This bothers me! Did she actually say this or it is the impression you get? What exactly is she busy WITH? It IS hard to manage small children on your own but it’s not impossible. Just do stuff and keep them occupied. Aagghh! Those poor kids. I think I’m turning into my grandmother who ended up declaring that you should have a license for reproducing.
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I can understand why your neighbours don’t want to confront the children or their mother. (How are they getting into your neighbours garden by the way). It isn’t their responsibility. As you know it’s yours.
As hosts if our guests are behaving badly and affecting our neighbours, it is up to us to deal with the situation.
I think you are right in that if children are bored and have nothing to do they will find their own way of entertaining themselves and letting off steam.
For whatever reason the mother isn’t coping. It sounds like she would be better off in a self-contained property elsewhere where her parenting, or lack there of, doesn’t affect your other guests or neighbours.
She has a car so no reason that she can’t take them swimming, to the park, to enjoy child related activities.
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I’ve been wondering this as well. I took a month or so off from the forum and when I came back she was gone 
It is just my impression. I think that her idea of her vacation was to come to a place with very few traffic where not too much can happen to her kids (although kids often wander off to the road as they are unsupervised! ) and then let them be out of her sight while she relaxes inside or hangs on her smart phone.
Additionally, if your kids are not raised properly from an early age, you indeed cannot let them out of sight because they have no built up sense of what they can and cannot do. The older kid is old enough to be talked to and to have some stuff being explained to her, but it is crucial that parents actually have this habit and boundaries set. Otherwise you indeed have to run around making sure they don’t do something stupid.
What bothers me the most is that she lectures me about how I have to accept that children are wild and messy, like we never had guests with children before. I mean, it is clear from my Airbnb account that we are really experienced hosts and that we had families with children before. Maybe she also has this attitude because she figured out that I have no children of my own, so she thinks she can get away with everything by invoking the difficulties of motherhood.
Although we have a family with a kid staying next to her, it seems that she doesn’t notice the difference in their behaviour. The saddest thing is that my surroundings really offer plenty of activities for children, but I guess for that mommy would have to move from her chair, and she doesn’t feel like it.
I would tell her to make her kids behave, or to leave the next morning.
I have done this with guests before. Kids were throwing rocks in our pond, and the mother was sitting next to it laughing, even after I warned them… “That is what boys do” was her reply…
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(Off topic):
Quite a few of my faves also have dropped from sight. As far as dc (Nancy), it seems about 4-5 mos. ago, maybe longer, there was a thread which got a little heated. Hers was the last post and then the thread was closed. I didn’t quite understand the nuances leading to it but she became uncharacteristically irate. I don’t recall seeing another post from her but I was sad to see her depart.
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Thank you, Chris. It seems that they took it down a notch. I’m currently travelling, but I wrote her a lenghty and very polite message on Airbnb explaining that we do expect her to make sure that her kids do not cause damage and not to go on the property that does not belong to us. If these rules are not acceptable to her, I offered to fully refund her for the rest of her stay so that she can find a place more suitable for her (somewhere on the top of the mountain, far away from civilization… just kidding, didn’t write that, but it was on my mind 
)
I sent it yesterday morning; she didn’t reply at all so far (do Airbnb guests get notified on our messages through SMS, btw?), but my parents say that they are behaving better. Do you think I should send her a text and make sure that she read the message?
They exit through our driveway and enter through theirs. It’s just across a shared access road that we have, which is also a bycicle path, btw, but that didn’t prevent mommy to park diagonally in it, blocking both of our driveways AND the path. Fantastic.
Get rid of them, already. There is no way that she will magically become a different kind of person/mother overnight because of a well-worded message from an AirBNB host. (If that’s all it took, I would have you send me an email instead of being in therapy.)
Call AIRbnb, politely tell guests that it’s not working out, refund remaining nights, and set them free into the world. That’s not drama – it’s averting drama and tension for the next three weeks.
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You are so more patient than I would have been. I would have had them out when the kids continued to behave badly and trespass on the neighbours property and the mother wouldn’t look after them.
How rude that she hasn’t bothered to respond.
Well, I’m not 100% sure that she saw it… That’s why I’m asking whether guests get the same notification on their phone via SMS when they receive a message as we do. And whether i should check with her via SMS if she got my message…
Well, you are kinda right, but in the same time, having to kick out a mother with children without giving them a fair, official warning through Airbnb is a potential for an even bigger drama. I’m trying to make all necessary steps before making a more radical one. For now they stopped going to my neighbours’ property and she takes them somewhere during the most of the day. If it’s stays like this, it is tolerable. I don’t expect my guests to be angels, just to have basic decency.
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Yes, guests get a message through sms when you message just like you do. As far as I know, anyway. She probably didn’t respond because she’s embarrassed. From what you say, she did read it and has responded in kind (ie. better behaviour). Look forward to hearing about how you will review this experience!
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HI there, I have also faced this type of problems many times. Whenever the kids start screaming I used to take them to my dog.
A bit late to this discussion, but wondering what became of these guests? I would not wait for the other shoe to drop. Kids who scream and are loud will not suddenly listen to mom and quiet down. You risk alienating your neighbors by letting her stay. That is just my advice.
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Yes, I’d like to know how things turned out too. @Inna, give us an update! Hope it all worked out ok.
Unfortunately, this forum attracts a lot of people who join especially to ask a particular question or air a grievance. And it’s such a shame when we don’t get to know the outcome, Knowing the end of the story can really help current and potential hosts!
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Wait! Does the dog play with them, or EAT THEM?
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True. But mainly it’s because we just want to know the end of the story! It’s kind of rude not to update but pffft, whatever. Maybe we should invent our own endings. “Well, I decided that it would be best to install some cages to curtail the wild children. The mother agreed eventually that this would be the best solution. In fact she seemed relieved as it gave her more time to devote to her phone. Then I discovered a website where you can get over $2000 for unwanted children! We agreed to split the difference so it’s a win-win for all!”
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Oh that’s a much more interesting ending. Please do continue!
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