AIBU to be tired of living next to other people?

Fortunately it's fairly quiet where I live. All of the children and teenagers have grown up and most have left home. Occasionally grandchildren come to visit and they do scream a bit but it's not that often so it's not too bad.
I definitely think that children do scream a lot more than they used to and it isn't necessary. Children can play and have fun without the constant screaming.

We moved from a semi in Cambridgeshire to a place in mid Wales.
The nearest neighbour is 200 yards away.
It is utter bliss.
All I can hear this morning is the sound of birds going about their business.
If you get the chance, do it.

I live in a new build 3 storey terrace (13 years old now) and it's the quietest house I've ever lived in. We often discuss how good the sound insulation is and how we never hear each other.

I like where I live, everyone is really friendly and we look out for each other, putting each other's bins out if we go on holiday, for example and taking in each other's deliveries. It's a really nice environment and we often chat to our various neighbours when we are outside.

I do think it depends on the neighbours though. I have lived elsewhere previously that I have found less friendly or with neighbours I was less happy living next door to.

Maybe I'm just lucky but I live in a town and it's fairly quiet. Right now all I can hear is birdsong, I can even hear a woodpecker.
I equally quite like the sound of someone mowing their lawn or children. Those sounds don't bother me, they are the sounds of summer.

I hate the sound of lorries or tractors, cars revving. Where we used to live we also used to get foxes screaming at each other all bloody night which would keep me awake.

I don't think towns are that noisy tbh, I think you are just a bit unlucky where you live. Perhaps you need to move to an older estate?

We have sold up and bought a country cottage with no immediate neighbours for this exact reason and I can't bloody wait! Most of our current neighbours are pleasant enough but I still can't tolerate the noise they make and the general self absorbed behaviour exhibited by most.
I've had enough of dealing with other peoples visitors, selfish parking, loud music, dogs barking, children screaming and running all over my flowers and plants, people dumping their overflowing dirty bins in front of my house instead of their own, loud fog horn conversations in the garden, groups of youths dossing about making noise late at night, constant home and garden renovations, irritating hot tub pump buzzing away...I could go on! I absolutely can not wait to get away from all of the above. I honestly don't care about animal noises and smells so that won't be an issue for me. I just know living remotely will do wonders for my mental health and I say if you can afford to do it then do it!

I hate the screaming too. I really don't mind hearing children playing, but the screaming. It is definitely getting worse.

This is me, I don’t mind normal neighbours. Ours. However think it is fully reasonable to endure their fights calling each other “a f@ c@“ over and over anytime of day, letting their now adult children still have their mates over every night until whenever smoking week or throwing the odd bong in our garden. This I find way too much. To be fair they have been a little better since one party got way too out of hand.

all my previous neighbours in any other home have been ok.

yes we will move as soon as we can.

You’re not unreasonable to want to move somewhere isolated.

I was brought up in the country, and as a child hated hearing the cockerel every morning, so moved as an adult.

I work in a school and go for a walk during my lunch. I could hear the children screaming in the playground from quarter of a mile away. Why do they feel the need to scream at the top of their voice? My children grew up playing and laughing but only screamed if something unexpected happened.

I live on the edge of a village.

Noises I don't mind:
occasional cars in the lane
farm machinery
birds twittering
odd bits of diy
the wind in the trees.

Noises that get on my nerves:
shrieking from children who've just left school.
shrieking from my neighbour's grandchildren in their garden
gulls sitting on the roof yarking.

I think wherever you live, there is going to be some unavoidable noise, but if children just had it explained to them that they should keep their voices down, it would help.

It sounds very stressful where you are, OP. I'd hate it too.
We don't live rurally but in a small town with good size gardens front and back, on a quiet road. It is peaceful. Semi detached but our neighbours (who have four kids) are pretty quiet and/or the insulation is OK. We hear them sometimes but it's not disturbing. We have a couple of rooms which don't attach to them and these are much quieter. In the summer there are things going on in nearby gardens but only for short periods.
I think that modern housing is often far too densely built and even houses which are detached are very close to other people, with poor insulation. Also the fashion for knocking down internal walls means fewer hallways and understairs cupboards absorbing the sound from next door, and sound echoes . Internal walls are there for a reason.

See I can’t understand why they would put kids’ play equipment next to your fence when they have no-one on the other side! Just why? People can be so thoughtless!

I think the UK generally has such small living spaces so on that basis YANBU. It’s a bit mad to me that their play equipment is so close to you; it’s because the houses are all glued together in tiny spaces

Yes, this was me. Lived on top of people and their parties and their loud sex and their customers knocking on the wrong door trying to buy drugs for years and years. 5 different big cities all over the world. I now live in a remote part of the moor with no near neighbours and can attest that it’s great!

Ditto. The birdsong is just lovely to listen too. People and vehicles, on the other hand… Urghh

Children screaming while playing has definitely got worse. I’ve lived near a primary school for 20 years and always enjoyed the sound of playtime, but now the kids scream/screech all the time whereas that was never an issue in the past.

I can cope with noise - just about - but I just wish I could go in my garden and sit out, eat a meal or just have some peace and quiet without being forced into a conversation i do not want with neighbours.

I really wish I could afford to move somewhere isolated. I don't even like being around my nice neighbours. I am incredibly anti social and I only live here so that I can look after my mum on the same street. I totally understand how you feel.

Children have screamed unnecessarily since the 18th century. Before that they spent most of their time screaming necessarily because life was so awful then.

I live in a cul de sac where there are two families with primary age children and I barely hear them; I feel sad that they don’t play out more.
My bugbear is with the neighbours with their improvements/extensions. Noise, dust, blocking our driveway and the road. Lots of them seem to only communicate by swearing at the top of their voices. I’m assuming all that noise has made them deaf.

I dream of being surrounded by just fields. As a middle aged introvert I have little tolerance for noisy neighbours too OP. Luckily it’s not so bad where we live but I just love the sound of birds and nature these days, not vehicles and people!

The teenagers being really noisy coming home at 3am is unreasonable. You should have a chat with your neighbours about that. The rest of it, pretty normal I think.

I’d take the normal noise form a neighbour over my kitten who treats my bed like his own trampoline at 5am every single morning!

We live semi rural but our plans are to move further into the countryside.

We used to have a neighbour who was as quiet as a mouse but our new neighbours are so bloody noisy. If it's not their 3 year old twins screaming at 8pm every sodding night then it's the dogs barking or the cockerel being noisy or it's it's the husband chainsawing logs on a Sunday morning.

So yes. We'd love to move somewhere without neighbours.

I’m with you on this one! We live in a small culdesac off a bigger road. One neighbour jet washes and mowed their lawn allllll weekend almost every weekend. Another has a mechanic mate who uses his drive to fix 6 cars and all the noise that comes with it! Didn’t know I moved next to Kwikfit ffs! Other neighbour has 3 kids under age 9 - lets them into the garden at 6am to shout and scream on weekends. Other neighbour has a dog that barks every morning at 5.30am for ages. They also have 2 teens that come home with mates revving car engines at 2am. Last neighbour has 3 girls aged 17-21… for YEARS we’ve had parties in the garden. Gates banging, cars up and down, music / karaoke at 2am. It’s unreal. We make zero noise!! We have teens but they’re told to be quiet when coming and going. We don’t make gardening noises. I honestly want to run away most weeks!! People just don’t care. If you ask them to keep it down a bit they take major offence.

I totally understand where you are coming from.
I am very private person and like my own solitude.
It's not so much the noise for me, but just being close to people (that I have nothing in common with). Two of them will use the front of my drive as a meeting place for their daily gossip, and it sends my anxiety through the roof (agoraphobia).

If I didn't have agoraphobia I might be okay with it.