 3 days I was away from my house and when I got back I found it with a bunch of empty beer cans around. That was the last straw for me and I hired a company owned by a buddy of mine from when I used to do construction work, bought all the supplies,

and 7 days later and a lot of money lighter my entire property was walled off and whenever anyone asked I told them why I was doing that and who they could thank for it.
Well now the new family is treated as if they are a pest and all the neighborhood kids are gutted they lost their football field which has resulted in them picking on the new neighbors kids.

I honestly feel pretty terrible, but I also feel like I gave them plenty of warnings before taking drastic actions.

Here’s what people had to say to OP:

pintopetz −  NTA. It just takes a few assholes to ruin it for everyone. You repeatedly told them it was private property and they repeatedly trespassed and disrespected it anyway.

Fetus5 −  NTA. Kids/their parents ruined it for everyone. Just tell everyone else who mentions it, that’s what happened. You could always install a gate, and let some kids in to play football and such, if you felt bad about it. (You don’t have to at all).

Narcissa96 −  NTA. It’s your property and you were very understanding. Also, I don’t think it’s bad you tell people who ask you, whose behaviour it was that ultimately made you decide to wall it off. It’s the truth.

mk36109 −  Nta, not only did you give them plenty of warnings, but that is a huge saftey and liability issue if people are out there without your knowledge doing things like starting fires and getting in a pool without permission or you being aware. Someone could get really hurt or your property could be completely destroy.

Its good the other neighbors dont blame you and that really shows even they think nta. These kids parents are either dumb or irresponsible. Perhaps if there is still enough open room in the yards to play, you can let the good kids play(indoor soccer with walls is a smaller field often and a lot of fun)

and you can maybe give the new kids a couple of chances if they follow your instructions(maybe they have learned their lesson) and if not then just dont let them join

pimentoplanes −  Nta. There was a post here about a guy who had pretty much the same situation as you. He had a ton of land and let the neighborhood kids use it and put up a soccer net there. One of them broke his arm running and the dad decided to sue him and won, so the neighbor put up a fence and wouldnt let anyone use the land anymore.

It sucks because you’re trying to do a nice thing but at the end of the day it’s a huge liability. Imagine if one of those kids drowns in that pool bc their parents don’t supervise them? At a certain point it’s for their own safety. You did the right thing and it’s a shame the other kids suffer but dont feel guilty about it

LightningMom −  Wait… they BUILT A FIRE PIT ON YOUR PROPERTY in the few days you were away?. Please tell me more.. NTA.

BisquickNinja −  NTA. And. This is why we can’t have nice things. They abused your generosity and were shocked when you’d had enough?. Talk about entitlement.

Master-Manipulation −  NTA The pool incident alone was a huge safety hazard. Imagine if the kids drowned! You’d be up to your neck in lawsuits. The fire pit was also dangerous too as they could’ve put the land on fire. You need to protect yourself financially and legally first before feeling pity

StevenZissouniverse −  NTA let me tell you living in the US backyard pools are a huge liability when it comes to kids playing unsupervised I think you did what you had to do after they left you no other choice. They were disrespectful and they were litter bugs. They might “think its public land” until one of their kids gets hurt on it,

then they’ll know whose property it is soon enough when they want to sue (again from the US where frivolous lawsuits have crippled our courts and in fact our freedom of speech and freedom of the press).

The fact that you feel bad about it shows that you’re NTA. It sucks that those kids lost their football field especially because they followed the rules but it just takes one bad apple to ruin it for everyone.

DanDamage12 −  NTA. There may be a language barrier, is it a Wall or a fence? Can the kids just ask you to be let in to play football?