Neighbor yelled at three year old over tree
My three year old was trying to "climb a tree" today and was holding on to the tree. She is tiny and can't actually climb. She wasn't harming it in any way but our neighbor flung open his door and yelled "get off my tree!" at her which scared her and made her cry. I teach my kids to be respectful of neighbors plants and not pick flowers etc but this reaction was over the top IMO. My question is, is it truly his tree? The tree is planted between the sidewalk and street. I am wondering if it's technically a city tree.
Oct 24, 2024
Parent Replies
The trees in the planter strip are technically owned by the city however the homeowner may have planted them or maintain them. I think the bigger issue is him yelling at a toddler rather than let the parent know there's a problem. I would go over there and calmly let him know to not yell at children and speak to you as a parent. Obviously, in the future, I'd also prevent my toddler from going on the planter strip in front of his house as well as the yard.
Depends on where you live—in Oakland, homeowners are responsible for street trees. In Berkeley I believe it varies by neighborhood, with the City planting and maintaining trees in some areas and homeowners doing this in others. Other cities likely vary. I don't disagree that yelling at kids in general is a poor way to correct behavior, but can imagine lots of scenarios where the neighbor might reasonably have been concerned. For instance, was this a young tree? I've seen kids (my own included, once!) swing on young trees and snap the branches. Drought-stressed mature trees can also have limbs that snap and seriously injure (or in catastrophic cases, kill) kids. But a far better approach would have been for the neighbor to come outside, calmly ask the child not to grab onto the tree, and then explain why. If it's a neighbor you're friendly with, you might bring it up the next time you see them to share that the approach they took was scary for your child and maybe didn't get to the desired end.
Also, I’d keep in mind the fact that if your child fell and hurt herself, it would be that homeowner’s insurance that covered it, and these are really tough times for Californians and homeowner’s.
I know that in our city, homeowners can ask the city to plant a tree on the public strip, so homeowners might be responsible for it and can actually be fined if the tree dies within a certain amount of time. I don't condone the man for yelling at a young child but unless he has a history of doing this, I'd probably give him some grace as he may have been thinking of worst-case scenarios or potential lawsuits if a child was to fall off a tree and get seriously injured due to a tree he's deemed responsible for. People have been sued for a lot less these days.