There are “neighborhood kids being kids” problems, and then there are “your children are a public menace and your parenting is nonexistent” problems. This, my friends, is the latter. One Reddit user is wondering if she’d be the ahole for calling the police on her neighbor’s kids, and frankly, I’m wondering why she hasn’t done it yet.
Our narrator has lived in her urban neighborhood for over a decade. It’s a nice, quiet place with a shared driveway that connects to about eight garages. A peaceful existence, until the “new renters” moved in across the way. And with them came chaos.
The main source of said chaos? The renter’s teenage son (around middle school age) and his friends. Their weapon of choice? E-bikes. Their arena? The shared driveway. Their accessories? No helmets, constant cursing, and “hateful slurs.” Oh, and they’re “very loud.” So loud you can hear them inside her house with all the windows shut.
This isn’t just “kids being loud.” This is a f*cking nuisance. And a danger.
The minute they arrived, it was a full-blown e-bike circus. Zipping up and down the driveway, into the main street, popping wheelies. All with no helmets, no adult supervision. The neighborhood had officially become their personal skate park.
After a few days, a brave neighbor tried to talk to them. Politely. He reminded them of the HOA’s rule against playing in the driveway due to safety concerns. The kids “acknowledged it.” And then… kept right on going.
A few days later, the neighbor tried again. He asked to speak to the parent. The parent, of course, was “not at home.” Because why would a parent be supervising their helmetless children on e-bikes popping wheelies in a shared driveway? That’s just crazy talk!
When the neighbor finally cornered the dad, the dad’s response was a masterclass in parental abdication: “he couldn’t control it because he’s a single parent.”
Oh, so being a single parent means you get a free pass to let your kids run wild, endanger themselves and others, and scream slurs? Newsflash, buddy: plenty of single parents manage to raise respectful, safe children. That’s not an excuse; it’s a pathetic cop-out.
But the dad wasn’t done. The neighbor, trying to appeal to his basic humanity, explained that an elderly woman lived next door and the driveway needed to be clear for emergency access. And the dad’s genius response? “oh that lady doesn’t go anywhere.”
I am screaming. He literally said, “that old lady isn’t worth my inconvenience.” The audacity! The sheer, unmitigated disrespect for his neighbors, for safety, for basic human decency.
Several neighbors have complained to the HOA. The dad might have talked to the kid, but “it didn’t seem to do much.” The behavior has “improved slightly,” but the kids are still out there for 1-2 hours every day, and the “hateful slurs” haven’t stopped.
So now, our narrator is considering calling the police. And her reasons are solid gold: unsupervised kids, no helmets, e-bikes (a huge safety concern!), hateful slurs, and a complete lack of consequences. She knows the cops might only give tickets, but she’s hoping for a “reality check.”
Would she be the ahole for involving the police? Absolutely not. N-T-A. You are not the ahole. This isn’t about “kids being kids.” This is about dangerous, disrespectful, and potentially illegal behavior being enabled by a completely negligent parent.