They could be called a lot worse than 'brats', love - and that's exactly what they are...

I can assure you, I rang at the right door - I was about 10 meters behind the kids when they ran into the building

I'd never hit a kid (or anyone else, for that matter).

I'll be taking your advice - next time it happens (and I'm pretty sure that'll be tonight :-) I'll head over to the neighbors and proceed exactly as you said - sounds like good tactics.

peter

Hi Peter....Can you try unplugging your doorbell for a little while? You can talk to the landlord and tell them of the problem. If you have visitors they could call you on your cellphone. Once you don't react to the doorbell, they will see that it doesn't bring the usual results and they'll think it is boring when there is no reaction. Then you can plug it again.

I hope it is a possibility for you! (and a solution)

Good luck!

P.S. I have only had my doorbell rang for fun a couple of times during the last day of school in a calendar year (Schulsilvester) It bugged me but I knew it was coming... I didn't even look out the window!

I'm sorry but I wouldn't be wasting my effort trying to big up the parents little darling, I'd call the police with evidence if the initial talking hasn't worked.

I don't do soft approaches after a initial attempt, the problem is lack of discipline and by telling the parent their child is an angel is not really going to help the bad parenting skills, your just compounding the situation.

Failing that I would stand at their door with my finger constantly on the bell every 5 mins for a evening. Then every evening until they do something about the kids (hopefully when they ticked off they'll call the police) There's no law against ringing a doorbell is there?

When I was little I lived in a close community where everyone knew everyone else, I'd equally get a slap from my mates parents as much as my own. Sort of parenting multiplied by 10, which was frustrating if you wanted to get up to anything dodgy.

If you have a front garden make sure it's well manured, that can be a natural but effective way of keeping the children away from your house.

Aside from that you have the usual sprinkler, big scary dog etc.

Erm and a final note, it wouldn't be the kids I'm likely to slap it would be the bad parent, but then again if you're a reasonable individual what have you got to worry about?

Aggression breeds aggression.
'Getting your own back' may be a tempting option but very soon both sides accuse the other of starting the 'war'.

In the winter, on their way to and from a local school, the children used to tramp in the snow all over my neighbours garden. I would have written a notice saying "Keep out" and might well have shouted at a child who didn't. My neighbour wrote a notice saying
"Underneath all this snow, a garden is sleeping. Please don't disturb it".

Doesn't help solve the OP's problem but it might raise a

Wow, what an awful situation and one with no easy solution, unfortunately.

We don't have children either, but there are some children living in our block of flats, and they are a bit unruly. They don't commit any acts of vandalism or ring doorbells. They play in the hallway and are very noisy -- screaming, yelling, crying, running, throwing things down the stairs. They also leave their toys lying about in the hallway and on the stairs for everyone to trip over. When we had a Hauswart living on the premises, this never happened. But since he left, it's been like a free-for-all. Other tenants have complained to the landlord, and he has told the parents repeatedly to stop allowing their kids to play in the halls and to keep the noise down, but it just goes on and on and nothing changes.

Sadly, this sort of behavior is rampant. I've seen it in the US, too. Obviously, it's the parents' fault for not controlling their children, disciplining them or teaching them respect for others. If anyone else does intervene to try to correct this errant behavior, the parents give them an attitude and bite their heads off. Nice example for the kids. NOT!

Since you've already tried approaching the parents directly and got nowhere, maybe the next step is the police. If you and all the other neighbors who've been vandalized complain to the police in unison, you may have a better chance at achieving a resolution.

Best of luck to you!

If you have a balcony that overlooks the front door, you can fill some balloons with water-soluble paint/dye and drop them on the buggers next time they strike. Just like the dye pack banks use, but able to be cleaned from the front door. Or maybe you can use a super-soaker squirt gun.

I'd like to see the kids explain that one to their parents...

You could then follow that one up with letters in the neighborhood mailboxes informing parents that any 'tagged' kids have been pulling these pranks. Of course, you'd probably be the one pulled in by the police...

Well, it can be fun to harass the poor dog and run through the water (quite cooling for a hot day, ja?).

Don't tell that to my wife - she's been nagging about getting a dog for years :-) The sprinkler idea is excellent, although I'd probably use the garden hose :-)

A dog with my 'face' would be of no use.

Good luck with the sprinkler and hose (make that the turbo-powered kind!).

Not quite what I had in mind, but that's also a plan....

I hear what you are saying, I was working on the assumption that the OP wanted to find an amicable solution in order to avoid your next piece of advice.

Chances are, you would be the one caught in act and would then get the full attention of the police. So it kind of defeats the object. I understand what you are saying but it really won't help the situation one bit.

I never got a slap from my mate's parents, but I did get one from a local policeman once and that made me think twice in the future.

I agree, some parents need a slap on the head if you ask me. Some kids today have no boundaries and their parents can't control them. They would much rather confront a total stranger who points out that their little one has misbehaved rather than deal with the actual problem. Looks like the OP bumped in to one of these. You can't really deal with them in a sensible way as they have obviously lost the plot so the only thing you can do is either call the police, but that might have a negative impact as they can't always be around, or try a softer approach.

My kid on the other hand is a complete angel

Thanks Mikey i agree i sometime wonder why some parents have children, and then decide they want them out of the house all the time because they cannot deal with them, in my opinion they cannot control them because they are never at home to be disaplined.

Yes I totally agree, I can feel the OP's frustration.

What would be interresting is that if the anti-social behaviour had a large financial penalty on the parent who is ultimately resposible for the angels actions. That might solve a few issues.

This reminds me of my youth when we lived in a block of flats, we kids used to play the same game (called Tok Tokkie in SA) every once in awhile - seemed like fun and all that untill one day one of the residents came out of his flat with a rawhide whip and proceeded to crack it a few times, not directly at us but just so that we got the message. Which we did, we no longer played tok tokkie on that floor

Perhaps you should buy a whip and start practising with it everytime they are playing close by....They can make quite an intimidating noise.

I just realised a lot of dogs in Switzerland are 'brought up' much better than many children in all parts of the world. This came about because of the guidelines a person from the Guide Dog School was telling me about -- amazing!

We observed this soon after we arrived in CH. When our friends ask us about Swiss restaurants, one of our standard comments relates to the fact that you're more likely to see a dog than a kid in a Swiss restaurant (especially after 6pm) because the dogs behave better.

...Which is a sad commentary on the parenting skills of those who have unwittingly earned Swiss children in general such a reputation.

But this is really nothing new. As long ago as the mid-70s, my cousin stood by in stark indifference, as her 3-year-old son called me names and mocked me. The boy was obviously quite capable of utterly rude behavior, but Mom apparently considered him not yet ready to receive age-appropriate instruction and discipline.

What I find remarkable, in light of this trend, is that more Swiss don't grow up to be spoiled narcissists — unless of course it happens that they actually do, and just hide it behind their "privateness"(?).

(For the record, the boy turned out fine, in spite of his upbringing.)

Cheers,
Tim

The OP situation sounds really extreme! We have a few kids in our neighborhood that like to play what we called DING DONG DITCH (ring the bell and run). Does not bother me too much.

I am just glad that they do not do what we did when we were kids and light a paper sack filled with dog doo-doo on fire in front of the door, ring the bell and run. Although, after my dad found out about it, we never did it again...