What is going on in this country??!!

[Jojo]

A three-year-old has been accused of anti-social behaviour for playing football with friends outside his home.
Michelle Mann, 24, of Willow Park, Wythenshawe, Manchester, was told "playing ball games close to someone else's home" breached the tenancy.

Willow Park Housing Trust landlords said in a letter that she could be evicted, if her son Ben continued.

The trust said it takes all complaints seriously and is deciding if any action is appropriate.

The letter sent to Ms Mann reads: "Willow Park has received a complaint about anti-social behaviour perpetrated by your son Ben and his friends, who have been playing football and causing a disturbance.

"Anti-social behaviour includes: Playing ball games close to someone else's home."

But she said her son was merely playing on grass near their home and insists the three-year-old was not doing anything unusual or abusive.

She said: "They are trying to say my son is a yob, just because he played football.

"I'm upset and angry because I know he's not like that and other people who live here know that.

"If I had a 16-year-old son I could understand, but Ben is only three and he's a very polite little boy."

It is believed a neighbour contacted the housing trust and complained when Ben was kicking the ball with two other boys, one aged 12.

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Does anyone else find this completely and utterly ridiculous! :angry: We keep our children indoors because of the risk of paedophiles (which imo is no greater than 20 yrs ago, which just know about it more from the media), and now we have to keep them in, otherwise they are accused of Anti-Social Behaviour!! :angry:

[dddMac1]

i agree this is just rediculous the poor we kid, just goes to show the mess the U.k is in

[Abbie]

what i cant believe this this is so stupid

[Siobhan]

How stupid is that? ASBO because a 3 year old played football too near a house.. it is ridiculus

[Jojo]

I'd love to know who it was who reported the children too !! Aren't children allowed to have a childhood anymore :angry: :angry:

[Siobhan]

I'd love to know who it was who reported the children too !! Aren't children allowed to have a childhood anymore :angry: :angry:

yeah but only if they sit in the confined of their own garden/house and read quietly to themselves

[Tori]

when we used to play out in our road, there were always people from 2 houeses which would deliberately drive fast in the hope of knocking us down so our parents would realise that being outside wasn;t safe. we live in a cul de sac at the bottom, so no cars actually come down apart from the ones which are owned by people in our road. then there was my friend who wasn't allowed out for fear on 1) getting sunburn or 2) getting ill. her parents wouldn;t let them out in the sun on advice of the government.

it seems that the government wants to fight obesity but at the same time they issue advice about skin care, so parents don't let their kids out, they have to go to a park. and the parks around here are run down, and the council won;t re do them for fear of vandalism.

[Chloe O'brien]

The country has gone PC mad. There was a story about ASBO on Trevor McDonald tonight's programme last week where a 70 year old college professor who suffers from polio was given an ASBO for replacing her front door with a plastic frame so it would be easier to open without asking the council for planning permission. Then there was 14 year old girl who was having a snowball fight with her friends when one of the snowballs hit a car belonging to a police officer, The girl was taken to the police station and had her finger prints taken and was charge with criminal damage.

When I was a kid all the kids in the street played outside with there balls and we played games like rounders and kirby. none of the neighbours complained as they all new where their kids where, and what they were up to.

[pookie1968uk]

i dont agree with stopping a 3 year old playing but we are having loads of hassle with kids playing football every day against our fence! the fence is split in two places and we have had to reinforce it! we have 5 footballs in the garden which have been kicked over, full size footballs.
they kick the ball all the time between our fence and some garages and the noise just cracks us up!
kids need to play but football in busy streets full of cars is not necessarily a good thing anymore. what will happen when one is knocked down in the middle of the street, parents will blame the driver, not the child in the middle of the road!
sorry for the rant but its a real problem for us at the moment and we have 6 weeks of it to come in the summer!

[Jojo]

The problem we have found where we live (a sleepy town with quite a few elderly people living here) is that there is no where for the kids to go. The couple of greens that there are locally have had "no ball games" signs plastered all over them, the local skateboard park is being demolished to make way for yet more houses yet the town council complain because the youngsters are hanging around in certain areas.

The other thing which gets me sometimes is that a lot of parents dont teach their children to respect others and their property - I would have never had the nerve to kick a ball up against someone elses house or fence for fear of what my parents would do, but now adays, all we seem to get is told not to raise our voices to our children etc - that really gripes me - i'm bringing my boys up to respect the people around them and they get ridiculed for being "soft" a lot of the time :angry: