Everyone On Their Own Merit.

In my neighborhood it seems a lot of the children have become old enough to ride skateboards. It is an ongoing issue and seems to be gaining momentum. My home is on the corner of the entrance to the community, so there are a lot of cars that go past my home. Directly across the street from my home are a couple of stairs, kitty-corner from my home is a stairway of about 8 stairs and beside my home is a curb. For this reason, the area just outside my home is a very popular skateboarding destination for neighborhood kids.

The homeowner's association has declared skateboarding within the community to be against the rules and regulations. This very issue has been addressed repeatedly with no solution in sight. The skateboard wheels are destructive to the stairs. It is very noisy. It is a busy street and a car could harm them if they are hit.

I am perpetually going out and requesting the children move on and find another place to do their activities. Unfortunately, my requests are never well-received. They will circle around, wait five minutes and come back. Usually accompanied by a defiant "Why do we have find another place to play?" question. (sigh) So, the other day, I came up with The Grand Idea to take the violator's picture.

The kid whose picture I snapped the other day initially copped an attitude. Asking me why he wasn't allowed to skateboard there. Said I couldn't just take his picture. I responded with, you can't just skateboard there. He asked why not, I told him it was against the community rules. That there were signs posted. blah blah blah. I was frustrated and had, unwittingly, grouped all skateboarders into the pigeonhole of "nuisance".

I asked God to protect my home from vandalism and for guidance on how to handle this new challenge. A couple minutes later, the kids came back and rang my doorbell. At first, I wasn't going to answer, I hate conflict. But then I felt compelled to talk to them. As it turns out, I am so grateful that I did talk to them. I gained a new respect for them ... children on the brink of being teenagers. They had some valid points and we reached a mutual respect. I also learned that the neighborhood does NOT have signs, so even if we called the sheriff (as the community newsletter instructs us to do), they would not be able to enforce anything.

Skateboarding is not a crime. Skateboarders are not criminals. They are just kids trying to have fun. I need to try harder to not be the "mean-old-lady-who-lives-there". And, we need to have signs posting the rules. Just as we are all walking our path of life, these kids are learning their way, too.