the neighbours kids are driving me insane!

[rasi]

Does anyone else share this problem? All the kids on my street are constantly coming over and inside my house. Even when the gate is shut and locked from the inside, they just come in. I have a baby and toddler so I don't mind a couple coming to play every now and then, but they come when the kids aren't home while I'm cleaning/cooking etc...and then it ends up being 10 of them.

I realise my house is a bit of a novelty with its kitchen and hot water but these kids have big houses too, not like sharing 1 room with the whole family.

I Dont want to seem like the mean westerner who moved in and is too good to let the local kids play. But they don't seem to listen and think it is there right to come inside when they feel like it.

Please tell me im not the only one?

 

[sakumabali]

Well...I was living for three years in a Gang in Negara, the neighbors were driving me also insane sometimes as they often stopped exactly in front of the small house of us and chatting there so they have a reason to look inside; the Bakso guy stopped there too so often many people standing / sitting on my stairs and eating & looking inside BUT at least they didn't come inside....after we moved my mother in law opened a warung there (we still have an emergency bedroom which we can lock) and now THIS is hell ;-) all the kids with the 500 Rupiah Coins come and buy snacks & icecream

 

[mat]

Does anyone else share this problem? All the kids on my street are constantly coming over and inside my house. Even when the gate is shut and locked from the inside, they just come in. I have a baby and toddler so I don't mind a couple coming to play every now and then, but they come when the kids aren't home while I'm cleaning/cooking etc...and then it ends up being 10 of them.

I realise my house is a bit of a novelty with its kitchen and hot water but these kids have big houses too, not like sharing 1 room with the whole family.

I Dont want to seem like the mean westerner who moved in and is too good to let the local kids play. But they don't seem to listen and think it is there right to come inside when they feel like it.

Please tell me im not the only one?

You are not the only one. It's normal culturally to just walk in to each others houses. The kids often wander in to my house and watch the TV or play with my 20 month old son, and have even wandered into the house through the living room and kitchen and into my wife and I's bedroom at a embarrasing time. Difficult to know what to do to stop it without giving offence. Lock your doors perhaps?

 

[balibule]

I have a big (harmless) dog. I call him sumanto which is Indonesian for cannibal. No kids in our house other than mine!

Maybe you should get one as well

 

[CanonMan]

When we moved into a Gang in Pemogan we made it clear from day one that our house was not a public entertainment venue. We closed the doors, locked the gates and asked people to respect our privacy as much as we respected their way of doing things. Never had a problem. Maybe the dog also detered people from entering! The standard noise took some getting used to but eventually we became deaf to the screaming 'devil' kid next door who would have regular sessions of screaming like a banshee at all hours on one side and a jail bird on the other who between stints inside would have his music cranked up until the wee hours with an extra dose of Bass just for added window rattling character.

Part and parcel of Gang life!

Cheers,
Mark.