The "joys" of marriage

Okay, so Jakob and I don't always see eye-to-eye. Thats a good thing. We're two different people who have very different attitudes and approaches to things. Take for example what happened yesterday.

We were both up in the loft watching an episode of Legend of the Seeker (yes, geeky I know but I love the costumes!) when I heard some children's voices outside very close to the house. Normally I don't think twice about stuff like that because there is a park right outside our backyard gate, but these voices were coming from the front of the house. So I went to the window to see what was going on. There were 2 kids standing in my driveway and another 3 running around in my yard yelling. These kids were all 10-12 or over. Now, I have a big issue with people not respecting other people's property. Just because I don't have a fence around the front of my yard does not give you permission to go playing around on it when you feel like it. So I went down to the front door and flung it open just in time to see 4 of the kids run around to the side of my house.

"What are you doing in my yard?" I yelled at the kid that I could see.

"Chasing a dog," he replied, and ran around the side of my house.

Now, the side gate was damaged in a recent windstorm so it doesn't latch anymore. The other 4 kids were IN the backyard. They had pushed open the gate and chased the dog into my backyard. I wasn't happy. Not at all.

"Do you NOT have any sense? WHY are you in my backyard? Get out of my yard" I yelled--again--at the closest kid.

"Trying to get the dog," one of the boys replied, while still running around in my yard. This "dog" that they were talking about was a small little yapper puffball.

"This is trespassing you know! Get out of my yard!" I yelled. "You should know better than to go running into other people's private yards without permission!"

"No one has cared before!" the only girl yelled back at me.

"Stay out of my yard and off my property," I said--a bit calmer, but still had my voiced raised.

Then the kids ran off after the dog down the street. No "I'm sorry" or "It won't happen again". Nothing. Of course I'd be fuming.

What would have happened if one of those kids had gotten hurt in my yard while I didn't know they were there?? I would have had to pay for it.

Now, either I was raised with parents who actually talked with me about stuff like this or I just have more sense than most. I would NEVER think about going into another person's yard just to retrieve something without that person's permission, even at a very young age. I've had balls go into other people's backyards before and I've always gone up to the door, knocked, and said that I think I had knocked something into their yard and if I could go back there and get it. We had Oscar get out once and go into our neighbor's yard. I went to their door and asked permission to go into their yard to get Oscar--all the while my brother watched Oscar from our side of the fence.

Now, in my opinion--which doesn't count much but this is my blog so I can say it--these kids were in the wrong and were old enough to know the difference between trespassing and asking permission. The way one of the boys looked at me while I was telling them off was as if he'd never been yelled/scolded before. He had this perplexed look on his face.

Now here is where Jakob and I differ. I'm sure that if I would have "let" him "handle" the situation, it would have turned out completely different, but I'm not of that mind. If I can do it, then I'm going to do it and I'll do it my way--especially when it concerns something that I'm co-paying for. We actually had a heated discussion afterwards about how he felt I had "handled the situation wrong" and how I felt "I did nothing wrong". I'm totally fine with the way I handled it. If I become known as the mean lady on the block, then so be it. Maybe it will keep kids off my property who don't belong there. IF 1 of them had come up to the door and asked if he could get his dog which had ran into my backyard, I would have accompanied him and been fine with it, but for them to just run in like it was their own backyard, I'm not happy. It goes back to what I have been saying for a very long time: many kids today aren't taught to respect other people's property and it shows in everything they do. Being a teacher, I see the fact that they don't have respect for anything any more. Many think that they are "entitled" to do what they want, when they want, how they want, without any regards to the outcome.

Let's just say that the gate is now bungeed tightly shut until we have time to fix it (which may end up being my spring break project).