I think I know this lady. When I was a kid she used to sit on her porch and scream "Hey, you kids, git off o' my yard!!!"

I would let it go. That isnt enough foot traffic to kill your grass. Just me. I think the safety concern is a stretch and I am generally risk adverse.

Like the OP, I live on a busy street that backs to several cul-de-sacs. I sense in her post an element of frustration that I sometimes share - some of the cul-de-sac families act like our busy street is such an awful place to live but in her case they're also taking advantage of the proximity and access it provides.

We don't have the same problem, but living in such close proximity to others can pose a lot of these dilemmas. Personally I value my privacy and while I accept that there will be dog walkers staring in my front windows every day, it's unnerving to find someone in my backyard unexpectedly.

Still, I think the only solution is to embark on a big landscaping project with a fence and/or shrubbery to prevent access from the back. You can tell the neighbors Covid has made you value your outdoor space. They may be annoyed but no one would question your right to improve your property. Simply demanding the kids stay off your lawn will make you look like the neighborhood jerk.

Our house backs into a community pool parking lot and we had people that would cut through our yard to use the gate to the parking lot. The previous owners allowed this to piss off the neighbor, apparently. We stopped it because (a) liability, like you said, (b) allow it long enough and the "walkway" could become common property. We don't mind people that we knew and asked permission walking through, but strangers? with dogs? Heck no. Recently we stopped someone walking through "because she was late picking up her kid." Yeah, not our problem. Some people are incredibly rude and entitled.

I am kind of on OPs side. We had random neighborhood kids cutting through our backyard. It was not a big time saver for them over the sidewalk. It was frequent...not for the bus just to play. I think it is rude. I would never let my kids do it without permission. I told them they need to use the sidewalk. They still do it on occasion but much less.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are raising some seriously entitled children. I would be pissed at my kid if she thought she could use the neighbor's yard as her personal sidewalk.

+1. Even cutting the corner across someone's lawn would get you yelled at by someone's mother or grandmother in my neighborhood growing up. It's totally disrespectful and classless. Kids raised right don't do it.

FACTS. Really surprised by these responses. I'm from the hood, and even in th hood most well raised kids were taught not to walk through someone's yard without permission. Especially on a daily basis. Otherwise you would surely catch the hands of "The Candy Lady" or old Mr. Johnson.

I would never raise a fuss if an occasional kid or adult wanted to walk through my yard for some reason. But daily? As an entitlement? No way! I work hard to make my yard nice and it’s not fancy but I don’t want it destroyed by foot traffic!!!

Anonymous wrote:I think these kids are being very rude. I would never allow my kids to use the neighbor's yard as a cut-through, especially without asking.

I think you are well within your rights to tell them to knock it off. Do their parents even know they are cutting through your yard?

But I would not go with a "two times a week" option, that is just muddying the waters. Either no, they can't come through your yard, or yes they can.

This. I’m surprised so many people are okay with their children trespassing. You don’t get to freely walk on another person’s property because it’s convenient for you.

I'd just make a walkway somehow if lawn gets messed up. But I doubt it will. Let the poor kids thru.

The *twice a week* rule is weirder than just forbidding it entirely. Just tell them no more. You’ll be rude for it, but oh well.

I grew up on a busy street without sidewalks but my backyard faced houses that were on a street that connected to a sidewalk neighborhood where all my friends lived and where the pool was. It required cutting through three yards but was the difference between leaving the house alone or waiting for an adult who could drive us. Every summer my siblings and I would walk around the dangerous way to the front door of the neighbors’ house, ring the bell, and politely explain our situation and ask permission to use their yard. We’d repeat it for the other two yards. We were careful to use stepping stones if they had them or stay on the fence line/property line otherwise so weren’t going through the nicest part of the lawn. We would promise to walk our bikes because we thought it made us seem extra-polite.

No one ever said no, but we also never used the cut-throughs until we had permission each season. It was good practice for work, which is all about asking people with more power for something they have that you need.

Anonymous wrote:Fencing or shrubs. Our yard was the cut-through in our neighborhood - not only kids but adults who didn’t pick up after their dogs. It was as if our property was a public park. Landscaping did the trick and it feels like we got our yard back!

Look at some of these posts. Parents think it's no big deal for their kids to use someone else's yard as their own.

Fencing or shrubs. Our yard was the cut-through in our neighborhood - not only kids but adults who didn’t pick up after their dogs. It was as if our property was a public park. Landscaping did the trick and it feels like we got our yard back!

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are raising some seriously entitled children. I would be pissed at my kid if she thought she could use the neighbor's yard as her personal sidewalk.

+1. It isn't their yard, they need to stay out of it.

This is really not a big deal. I would want to cut through too.

We used to live in a cul de sac and people would cut through the main road by our fence to save time. I never noticed or cared. People were walking by the perimeter of our fence and then walk on my driveway or our neighbor’s driveway. I don’t look out the window all day and never saw these supposed offenders. Our old next door neighbor was all bent out of shape about this. She put up signs that said private property and no trespassing. I thought she was pretty ridiculous.