Said It Here

What to do when neighborhood kids won't stop coming to your door

Persistent neighborhood children show up at people's doors insisting on coming inside and ignoring requests to leave, while their parents or guardians are absent or uncooperative. Dealing with these unsupervised kids leaves residents stuck managing aggressive trespassing with no adult authority present to intervene.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    cutting off contact with the neighbor children
  2. 2
    joining sports teams, arts courses, or hobbies outside the neighborhood
  3. 3
    reducing play dates and keeping children strictly supervised
  4. 4
    Taking the toddlers back and away from the older children
  5. 5
    Telling the kids firmly that they cannot come inside because their adult is unknown
  6. 6
    Avoiding evening walks or planning around times when the children are outside

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/Parenting2 people · September 2026 – October 2026

“Following as we are dealing with a vaguely similar situation.”source ↗

sharpiefairy666 · r/Parenting · 1 upvotes

“I tell them to stop, take the toddlers back and away from them, etc, but they are very persistent and there is no guardian for me to look at to stop them.”source ↗

“she tells me that her grandma isn't gonna come outside for me to meet her and that she doesn't care where she goes.”source ↗

“I cannot have these kids coming to my door and insisting on coming inside.”source ↗

Socialsinz · r/Parenting

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised