AITA for taking down the neighborhood basketball hoop after parents treated my driveway like a park?

I installed a basketball hoop beside my driveway for my thirteen-year-old son. The base sits on our property, but the hoop faces the quiet end of the street so missed shots can roll toward the curb.

At first, two neighborhood kids joined him after school. I was glad he was outside and making friends. I told them they could play until seven as long as my son was home and they stayed out of the flower bed.

By summer, the hoop had become a neighborhood destination. Children arrived when my son was away. Parents dropped them off and left. One Saturday I counted nine kids in the driveway while I was trying to unload groceries.

I posted a polite message in the neighborhood group: the hoop was not a public court, and children could use it only when invited by my son or me.

For about a week, the crowd stopped.

Then a parent named Alicia knocked and asked whether her twins could play for thirty minutes because they were bored. I said no; we were leaving soon. Ten minutes later, I saw them shooting baskets anyway while Alicia watched from her car.

I brought the hoop into the garage that evening.

My son was furious. He had followed every rule and lost something he used daily because other families ignored me. I told him we could set it up in the backyard, but the surface is uneven and there is less room.

Other parents also complained. They said the hoop had become one of the few places where kids of different ages played together, and I could have used a sign, fixed hours or a group schedule before removing it. Alicia apologized and said she misunderstood my no as “not right now” rather than “do not use it without us.”

I do not believe that explanation. I also know I took the easiest enforcement action against the one person who had done nothing wrong: my son.

He now spends more time gaming indoors and says he will never invite the neighborhood kids again. I wanted to reclaim our driveway, not end his social life.

I could reinstall the hoop with clearer limits, but I worry that doing so teaches every parent that enough complaining will reopen access.

AITA for taking it down instead of trying another rule?