Playing in the yard-to what age?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My teenage nieces and nephews still play outside. Baseball, basketball, soccer, water guns in the summer...all of that. Of course, as a previous poster said, a common area will serve the same purposes, especially as the kids get older.
But I don't think kids ever stop (or should!) playing outside.

My 15 and 12yos never use the yard in the summer, and neither do we, because the mosquitos (and heat) make it intolerable. Even when they were younger, they didn't use the yard much during those months. In cooler weather we used the park a lot.

IMO this climate makes a backyard not all that usable from May/June through September.

Yep. heat and mosquitos are killer in the summer. WE head to our neighborhood spray park in the summer or the pool.

The mosquitoes don't bother us at all. We spend lots of time at the pool, but still have plenty of time to be outside at home too. If it is too hot, there's always turning on a sprinkler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My teenage nieces and nephews still play outside. Baseball, basketball, soccer, water guns in the summer...all of that. Of course, as a previous poster said, a common area will serve the same purposes, especially as the kids get older.
But I don't think kids ever stop (or should!) playing outside.

My 15 and 12yos never use the yard in the summer, and neither do we, because the mosquitos (and heat) make it intolerable. Even when they were younger, they didn't use the yard much during those months. In cooler weather we used the park a lot.

IMO this climate makes a backyard not all that usable from May/June through September.

Yep. heat and mosquitos are killer in the summer. WE head to our neighborhood spray park in the summer or the pool.

The mosquitoes don't bother us at all. We spend lots of time at the pool, but still have plenty of time to be outside at home too. If it is too hot, there's always turning on a sprinkler.

They will bother you when you contract West Nile, as my DH did last summer. OMG, awful. They are not just a nuisance; they are a health hazard (as ticks are).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My teenage nieces and nephews still play outside. Baseball, basketball, soccer, water guns in the summer...all of that. Of course, as a previous poster said, a common area will serve the same purposes, especially as the kids get older.
But I don't think kids ever stop (or should!) playing outside.

My 15 and 12yos never use the yard in the summer, and neither do we, because the mosquitos (and heat) make it intolerable. Even when they were younger, they didn't use the yard much during those months. In cooler weather we used the park a lot.

IMO this climate makes a backyard not all that usable from May/June through September.

Yep. heat and mosquitos are killer in the summer. WE head to our neighborhood spray park in the summer or the pool.

The mosquitoes don't bother us at all. We spend lots of time at the pool, but still have plenty of time to be outside at home too. If it is too hot, there's always turning on a sprinkler.

They will bother you when you contract West Nile, as my DH did last summer. OMG, awful. They are not just a nuisance; they are a health hazard (as ticks are).

ticks, ticks, ticks...we have 5 neighbors that contracted Lymne disease last summer. 3 kids, 2 adults--different families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you hire someone to mow the lawn, OP?

In our situation, hiring a company to mow, weed, mulch, etc. plus mosquitoe squad service runs about $3,000 per year. That's lot of money in the long-run. $ that we could be saving instead or putting towards the children's education.

[Anonymous]

If you are my God awful neighbor, you lock the kid out at about age two so she can scream "mommy, mommy" all morning and the parent can ignore her. Unbelievable. I would not have believed it unless I video taped it myself. It gets tiring after a few months.