AIBU to ask neighbours children & teens to keep noise down in the garden?

It sounds like normal noise of having a family next door. They are slow to play and make noise in their own garden.

Agree that 9 pm is reasonable and so is the sound of children playing in a garden

Op you have 1 toddler who is obviously not comparable to 4 older children . If you live beside others there’s always the chance of noise , they might be woken up early by your dc or if you have other dcs and get unlucky and have a non sleeper in the future or really noisy older children . It’s a good thing that they are enjoying their lives while they are young and good that teenagers are outdoors.

Is the noise really waking up your son ?

This is absolutely not true. In our road we have 1 family with screeching kids (thankfully seem to be growing out of it)that have no boundaries for volume or time of night, and one family nearer to us with 2 incredibly polite well behaved boys, who play far far quieter than the other two screechers who are 1/4 mile away We just don't hear them, bit of ball noise, and the odd time they need a ball throwing back they ask politely. Near neighbours are always apologising for the boys 'noise'. Far neighbours never mention it - I do say to them sometimes, 'oh I heard those noisy kids last night till about 10pm, I think they're somewhere beyond you, the kids screech so loud we hear it our end, must be very annoying for you' but they've not taken the hint.

It's the screaming that's the issue not the fact kids are playing out

As above, somehow try to make sure your neighbours don’t get a trampoline! The squabbles were unreal

I feel your pain. I live next to four loud kids and 4 dogs. I think some parents can be unaware how loud their kids are because they just get used to it with 4, especially if the adults have quite loud voices themselves. I wear noise cancelling headphones in the garden, it’s not ideal but they’re a loud family. Just be glad they’re not having outdoor sleepovers like my neighbours. The other night the kids started (started!) playing music at 1.30am. I assume the parents were out

Or - they could keep it down to reasonable levels and bear in mind their surroundings?

I'm in a terrace , my DC are adults so I have survived a lot of noise ! Though mine weren't screamers .

At the moment we have a mix of:
football going thwack thwack against a wooden fence (not my fence)
Yapping dog ( endless )
Occasional noise from small child at night ( expected and I remember going through this with my own DC)

Thankfully don't have to put up with noisy music till 3am mid 20s but I got my own back with a vacuum cleaner against his wall at 7am .

Another yappy dog .
Just hope they don't get a trampoline !

I know in the summer it all ramps up a gear .

Sounds hard work but I think if you live in a housing estate it is live and let live I'm afraid. Kids are noisy, but might be extra noisy if you complain about it (you know what people are like). There are many neighbours in my street I would happily never see again!

Difficult one. I would teach my DC to be considerate of the neighbours but I don't see how you can enforce it with someone else's kids.
I don't really mind the noise of kids, barking dogs really annoy me though.

some muppet always pipes up with this 'why did you buy a house with neighbours' idiocy on MN on every thread with neighbour disputes, as if we all have the finances for Downton Abbey-esque remote country estates but choose to live in terraces as some hilarious social experiment to see how the proletariat live.

Most people don't choose to live close to others but have no other option. UK houses are largely built very close together. You are of course completely right, OP, that most people don't know who their neighbours are until they move in - and even if you DID know and made a choice on that basis, your neighbours could - shock, horror- MOVE at any time.

I think a polite, 'any chance your kids could keep it down/play out the front between x-x.30 while I put the baby to bed' is fair enough. The worst they can say is no, really.

@oOiluvfriendsOo Yep for the rest of us to put up with

Children constantly screaming is not acceptable. Normal playing noise yes but not screaming just for the sake of it, trying to outdo each other's screams etc.

I would never allow my kids to do this. Parents need to parent. Too many shove them out the door then pretend they don't exist.

You shouldn't report to LA if you've never even asked them to be quiet though. That would be weird!

I would just ask them tbh. My neighbours dislike me already but I've literally just been round to ask them to stop their boys kicking the ball repeatedly against our shared fence because it's driving me insane!

I have no issue with playing and they are a bit loud but not screaming and not repeated kicking most of the time! I still say what I feel. Why wouldn't you?

You can ask but they might ignore the request. I remember our mum always telling us to play quietly in the evening in case there was a baby nearby trying to sleep. I don’t know if people were more considerate back then.

On our council website it says they will not take on complaints over child noise , ie playing , crying, shouting. Or one off party's.

Yes screaming, shouting, playing football, winding up a sibling is all very normal for children aged between 6-15. This is your first summer there, don’t make things awkward for yourself by complaining. The person who said report to your local authority for antisocial behaviour is ridiculous - it’s the opposite of antisocial, it’s normal behaviour from a young family who have been cooped up indoors after one of the worst winters in history.

When your children get older I’m sure they will reciprocate the noise.

With a toddler you might think you understand child noise. In five years time you'll laugh at that thought especially if you have another child. You can't compare a 1 year old to 4 children. An exhausted you might get it one day.

It doesn't sound like the noise is really anti social and fine up to 9pm. If your toddler goes to bed later it's no big deal is it?

Same here and exactly how I parented my kids in the 90s and I’m pleased to say that’s how they parent their kids too.

My GC know to enjoy playing in the garden but they know that screaming, shrieking or shouting isnt allowed . That doesn’t mean that they don’t get over excited at times and forget but they have been taught from young that there are neighbours in their garden too who are entitled to enjoy their time out there.

The sense of entitlement from some of the posters is just so depressing, just a total lack of any parenting or teaching young dc how to grow up to be respectful of others.

Ours goes in and shuts the door so they don’t have the disturbance but everyone else does. Useless

When I was a kid, if my brother's and I made to much noise in the garden my mum would tell us to keep the noise down as we'd disturb the neighbours. If she had to tell us for a third time we were told to come back inside. We all brought our kids up the same way.

There's a reason these kinds of parents send these kinds of children out in the garden all day. Its because its bedlam in the house if they are in, because they've not been taught to behave more quietly etc.

You'll get nowhere complaining. Their parents know full well how noisy their DC are and won't do anything about it.

I used to have a constantly shouty, screechy kid a few doors down from me and it really was awful on a warm day. I have a lot more kids living near me, now and of course they're not quiet but the tone of their play isn't that full on constant swaying between sergeant major and hysteria and is so much less stressful to listen to. The big difference is that the parents get out there and reel them in if someone does begin to get over wrought.