A gang of yobs has invaded our playground

I live in a very lovely, serene little corner of Munich that is filled with lots of little parks and gardens and play areas. It's perfect for little kids really. And for the past 2 1/2 years I've loved having a tiny little swingset area next to our apartment so I can go outside and play with my daughter.

UNTIL TODAY. When we went out this afternoon to discover the swingset area covered in cigarette butts, litter, and little hoodlum wannabes just hanging about and spitting all over the benches (see photo).



My daughter wanted to play there, but they were hogging the swings at first until she threw a tantrum and started screaming "HEY!!! GET OFF OF MY SWIIIIIIIING!!!" I was surprised that they actually moved for her.

Judging by the amount of shit lying about, it seems to be becoming an ever popular hangout for teen trash. I wouldn't mind them hanging out there- but why do they need to trash the place? What can be done to stop it? Next thing you know they'll be sat out there throwing heroin needles about and drinking Colt45 (well, the German equivalent) and telling everyone to f-off. Little bastards. I hate to see our nice little playground turn to crap.

Jenny, just tell them nicely not to leave their butts on the ground for the kids to put in their mouths. If they'll listen to Olivia, they'll listen to you.

are there alot of kids that play there? If so, maybe you could try to organize a parents group to watch and keep the playground clean.

Shouldn't those teenies be on the Ubahns beating up people?

Bring a boombox next time. Play Billy Ray Cyrus until they leave.

Teenagers get a bad rap. They've got to hang out somewhere and unfortunately, even the nice ones will smoke. Just remind them to keep the place clean and they probably will.

Exactly.

I think it's because the housing in this area was built about 12 years ago and was geared to young families. So now the kids who were little at that time are teenagers- and they're inviting their rotten little friends over to sit around and spit on stuff.

I was thinking about asking them kindly to pick up their cigarette butts- but they were very busy having conversations like "What'd you do yesterday?" "ermmmm... I smoked. huhhuhhuhhuh. That's about it. huhhuhhhuhhuh..."

To be fair though, there used to be a garbage can there and it seems to have been removed. Which is stupid. They should have a couple of them there to at least give people the option of throwing their garbage away.

Edit: It's not even so much the smoking that got me... it was spitting on everything. I mean, spitting on the seats. Jebus.

Try speaking to them. If that doesn't help, call the cops. They seem to be impressionable enough what with a 3-yr-old telling them what to do that if the cops say, clean up after your frigging selves, they might.
Good luck!

EDIT after your last post: Bring them a peace offering of a pocket ashtray. They will respect you all the more - I hope.

huh? so, let teenagers hang out in a kiddies park?
Nice kids don't smoke in playgrounds, they are at home doing their homework, because they are going to gymnasium.
These kids hanging out in the playground spitting have no respect for others, or they wouldn't be spitting on the seats where people should be sitting watching their children.

Teenagers are still kids, Carm. They need to get outdoors on a sunny day as well as the two year olds. But kids often need to be reminded of how to act, and no, consideration for others is not something teens are famous for. So you remind them.

They sure shouldn't be hanging out at a children's playground. Those guys in the photo are not children, certainly not by my definition, they are young adults and do not belong there. Even if they weren't throwing cigarette butts on the ground and spitting all over the place, they shouldn't be there.

There are age limits on most children's playgrounds and teenies are not within the limit posted. Tell them to get lost or you will call the cops the next time they hang out there. That is what I did and it motivates the responsible ones. With the irresponsible ones, you will simply have to call the cops anyway. The spitting, the cigarette butts and the broken glass is not to be tolerated, period!

Okay, so where should 'young adults', in your definition, go? Where would you welcome them? They don't have jobs yet, as they're still in school, so no money, and do not have their own places. Do you actually remember what it was like to be a teenager yourself?
(I do agree that spitting and messes are not to be tolerated)

Surely there's any number of parks these 'young adults' could hang out in, rather than playgrounds...

Kat, very simply, I don't care where they go but they should go away from a playground designed for small children. They have no business there. Yes, I remember perfectly well what it was like to be a teenager. We hung out in parks playing football.

I do. And I never hung out at playgrounds.

There are playgrounds and places for the young adults. They are all over the place. Within 200 yards of my house there is a skateboard park, a basketball court, a ping pong area and soccer park just for the teenie crowd. There is also a couple of teenie hangout clubs. It is not like they don't have alternatives.

Who mentioned broken glass? Upping the ante a bit here aren't you?

Well I remember liking to play on the jungle gym and the swings until the age of... actually, I still like to play on the jungle gym and the swings.

Always start easy and slow before calling in the heavies. If you say "Hey listen, I don't care if you hang out in the park, but can I ask you to please pick up your cigarette butts and not spit where the kids might play? Because that's just kind of gross," you are more likely to have success than threatening straight away to call the cops. I agree, they shouldn't be in a children's playground, but the idea is how to deal with the problem successfully, not just what "should" be done or the way things "should" be.

Experience man, experience. In the park that I ran the brats off the place is full of broken glass beer bottles. Even our local bum is cleaner than these yobs were.

Well, these teenagers seem to have enough money to ride around on Vespas. They could have ridden their scooters out to the Feringersee and made a mess there enjoyed the sunshine. They could have even ridden down to the Eisweiher- a little lake nearby and hung around there. They could have gone to any number of the little sports areas here and played football/basketball/whatever. They could have stayed inside and played video games. They could have gone swimming at the local indoor swimming pool for €1.50. It's not like they have NO options.

Fair enough, but unless you've got a child with you that you are looking after then you would have no business there whatsoever either.

Okay, okay! Have the two-year-old tell them they're messy and too old and to bugger off since they listen to her.

Herein you have the perfect solution...
...simply hand out invitation cards with Eurovols address printed on them.

My 5 year old has already started doing that sort of thing. I suspect the German gene may be very strong in him.

I've told kids to get out of our local playground before with varying degrees of success but they do always move away from where the younger kids are playing once you ask them to move.

I wouldn't try moving them on in the UK though.

Hopefully they're Mods and not into awful German rap music. If they're Mods just say Paul Weller is your cousin and he likes his playgrounds clean. If they're into hip-hop stuff, I'm afraid only a good kicking will sort them out.

Mace usully clears them out.

Failing that, taking lots of digital photos of them and their scooters' license plates usually clears them out.

Don't forget, these are the products of the wussiest society on earth ... so they scatter like cockroaches at the first sign of anything remotely resembling authority.

You know, I've been thinking about this all evening. What on earth makes them think it's ok to spit on the benches? I wonder how they'd react if I spit on their Vespa seats?

Edit: And another thing. After thinking about this as well, I just don't buy the whole thing about them not having enough money to do stuff. They obviously have enough money to buy smokes.

If they're the same age as my teenage step-daughter and they've got the same attitude than I'd say BEATTHESHITOUTOFTHEMWITHABLUNTINSTRUMENT!

Sorry. I've just spent a whole weekend with my step-daughter, Kevin.

Funny name for a girl

Big boys should not be hanging around at small children's playing areas. My daughter when she was 3 got molested (many years back) by a boy who was in his teens.

Teens can be intimidating. Obviously more so to fully grown adults who are parents than to their children.

Spitting on communally used seats and littering the floor wth cig butts is NOT socially acceptable behaviour.

But at the same time, posting pictures of individuals on the internet becasue you just don't like ther behaviour isn't exactly cool either.
Neither is trying to smear them that they would leave dirty needles around after shooting up heroin or could be child abusers!

It is a common issue, it was around when I was a teenager: You have limited money, you can't easily go into so many pubs, you just want to "hang out"
So they are in the local playfround. AND?
Jesus, i see people on here turning into the people we hated when we were kids.

And so the cycle continues...

no, I respected other people and property that wasn't mine.
I also had a job and volunteered with children, so, I really had no time to hang out in playgrounds smoking.

Her real name ain't Kevin. That's just the name I call her (after the Harry Enfield character).

We used to hang ou in the kids playground and smoked.
We used to hang out by the phone box in the town centre.
We used to pool our money and illegally buy cider to drink down by the river.

It's called being a teenager.

Sounds unfair to most teenagers that I knew and currently know. I really don't like most teenagers nowadays, but what you've just described sounds more like the minority known as yobs to me.

Maybe unfair. Most teenagers these days wouldn't drink the bright orange cider we used to neck, they'd go for a bio alternative these days.

Not Frogmella?

Having spent a fair amount of time in the last decade spending time with quite a few kids who have managed to get themselves kicked out of school and would I suspect fall under your description of Yob I tend to find these kids as good as any other once you give them a decent outlet that they can get into and you set their boundries at achievable levels.

Spitting and sitting in kids playgrounds is wrong. Why are they there though?

Something else I would like to know: Where are their parents? "Children" aren't really supposed to go to the play area unsupervised.


I posted a picture that doesn't exactly show them up close enough to identify them.

I said before that I don't even mind them being there so much if they can act like big boys and not trash the place. Obviously they cannot. It's absurd to me to excuse their behavior by saying oh, they're just bored teenagers. It's not fair to teenagers who actually act like members of society.

Also, if they are just poor, misguided souls, who's going to sort them out? Do I have to quit my job and set up an after-school shelter for them just to appease and entertain them and keep them from spitting on my seats?

They aren't "your" seats, they are everyone's seats.
So they also need to learn to behave in a way that is acceptable in a communal space.

Oo! Now that does have a certain ring of truth to it. I've still not forgiven her for losing the family Isarcard on the SECOND day of the month.

The astronomical amount of rent I pay for my apartment each month includes the use of the playground area-- as it's enclosed within a housing community. So, in a sense, yes, they are "my" seats- more so than the kids from across town who scooter over to perch on them.

so, whose job is it then? If their parents haven`t raised them properly? Should Jenny leave work early to give these jerks Manner classes?

I've seen this spitting thing a lot with the (male) teenagers here, and I always wondered wtf they're thinking and why they do it. Do ask them, Jenny, and let us know what they say. I'd really like to know.

It is a bit of a mystery really, isn't it? Next time I'll ask them.

Every so often I saw kids dealing drugs behind some garages near my house. I went up to them and told them I knew they were dealing drugs and not to do that near my home where I have 2 young kids (they were already shocked to know that someone knew what they were up to) and then I told them that I had already informed the police previously of this activity and that they planned to patrol the area more often (this was a lie) and as a clincher I told them that 2 of them had been pointed out to me by other local kids as being big dealers (which they vehemently denied - which was cool as I was lying anyhow)! I finished by telling them that I don't care if they do drugs for themselves, just keep it away from my neighborhood. Well, that was months ago and I haven't seen them since.

So, my point is, you should go ahead and confront the kids in your park. Tell them your fears about your daughter and other kids possibly choking on cigarette butts, etc. and ask them to please help keep 'other' kids from throwing their butts on the ground. Tell them to also help you keep 'other' kids from spitting on the swingset. Tell them you appreciate their help. You can also tell them that another neighbor has complained to the police, who have promised to come around more.

My Dad actually got rid of a gang of youths that were always hanging out on a corner near their home in Wurzburg, being loud, rude and spraying graffitti, etc., by secretly videoing alot of their activity from his window. He took the tape to the local Polizei and some stuff went down and needless to say they aren't hanging out on that corner any longer!

I wonder if this Gang of youths started by Smoking and spitting in a plyground in Warrington??

I have little faith in Teenagers too...

But apparently there is always one worse than yours!

It's the smoking. Their delicate little systems can't take it.