Dear Tammy
As a mom who has had seven, simply the fact that you have a large number of
kids, will often get you in trouble. Others who have trouble handling just
one or two figure there is no way in the world anyone can possibly handle
6!! There is also the factor that you really don't neighbors and their
families like we did when we were growing up, so basically you have
"familiar" strangers living around you. This is even more so when you can't
get out much because of special need kids.I had my first 3 in a 31 month
span. They were all NDA. Our house was the Mecca of other kids in the
neighborhood. After about a year of living there I had a police officer at
my door at least once a week saying a neighbor called saying my kid was
playing in the street unsupervised. The kid that was complained about was
usually in the house when the officer arrived. Spring rolled around and I
was out in the front yard working with my kids around their friends around
to "help" me. A neighbor from across the street several houses down, who I
had never met, came up and started asking why I let my kids play in the
street all the time. I asked just what kid she saw in the street and she
pointed to a neighbors kid. She had been calling the police on me for a kid
who wasn't even my own!!!!!. Our next door neighbor was a middle age
bachelor. I was very consciousness that my kids did not play over at his
house ( he has a sail boat and other adult toys) just out of respect for his
life style. I kept finding the  other kids tossed on our yard right on the
property dividing line. I caught him throwing a trike over one day in a
huff, and asked him what he was doing. He said returning my kids toys. When
I explained they didn't belong to my kids, he apologized and made the
comment that since we had the most kids he just assumed it belonged to one
of mine.
Wishing you luck with your case.
Joanne