My Neighbor Called Cps Because My Kids Played Outside. She’s The One Who Got Arrested Instead.

I could hear her saying things like,

“Watch the corners and don’t scratch that.”

The guys looked annoyed. Rich showed up around 8 with another man in a suit who I guessed was his lawyer.

They parked on the street and just watched from Rich’s truck. More neighbors started coming out as the morning went on. Sebastian was on his porch drinking coffee.

The Fowlers were in their front yard pretending to check their mailbox but really watching. I went out on my porch with my own coffee and sat in one of my chairs. The moving guys kept loading the truck for hours.

Every piece of furniture every box every bag. Diane supervised everything and kept yelling instructions. Around 11 my kids came outside and asked what was happening.

I told them Diane was moving away. My daughter asked if she was ever coming back and I said,

“No she was leaving for good.”

By 3:00 in the afternoon the moving truck was almost full. The guys were loading the last few boxes. Diane was standing in her driveway with her arms crossed watching them.

She kept looking over at my house with this angry expression. Rich and his lawyer got out of the truck and walked over to Diane. Rich held out his hand for something.

Diane reached in her pocket and pulled out keys. She threw them at Rich instead of handing them to him. He bent down and picked them up off the driveway.

The lawyer said something to Diane and pointed at his clipboard. Diane signed something without looking at it. The moving guys closed up the back of the truck and got in the cab.

The truck pulled out of the driveway and drove down the street. Diane walked to her car and opened the driver’s door. Before she got in she turned and looked directly at my house.

She stared at me sitting on my porch for a long moment. Her face was full of hate. Then she got in her car and started the engine.

She backed out of the driveway and drove away in the same direction as the moving truck. I watched her car until it turned the corner and disappeared. Rich walked across the street to my porch.

He said she turned in the keys and he was changing all the locks today. He said he was also installing security cameras on the property to document the condition in case Diane tried to claim they damaged something. I asked if he thought she would try anything else and he said,

“Probably not but he wanted to be safe.”

He said his lawyer was keeping all the documentation in case Diane tried to sue but he doubted she would. He said people like her usually just move on to the next place to complain about. I thanked Rich for everything he did and he said,

“That’s what family is for.”

He said he was sorry it took so long to get rid of her but at least it was finally over. That evening I opened the back door and watched my kids run outside with huge smiles on their faces. My daughter grabbed her jump rope and my son got his basketball from the garage.

They played in the backyard while the sun started going down and I sat on the porch without feeling that knot in my stomach every time they made noise. Sebastian came over around 7 with his beagle and the dog ran around chasing the kids while they threw a tennis ball across the yard. The beagle barked and jumped and nobody complained or took photos or called anyone.

Mark and Cathy walked over from their house carrying a plate covered with aluminum foil and Cathy said,

“She baked chocolate chip cookies to celebrate Diane being gone.”

We sat on the porch eating cookies while the kids played and the beagle ran in circles and it felt like the whole street was breathing easier. Other neighbors came outside too and kids from down the block showed up to play and suddenly my backyard was full of children again like it used to be. My son asked if they could stay outside until dark and I said,

“Yes”

without even thinking about it. We stayed out there until almost 9:00 and the kids caught fireflies in jars and the beagle tried to catch them too but just ended up running into the fence over the next few weeks everything went back to normal. Kids played outside after school every day and nobody complained about the noise or took pictures or called anyone.

The neighborhood felt peaceful again like it did before Diane moved in. I could sit on my porch with coffee in the morning without worrying about what she would complain about that day. My kids rode their bikes in the driveway and used sidewalk chalk and ate popsicles outside and nobody cared.

Rich put a for rent sign in Diane’s front yard but this time he said he was being really careful about who he picked. He ran background checks on everyone who applied and called their previous landlords and asked the neighbors what they thought before he made any decisions. He said he learned his lesson about just renting to anyone who had the money.

The house sat empty for about 6 weeks while Rich looked for the right people. Two months after Diane left a moving truck showed up at her old house on a Saturday morning. A family got out of a car behind the truck and they had two teenage daughters who looked around 15 and 17.

The mom came over to my house that afternoon carrying a plate of brownies that were still warm. She said her name was Jennifer and they were so excited to move into such a nice neighborhood with lots of families. I invited her in and we talked for a while about the street and the schools and she said her daughters were looking forward to having younger kids around to babysit.

I told her,

“Welcome to the neighborhood”

and I meant it. It felt good to have normal people living next door again. 6 months later I was sitting on my porch on a Saturday afternoon watching my kids play tag in the yard with Jennifer’s daughters.

Sebastian’s beagle was running around with them trying to figure out the game and barking every time someone got tagged. The sun was shining and kids were laughing and everything felt right. I thought about how close we came to letting one angry person ruin what we had here.

Diane almost made me afraid to let my kids play in their own yard. She almost made me feel like a bad parent for letting them be normal kids. But we stood up to her as a neighborhood and we got our peace back.

My kids were happy and healthy and playing outside like they should be. The street was quiet except for normal kid noises. I learned that bullies only win if you let them and sometimes the best thing you can do is stand together with your neighbors and refuse to back down.