Awesome. One of the kids down the street was flashing a sharp piece of metal as he and couple of his siblings walked past my house and said into the air, "Y'all better watch out." Then he threw it dagger-style at his sister. Then at his brothers. Luckily the kid - perhaps all of seven years old - hasn't perfected his aim. After the gaggle, which we now call 'Lord of the Flies,' crossed over into the next block where they live, my husband walked down the street to see if LOTF had left the weapon. And there it was, a rusty steak knife blade.
We've been in the neighborhood since June (Woodridge/"greater" Brookland), and I still haven't a clue how many children live in the LOTF house. Our neighbor three doors down won't let her daughters play with them, but our immediate neighbor does. The four kids that live next door to us are wonderful - except when they're hanging with LOTF. In the past six months I've seen changes in the oldest girl (9) that don't look promising. Attitude, lying, disrespect, etc. Chalk it up to pre-pubescence if you will, but I've no doubt LOTF continues to have an increasingly bad influence on her.
Discussions with neighbors and friends have all led to the same goal: get in with the kids before they hit their teens. The methods, however, vary: buy their adoration with posicles; don't buy anything - just keep talking to them; get them to do chores and then buy them off with popsicles; put up an electrified fence around your yard, etc. I'm just not a fan of buying off kids with sugar - they'll always want more. As it stands, we haven't given them anything other than Halloween candy and they continue to ask us for money, batteries, jump ropes, cookies, lighters, and the like. Really, the whole situation is a core factor in my philosophy that buying this house was just the start of my investment into my community. I just don't know what direction to go - I'm not about to tell mom how to raise her kids (though I will call CFSA in a second if I see any indication LOTF are abused), but I foresee the situation escalating as each year ticks by. And we didn't take a 5 year ARM; we're in 30 to life.
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You know, you could always befriend decoy kids, and tell them to go infiltrate the LOTF (not to be confused with the Lord of the Rings kids, who are wicked scary and can disappear and always have that Mordor-glum look on their faces) and bring back info on their plans. That's my thought. I don't have any decoy kids to volunteer, but maybe you could find an orphan one. Yes! Oliver Twist, 2K6: LOTF.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused. But I enjoy your blog to no end.
Ahhh, this comment is a perfect example of why you are my friend. Indeed.
ReplyDeleteStop messin' in other peoples' business!
ReplyDeleteDon't you know that's how you get killed?!
so i've heard...now i know it's YOU coaching team LOTF!!!
ReplyDelete