Dealing with moron neighbors

[psuasskicker]

tl;dr cliffs at bottom...

We live in a great neighborhood. Our particular house is about three off the cul de sac ("cds"), but the cds is all good friends or at least friendly with each other. You come into the neighborhood on one road, and you make a right into the cds or left somewhere else. Diagram below, my house the X, other houses the O's (house in question an "E")...

. .. E . O
. .O . . ..O
. .O ..cds
. .. O .. O___________
. .. O ... (street in)
. .. X . O
. .. O . O

Hopefully that gives a good enough impression of how it's laid out. Anyway, the houses around the cds are filled with kids. The houses on the corner of "street in" and in the upper left corner (marked "e" instead of "o") are houses with teenagers, but the rest of the houses around the cds have 9 kids total between the ages of newborn and 5, and then there's our newborn and our 4 year old. The kids naturally are all friends and congregate in the cds and play constantly...pretty much 28 nights per month in the summer, kids are out playing in the cds.

Now, the house marked with an E has one teen who's just starting his senior year in HS, so naturally he and all his friends are drivers. He's great about stopping at the stop sign on the "street in" and haven't had issue with him, but his friends typically roll through it. Naturally this is extremely concerning when you've got tons of kids congregating in the street and playing.

Parents are all responsible, there's always parents watching the kids and getting them to the side of the road whenever a car is coming. One of the parents in the cds have good friends who lost a child to a back-over incident, so everyone is keenly aware of the dangers involved and acts responsibly. We've seen the HS kid's g/f run the stop sign, and after the second time it happened my wife went up and had a chat with her. End of problem.

So tonight Melanie (dw) and I are out with another couple (Frank and Tracy) and their 3 year old boy, who with Ainsley (our 4yo) are biking around the cds. It was getting dark and so we're paying more attention. So HS kid starts getting buddies congregating at his house. No problem. ...

Until one of them blows the stop sign and comes tearing around the corner at about 25 mph. Melanie and Tracy get this horrified look and start grabbing the kids while Frank and I scream at this kid (who had his windows open) to slow down. The kid comes to a dead halt and Frank goes over and yells at him that there's a stop sign, which the kid tells him he didn't see (first off, yeah right; secondly, not an excuse). Frank makes sure he will never forget there's a stop sign there.

So the kid goes in the house, and after about a minute the HS kid's mother comes out and starts standing around the yard looking like she's pissed off. We're getting the kids ready to go in at that point cause it's late and dark, but Frank goes over to talk to her to see what's up. Minute later, we hear Frank saying "Oh come on" (as we're walking away) and Janice (HS kid's mom) yelling at him "You don't have a leg to stand on!"

Um, excuse me???

I went back and reiterated what I heard Frank telling her, that she doesn't get to say that when a kid blows a stop sign around the corner. She's yelling at us that we shouldn't be out here when it's dark and "these kids are good kids!" (the ones in her house) To which Frank responds again that we're not the ones breaking a law, it's the kid that blew the stop sign that's breaking the law. Then she starts rambling on about how she doesn't care if it's their kids we're pointing fingers at, but that it's everyone in the cds who will be pointing fingers back at us.

???

Cause the other families who have small kids will jump to the defense of a HS kid who blows a stop sign coming around the curve at 25 mph??? When they all have little kids that play out in that same cds??? We just walked away at that point.

WTF goes through people's heads? Seriously, this is a woman who we've all gotten along with well and seems very nice and very intelligent. I'm really baffled at what she's thinking. How do you deal with something like this / reason with someone like this?

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tl;dr cliffs:
Kids playing in cul de sac in evening as it's getting dark. HS senior's friend runs stop sign at 25 mph around corner. We parents yell at him for this. Mother of HS senior's friend comes out and rambles on about how "we don't have a leg to stand on" and we shouldn't be out and have no right yelling at driver. WTF how do you deal with moron?

- C -

[sonneti]

Shes on the rag, Senior comes in and tells a completely different side of the story, Hilarity ensues..

This is the only solution:

[MicroBob]

I'm not seeing the image that sonneti posted.

[pergesu]

I'd say at the very least you should try to get the homeowners' association and/or county to build aggresive speed bumps in your neighborhood.

It always pisses me off when people drive really fast through neighborhoods.

[psuasskicker]

[ QUOTE ]
Shes on the rag, Senior comes in and tells a completely different side of the story, Hilarity ensues..

This is the only solution:



[/ QUOTE ]

Fix link pls...

We were wondering if he told her a different story, but she didn't even argue that he stopped at the stop sign or even flinch when we told her that. Serioulsy...
Being out in the street at 2 AM - legal if we want to.
Running a stop sign ever - illegal always.
We're not the ones going to federal-pound-you-in-the-ass-prison if HS dude runs over one of our kids cause he blew a stop sign. WTF is she on our ass about?

More particularly, how do you handle someone so clearly delusional? Particularly when the neighborhood has typically gotten along so well? Hey, this only isolates them, but still it sucks that it comes to that...

- C -

[psuasskicker]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd say at the very least you should try to get the homeowners' association and/or county to build aggresive speed bumps in your neighborhood.

It always pisses me off when people drive really fast through neighborhoods.

[/ QUOTE ]

We're on vacation next week so we won't be here for a fast follow-up. But we'll definitely be approaching the HOA and will likely talk to the police about getting them out to catch drifters through that sign.

It pisses us off cause there are parents who live down the other side of the neighborhood that roll that sign. Most are good about it and we talk to anyone we see roll it, but still...there's no excuse. Everyone knows there's a dozen kids playing in that cul de sac regularly.

- C -

[miajag]

Yeah, I'm guessing the kid lied to her. Whatever, parents defend their kids beyond all boundaries of reason or logic. Videotape it and call the cops if you see him doing it again.

[ncboiler]

I only read the cliff notes; Was mom or HS senior hot?

[NT!]

i have always been of the opinion that roads are for cars. people live in the suburbs and have yards for a reason. but it sounds like you guys are pretty responsible about moving the kids out of the street.

if it was me i would just blow it off and not talk to the woman anymore. if there was someone who was a repeat offender and was really being dangerous (i.e. you're not just being a nit, i have no reason to believe you are but that disclaimer is necessary) then i would consider complaining to the cops and having them nail somebody next time they blow through the sign.

[psuasskicker]

Not her kid, it was her kid's friend. I get the point, but want to clarify that in case it wasn't clear.

- C -