This is the same attitude that places advertising on EVERYTHING, demanding your attention for their FAR MORE IMPORTANT MESSAGE about selling you product "x".

Because you aren't in sight, YOUR needs and wants are irrelevant.

I'm really starting to long for the S.M.O.D., Pandemic Asian Bird Flu, or the Zombie Apocalypse. . .

I'd be upset w/kids leaving stuff on my porch as well but she was wrong.

Did the note writer say anything about how well the children would pair with a nice Chianti and fava beans?

If not, then the parents should police their kids a bit better. Terroristic threats, stalking? Anything to indicate that she tried to talk to the "adults" before sending the wickedly funny note? (funny because it's getting Halloween time and I had images of Hansel and Gretel in my head from reading the note)

"I went out and got on my broom."

I need clarification:
You made like a witch?
You started sweeping in front of your home and raised a lot of dust?

I'm curious - why would someone like Dean Esmay send you that? I've never heard him complain about undisciplined children or empathize with people like the alleged letter-writer, so all I can imagine is that either he's trying to point out that women as well as men can be a threat to children, OR he's secretly blaming this whole situation on the kids' mother and not the father. (Esmay is a well-known MRA.)

To clarify: "OR he's saying that this sort of panic is what happens only when mothers are in charge, since 'Fathers Know Best' and would not have overreacted immaturely, like these parents."
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I was raised to wonder whether I was being inconsiderate to people around me. How come that sort of upbringing seems rarer and rarer? And, unfortunately, rarer and rarer in people who have just reproduced?
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I would say that, as someone once said, you can't have self-respect without respect for others, which is why people these days typically use the term "self-esteem" instead, for both themselves and their children. I.e., they want rights without responsibilities and are addicted to that pursuit. (Sort of like Henry Hill in "Goodfellas" - always trying to get something for nothing, just because it feels good.) So people who choose to reproduce are often determined not to give up any of the public things they used to do - and they refuse to stay home when they can't get/afford a sitter, even when they really should.

Ok, noise? Life makes noise. Kids might shout as they play. People mow their lawns. People have dogs. People have cars, and radios. I'm not sure when the idea that a suburban home should exist in a soundproof bubble appeared, but it's absurd. Want silence? Buy acreage.

Should kids be in her garden? No. But threatening to eat them, instead of oh, I don't know, doing the mature-ass adult thing and talking to their parents? Fuck this bitch. I hope she ends up in a psych ward where she belongs.

Ok, noise? Life makes noise. Kids might shout as they play. People mow their lawns. People have dogs. People have cars, and radios. I'm not sure when the idea that a suburban home should exist in a soundproof bubble appeared, but it's absurd. Want silence? Buy acreage.

Ok, kids? Not everyone likes kids. Adults might reasonably expect silence on their own property. People work at home. People work and sleep different hours. I'm not sure when the idea that children's noise on one's own property appeared, but it's absurd. Want your children roaming hither and yon unsupervised? Buy acreage.

I wonder what affect how close houses are to one another in newer suburb vs. older ones. The development I live in was built in late 90s early 2000's. Between my neighbors to the left right it is 6 ft to the fence then another 6ft to the neighbor's house. To the back it is about 20+10. In the older neighborhoods I have been there is a lot more space.Where I grew up I doubt there was a house that was closer than a 30ft to the next.

"The children look delicious. May I have a taste?"

This is not a threat but a polite enquiry.

"Word of the threats spread quickly through social media and neighbors tell WCCO both they and the family were terrified."

What a bunch of pansies.

momof4: "I'm not sure when the idea that a suburban home should exist in a soundproof bubble appeared, but it's absurd. Want silence? Buy acreage."

Kevin: "Want your children roaming hither and yon unsupervised? Buy acreage."

Both sound like reasonable advice to me.

Kevin: "Not everyone likes kids. Adults might reasonably expect silence on their own property."

That's not reasonable at all if you choose to live within 25 feet of other people, and within a mile of 20,000 other people, including a few thousand children.

You might legitimately expect other people to stay off of your property, and to keep their kids and pets off of your property; and you might legitimately ask other people to be quiet while on your property. But to expect your property to be shielded from other people's noise, especially during the daytime, is absurd.

If you want silence on your own property then it would be reasonable to buy property someplace that's silent or sound-proof your own property.

I too sleep during the day and work at night. Though I live in a peaceful, older neighborhood with large lots, I also live within a half mile of about 8,000 other people, about 95% of whom sleep at night and work and play during the day. Within a half mile of my bedroom are a major freeway, other busy city streets, a shopping center, lots of stores and shops and thriving businesses, schools, apartment buildings, several parks and two lakes. During the day I hear lawnmowers, chainsaws and power tools and hammers, cars and trucks and motorcycles, helicopters and airplanes, children playing and dogs barking - all the noise of thousands of people working and playing.

It would be absurd for me to expect the 95% who are awake during the day to maintain silence while I sleep; and it would be unreasonable for me to make a lot of noise at night when I'm awake and the other 95% are sleeping.

Matt: "'Word of the threats spread quickly through social media and neighbors tell WCCO both they and the family were terrified.'"

"What a bunch of pansies."

I know!

I can't believe people would get all freaked out about something so silly. And the woman was arrested! I guess it reflects just how desperately people feel the need to be offended by something -anything - and crave the drama and status of victim-hood, especially when the pretext is heroically protecting children.

What's even more befuddling is the police buy into the drama and go right along with it.

When "parents" don't control their crotch droppings (the perfect moniker for children who are only barely parented)

There is also crotch fruit and cunt nuggets. Spawn is a fun word.

While the noise would likely drive me up a wall, I would have just rolled my eyes and turned up the stereo. I draw the line, however, when the little brats are on my lawn and leaving shit on my property. I think I'd look into a REALLY prickly hedge or a nice eight foot privacy fence, because 99.9% of the time, if you go talk to the parents of these feral children, all you get is screamed at and how DARE you tell them how to raise their spayshul sneauxflaykes.

We played in the yard when I was a kid. The BACK yard, and we stayed in our own unless invited to go play with the neighbor kids in theirs. We never would have even thought about running around our next door neighbor's lawn.

Oh the horrors! People have a fussy baby so they stay out of the fast food joints and restaurants to avoid disturbing others. They pull over to eat on a rather quiet street where they don't see anyone out to bother. But they bother you.

I've had a fussy baby. There is only so much you can do. People will criticize. They would also criticize if they didn't pull over and let the baby stretch, get some fresh air, and something to eat.

I'm with you on parenting, but with babies there really is only so much you can do. I was freaked out for the infancy/early-toddlerhood (up to about 18 months) of both my children. I mean it just wasn't healthy to have to worry so much just to - i dunno - get groceries. But as a parent, you are both damned if you do and damned if you don't. I got nasty looks and comments for trying to soothe a baby... and for not (you know, during the whole minute I was paying for said groceries so we could leave ASAP). Sometimes I made the wrong call and tried soothing when it was later apparent that I should have just left because nothing was gonna work (usually followed by an ear infection). But at some point, I actually had to buy groceries and be out in the real world.

I think that, if people parented their kids, there would be more breathing space for the parents of very young children. It'd be less irritating if it was JUST the ones really too young to know better or help it. BUT, given that it's not, I would be just as high strung if I had another.

"I was raised to wonder whether I was being inconsiderate to people around me."

Same here. As kids we ran all over the neighborhood; BUT, there were certain homes that we were told to stay away from. Not in the "that's a haunted house" sort of way; but, in that's an elderly widow, sick person, etc. house and they don't need to hear your noise.

"Show some respect" is what we were told often.

As for the SUV folks. I agree with those commenters that maybe it was nice of them to not stay in the restaurant with a screaming kid. But, it should have dawned on them that they stopped on a quiet street and maybe it was quiet for a reason. As in, "hey this might be a residential street and we should show respect for those that live here."

But, nowadays, that kind of considerate thinking is more closer to extinction than the California Condor.

To Ken R: Interestingly, at Bratfree, where one seldom finds sympathy for parents in general, I found this, about the same case (I was thinking of JoJo's comment in particular):

http://www.refugees.bratfree.com/read.php?2,396054

Here's the whole thread (short so far):

aliceblue: I'll admit that multiple messages and the magazines was a bit much, but the parents called the POLICE after the very first so why no go full out.

gnocchi: "The way kids are." Oh, FFS. They repeatedly demonstrated a total lack of boundaries (leaving crap in her yard). And who here wants to bet that their "being a little noisy" went beyond normal play-noises and consisted mostly of shrieking at the tops of their fuckin' lungs for hours on end every day?

Yeah, kids make noise and leave their toys lying around. It's a matter of degree. Pretending that this particular level of idiocy is fine and normal-- then freaking out like startled chickens when you are shown that it isn't-- doesn't help anyone.

I'm not sure I'd go her route, but stories like this may be a step in the right direction. Don't want to be "terrified" by neighbors? Don't be a dick your own self! Letting your brats run feral through the neighborhood ought to be a gross misdemeanor, and letting them leave crap on strangers' porches could be construed as stalking (imagine if a 35-year-old did it).

JoJo: Eh, the woman sounds like a prize asshole, and I really can't blame the parents for calling the cops considering the number of lunatics out there these days.

She should have taken the crap straight to Goodwill or put it in the trash.

Shiny: Exactly. Did she even try to mention anything to the kids or parents that they were being annoying? One warning and then the toys go in the trash, end of story. The route she took does absolutely nothing for the CF and the false assumption that we are all evil, child-hating, baby-eating demons. Or that there is something mentally wrong with us for not wanting kids. I wouldn't want this person as my neighbor.

(end)

BTW, check out the most recent entry under "Babystalk, babystalk, it's a wonder you can walk." (It's at or near the top of the Living Room page.) That anecdote emphasizes how parenting often does NOT make you a better person - and not just in regard to outsiders.