Neighborhood kid advice- NBR

luckylindy

I need some advice on what to do here because DH and I are a bit out of our league here.

 We have this 10 year old kid in the neighborhood, Andrew, who comes over to our house multiple times a day. It started last week when DH was working out in the garage. Andrew stopped by to see what DH was doing and they got to talking. Turns out this kid comes from a single parent home, dad is completely MIA (we suspect might be an alcoholic due to the way the kid was talking) and mom isn't around much (according to both Andrew and other kids in the neighborhood). We initially felt bad for him because it seemed like he needed adult attention and more importantly, male attention. I don't mind helping a kid out and neither does DH.

Well it has gotten a bit out of control. The kid comes by our house numerous times a day. Saturday he rang our doorbell 5 times. Sunday and Monday it was 8 times. Tuesday he was standing by our garage waiting for DH to get home and he bombarded him as soon as he got off the motorcycle. He rang the bell two more times after that (even after we told him we were going out somewhere.) Yesterday he came over 4 times. 

The kid either doesn't remember well or just doesn't listen when we explain that we can't entertain him constantly. (DH works 80 hours a week on top of working on his master's degree.) Plus the kid is so rude and has this irritating sense of entitlement. He tries to walk into our house uninvited. (Literally tries to push us out of the way to get inside) We've had to shoo him out of our garage and off our workout equipment (he walks in and just hops on our treadmill without asking). He talks over people when they talk and actually accused me of lying yesterday when I said that DH wasn't home yet. Not to mention I've seen him breaking branches off our trees and ripping leaves off our plants. (When I addressed him on this issue he told me it was okay because we knew him. He seemed aghast when I told him it wasn't okay and he needed to ask permission before touching our property.)

We tried explaining to him once already that he can't come over so much- that doesn't phase him. We've talked to his mom once about him but she seems to think she can't control him and there's nothing she can do but tell him not to bother people. I'm thinking about going and talking to her again today to try to get a better feel for the situation and to convey that this really can't continue.

We really don't mind hanging out with him on occasion, just not every day. Any suggestions how we convey that to a 10 year old or how we make this crazy stalking stop?