Our new Neighbours and my loud children

Because any time anyone parks an inch over her driveway, or on the pavement, or makes it even slightly difficult for other cars to get past, or causes her the slightest inconvenience, she’s going to be logging, photographing it and reporting it repeatedly.

You may have great neighbours so you underestimate what harm an aggrieved neighbour can do to a home based business.

Yeah so does the one next door.

Always two sides to every story

And that’s why I said according to the guidelines of whatever music restrictions are in place… where they live, some areas might differ. Read the post in future.

@Marley11 come on people! kids will always be noisy! the neighbour sounds like she is used to having 80 year olds who sit and sleep all day in a chair for neighbours. does she really expect a house with 2/3 bedrooms to purchased by an elderly person? I personally like to hear kids enjoying themselves, especially in the garden in the summer. better that being glued to playstations etc!

let me get this right....you have got two children who you can't teach to tone it down and you are setting up as a childminder???

When does OP say her kids are like this? She said they play and sleep 7-7.

I really do feel like you're fine then! 4pm and having fun. It's not like kids that just scream and scream for the sake of screaming.

I live next door to someone like you OP and it is awful

From 5am to 9pm they kick the walls, stomp on the floor, throw things against the wall, scream all day.

She then says that we are complaining about her children playing.

Well they’re by definition less likely to have exposure, I’m sure you can agree. And I know that you know how children (most of the dozens of children amongst the families we know well) behave v differently in school and and at home…not universal of course…

I agree - spend this evening having a disco with your kids in the living room.

OP it’s such a shame that this may impact your business. You’ve brought a family home to bring up your family and support others too. I think you should carry on. You’ve a right to do this as long as you’re respectful- which it sounds like you are. Maybe some soundproofing on some adjoining walls and informing her of this as a way to try to build some rapport? To show you are doing your best.

it may be that she doesn’t understand ASD or additional needs and how this means your child may learn differently or needs to let off steam after masking all day. Gardens are for enjoying and having fun. I agree that screaming all day is not ok but the odd excited scream or laughter/silliness is what kids do! I’ve heard adults make a lot worse noise in my opinion.

my worry would be you’d stop your dream of child minding but she’d continue to complain anyway! Then she may move….and you’d have no business.

playing the radio at 4.30 is awful - how mean!!! Your kids excitement and fun is spontaneous. The radio is planned!

please record and report any malicious noise disturbance. That was deliberate.

But what are you doing about it? At the moment it sounds like nothing but 'meh, kids gonna kid, how DARE you have any reaction but 'yay!, bless! Of course your dc doing what they want is the only thing that matters..'

And when you’ve worked what it is, share it with the world 😂

We have noisy children in our road. I don’t mind kids playing but I can’t stand screaming and shouting. My kids are now adults, both have autism and I never allowed them to be that noisy, if they had screamed I would have made them come indoors. Laughing and playing is fine, shouting and screaming is not fine. Teach your kids to respect people around them.

I think OP mentioned it as background - to evidence that the neighbour hasn’t experienced bringing up kids and the normal noise this entails!!

posters are basing their comments on the OP herself. If a parent describes their children as "loud" followed by the usual "They are just being kids in my opinion*, it means they ARE loud.

I think the neighbour is funny, demonstrating how much the noise carries.

there were young children all around us when mine were young, you could hear them occasionally but we all made sure not out too early late or noisy. I love the sound of kids playing and laughing! However, one house had 3 little girls that screamed constantly, out trampolining at the crack of of dawn. It did get on my nerves, particularly as I often thought they were hurt it was that bad but didnt say anything, while I felt they could have been more considerate family noise is inevitable! I say enjoy your garden but try to kept it down a bit. she sounds horrible with the 4.30am music so she is not going to like a child minder next door if she doesnt like 2 kids in the garden!

Exactly this. If Op is staring a new business and having just bought her new dream house it seems she’s has hell of a lot more to lose if things go south which I suspect they probably will. Repair the relationship, teach the kids not to scream and get soundproofing.

Reliably mad mumsnet response on this thread 🤣 People convinced that OP's children are literally screaming all day in the garden, excusing a woman maliciously waking a toddler at 4.30am... Sorry your neighbour is such a bitch @Marley11 You're in the right.

This

We had new neighbours about 2 years ago...house diagonally opposite but in a different road (if you see what I mean). They are outside a lot Christmas day at 8 am, Easter egg hunt, bonfire night, laughing, kicking a football, the occasional excited shout...behind there's a grandparent who has kids visit on a Saturday and all they do is scream.

I love the sound of the kids opposite, even when they play outside from dawn to dusk. I'm very tempted to complain if the grandkids stay over the summer holidays.

If the house is a project then can you apply good soundproofing to the party wall, that would help, at least inside the house

Agree. I went round to my next door but one neighbour because their dd was literally screaming ALL day, mostly due to her older sister imposing stupid impossible to follow rules for games. The parents completely ignored them both. Kids playing, great, but screaming = go inside and calm it down a notch.

Setting up as a childminder is going to drive your neighbour wild! Putting her radio on at 4.30 is extremely petty. Could she not just have spoken to you?

Saying if she loathes kids that much she should be in a detached house rather than a semi is ridiculous. It’s like saying to anyone that lives in a highly populated city full of noise that if they don’t like noise then move to the countryside where it’s quiet. It’s not that simple is it? People have mortgages, jobs, family, friends and a have built a life in that area. Plus do you know how much detached houses cost these days? A lot, I’ll tell you that. Op doesn’t say if she has a partner, so saying just to move is pointless.

Everyone should be able to enjoy their home both Op and neighbour without unnecessary noise. But parents need to understand no one, absolutely no one like screaming kids. It’s not fun. It’s not cute. Parent your kids to be considerate towards others because they’re going to get a massive shock in later on life if not.