Full disclosure: I'm noise sensitive so there's every chance I'm being a bit of a twat.
Since 2pm today (when the rain let up) there have been children playing out on the street, as there have been most days during the holidays. Due to the shape of the street, the 'best' place to play is pretty much right outside my flat. By coincidence, none of the children playing are actually outside their own homes...that's just the way it's worked out as the more family friendly homes (with more bedrooms, front and back gardens etc) aren't near the small bit of greenery that's good for playing.
The problem is the noise...there's the kind of noise levels that you'd expect in a particularly good park, but all condensed into this very small area, and add in a good dose of screaming-for-screaming's-sake. That level isn't constant, but there are 3 or 4 households that don't supervise their kids at all (most keep their front door open and pop out occasionally, and those with younger kids come out with them) so when these kids are out, the screaming commences and I enter my own personal hell until they go home. When it's gotten loud enough to scare DD (16mo), I've been out myself to ask them to keep it down, but it never lasts more than an hour or two before they've forgotten, and I really don't want to be supervising other people's children all the time anyway.
I don't really know what else I can do about it though...if these parents won't supervise their kids out of concern for their safety (all primary school aged children), they're certainly not going to do it to monitor their noise levels, especially when it doesn't actually affect them. But, AIBU to wish the parents would be more considerate and monitor their kid's noise levels when they're playing outside someone else's home?
AIBU?
Am I being a misery guts?
ElderlyKoreanLady · 13/08/2015 19:31
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
in the end children have to play. Is there no way you could transfer to another flat?
Why should OP have to move flats just to get some peace and quiet in her own home? She's not complaining about children playing, the children are screaming and their parents aren't telling them to keep it down. Why should kids be allowed to make as much noise as they like in residential areas? Surely they should go to a proper park or playground if they want to scream and shout? Otherwise it spoils the peace for everyone nearby.
When I was growing up, the only places we were allowed to scream and yell were playgrounds, sports-fields, the beach and on roller-coasters! We still played out in our garden all summer and sometimes in the street, we just played without screaming. If we made too much noise we were reprimanded and reminded to think of neighbours, or told to come inside and calm down!
Even if OP moved, what about the next person to live there? Why should they have to put up with other peoples' kids screaming all day?
I like the idea of the sonic repellent thing 
I don't think you are BU at all. Playing noises are one thing but screaming for screaming sake is very irritating. We have children opposite us who do that and often on a school night up to 8:30 sometimes!
There's a group of kids ranging from ages (roughly) 4 to 10 who run riot in my street, totally unsupervised and screeching like banshees until 9.30pm some nights. One of the mothers finally comes out and roars up the street until one of them (who has the same name as me, so hearing it bellowed up the street makes me shudder) goes home. Two of the boys live in my block and they keep leaving the main building door on the snib so that anyone and their granny can wander in and out
I'm not a child-friendly person and I'm probably a miserable bag but I sit in my flat grinding my teeth while they shriek for hours.
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Atenco...I definitely won't be moving over it. Really easier said than done in HA places. They're not blank livable canvasses like private rents are when you move in. They're completely empty shells without carpet, curtain rails, nothing. This one didn't even have a working shower and the bath was cracked and needed replacing. There was racist graffiti over the walls. I've spent a good chunk of money getting it homely. Not only do I not want to wave goodbye the the cash I've already spent, I can't currently afford to get a new place worth living in. And I shouldn't have to spend a few grand doing so for the sake of a few families not bothering to supervise their children.
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