How can I [25F] politely be left alone by the neighborhood kids?

My hubs and I were pretty much forced to live on a military base for a short, year-long assignment. Usually we buy or rent off-post but this base does not have a ton to offer outside of the housing allowance, and rather than dig deep into debt, we were offered a home on base for the duration.

We don't have kids. And usually when you live on post, pretty much everyone does. We were put into a neighborhood where everyone has kids. My neighbors on either side of me have children. One house has an awesome family that I love to see - my hubby and her hubby are good friends now and their kids are funny and adorable. The other neighbor - not so much - but that's a different story for a different day.

I have two dogs. I go outside rarely in the first place because it seems each time I do, I am bothered by the neighborhood of roving children that seem to have no concept of stranger danger. Granted, it's a military base, but it throws me off and makes me super uncomfortable since I don't know them. Several times I have had random kids walk into my garage while I work on my car with power tools, use saws, etc. and I don't realize they are there until they scare me out of the corner of my eye. Several kids ride their bikes and such in my driveway and others' driveways, and I'm worried about someone getting hurt or cars being damaged.

Sometimes when I let my dogs out, they call them to the edge of the fence. I don't know why they do that - it's really not safe to call a strange dog to a fence even IF my dogs are amazing with kids.

Basically my question is - how can I NICELY just be left alone? I always say "hi" back to them but then end up stopping what I'm doing and go inside because I really do not wish to be bothered. I know this is only temporary - but I feel like I can never go outside and be left in peace. I just want to be able to sit on my front porch in the sun and be left alone. I just want to be able to sit on my back porch and have some privacy without a little kid suctioning to the fence and asking me what I'm doing EVERY SINGLE TIME.

tl;dr - how can I nicely tell the neighborhood children to leave me alone?

Submitted February 03, 2021 at 02:06PM by throwawaychildren123 https://ift.tt/2LlDALq