Unauthorized tree climbing CAN be a gateway to depravity.
Posted on 11/21/2005 5:58:45 AM PST by Drawsing
Weird kid up a tree
I have seen people here come up with some good insights, so I thought I would take advantage of this forum to help me figure out the behavior of this weird kid.
Yesterday my two boys and I were getting ready to distribute our Boy Scout popcorn to the folks who had ordered it. We were still in the house and I heard the neighbor's dog barking and someone yelling "ShutUp!" very loud. It sounded like it was in my driveway, so I went out and looked, but saw nothing. A little bit later, one of my boys ran into the house and said, "Dad! There's a kid up in the magnolia tree spying on us. By the time I got out of the house this time, the kid was already out of the next door neighbor's magnolia tree and across the street. He was cutting across several neighbor's yards (we live in a subdivision) and looking back over his shoulder at me. I was surprised at his total disregard for property lines. I saw him peeking around the corner of one of my neighbor's houses at me. My younger 8 year old son said that he had tried talking to him, but the boy had pulled out a cell phone and started talking on it.
We loaded the popcorn into a wagon and went around the corner, but about five minutes later, we snuck back and sure enough, he was back up in the tree. I approached him from behind and spoke to him.
"Hey", I said.
"Hey" he said.
"What are you doing up there?" I said.
"Climbing a tree." he said.
"Do you live here?" I asked.
"Yes." he said.
"What are the people's names that live here?" I asked.
"Oh, Uh ....I don't mean I live right here. I live down the street in a cove." he said.
"Well", I said, "You shouldn't be climbing trees on other people's property."
"Uh huh." he said.
"What is your name?" I asked.
He told me his name.
"Well", I said, "I think you need to come on down and go home."
He climbed down slowly, then with a big attitude he shuffled down the street, again cutting directly through the neighbor's yards. All the while I had been talking with him, he did not look me in the eye, but was playing with some frilly rubber toy around his neck. We live in a decent neighborhood and he was dressed in clean, fairly nice clothes. He needed a haircut, but it was not too bad. He looked to be between 13 -15 years old. To summarize the weirdness: 1. Loud shouting while up in the tree. 2. Total disregard for property lines. 3. Returning to the same tree where he had been caught five minutes before. 5. Attempting a foolish lie about where he lived.
So what do you think? Should I expect some form of retaliation? Could I have handled this better? What is the matter with this kid?
Thanks.
You have my deepest sympathies.
...it was no big deal to climb someone elses tree, or hop in their pool if they were on vacation....
Ahh, the days before injury litigation while using some one else's property without permission.
Boring and pointless.
I'm going to guess that you don't have any kids.
Thanks for making the world an even suckier place for kids.
I beleive kids call people like you Sk8Nazi's
I just don't believe this guy is a full grown adult. But then again, I had neighbors like this who called the police if a kid walked across their front lawn.
btw, first law with teenagers: always be nice and make friends with them. Or else!
"Suckier"? Are you 8 years old?
I don't care how "sucky" the world is for anybody as long as my family is safe.
I beleive kids call people like you Sk8Nazi's
I'm sure they do. Those kind of kids are the same useless, lazy morons who call the President "Bushitler" and who spend all their free time hanging out in parking lots doing Whip-its.
In other words, total losers whose opinions don't matter.
In other words, let adolescents tell how you are allowed to behave instead of vice versa.
That's productive.
No it is not a joke. I grew up in the sixties surrounded by fields and woods to play in. I do feel sorry for kids who do not have what I had. But this kid's behavior and attitude was very odd. I guess it was the almost Tourette's-like shouting "Shutup!" and the insolent attitude that concerned me most.
Unauthorized tree climbing CAN be a gateway to depravity.
In other words: kids are kids. Your childhood must have been "sucky".
Sounds like the kid may be mildly retarded.
If you are really concerned this kid is a threat to your family, why didn't you call the police??
Wouldn't THAT be embarrassing?? :)
My aren't we amazingly judgemental of the kids.
Did you stay within property lines when you were a kid? I highly doubt it.
LMAO, that story was whacked!
We had a retarded adult living in my town for the first twenty years of my life. All the little kids played in the park with him. A real ox of a man but about as dangerous as a butterfly. The whole town knew him.
There were a few biggots around who would whisper "You never know what (those people) are capable of."
My best friend's daughter has Down's. I know exactly what you are talking about.
Played a lot of stickball and street hockey, had fun summer vacations with my friends and siblings and parents, worked a bunch of different jobs, did well in school and never really developed a taste for trespassing on other people's property or mouthing off to grownups.
"Kids are kids" is not only a meaningless tautology but it isn't even an argument. I remember years back when I was working as a doorman to put myself through college, and one of my coworkers' teenage sons was arrested for breaking into some cars and stealing radios.
His response was "what a headache, but kids are going to be kids" and most of my coworkers nodded in agreement. No wonder they had no dreams for their kids with that attitude.
Smashing into people's cars isn't acceptable, trespassing on someone's property and then mouthing off at them when they object isn't acceptable and "kids are kids" is the worst copout I've ever heard.
My dad worked hard to teach us to be honest, hardworking individuals. Mouthing off to someone after you trespassed on their property is something my dad would never have stood for.
Oh my dad would have scared the living daylights out of them.
I guess that's my point: if this kid was so BAD, why is this guy wringing his hands?
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