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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Clocks go back and as if by magic....

260 replies

Sonato · 26/03/2026 16:27

The selfish people show themselves

Bang. Bang. Bang. Footballs against the fence.

Parent. Your. Children.

Its unacceptable

Just take them to the park ffs

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Scarabhead · 06/04/2026 18:36

Just settled down to watch a film and here we go........ Bang, bang bang fuuuuuuuuck off.

SweetnsourNZ · 06/04/2026 10:16

HappiestSleeping · 26/03/2026 16:29

Where are you that the clocks have gone back? I am in the UK and they go forward on Sunday.

Ours went back in New Zealand. Sad goodbye to another summer.

dreamiesformolly · 06/04/2026 10:14

I'm out, the smell of burning denial on this thread has become overpowering. Just hope the deniers don't come crying to Mumsnet in 10 years' time or so bewailing what's happened to society when the screamers and out-of-control noise makers (and one final time for the hard of understanding in the back: I DO NOT MEAN NORMAL PLAYING NOISE) have become out-of-control young adults because no one's ever bothered to teach them consideration for others.

southcoastsammy · 06/04/2026 08:17

TheRealMagic · 05/04/2026 18:35

I do think it's true to say every generation thinks kids' behaviour has gone to pot, but the difference nowadays is that with some kids today it really has.

This has got to be a joke?

Mmm, look at what the war generation thought of the ‘teenagers’ when that became a thing! Or of the 60s. Or what the 50s thought of the wildness of the punk kids, or the gender bending dress of the 80s kids… and in and in and on… Gen X despair of the millenials! millennials wondering what the fuck is up with the Gen Z ‘stare…

southcoastsammy · 06/04/2026 08:14

I’m convinced that the same people complaining about kids playing out are also the ones who reminisce about the freedom they had playing out as kids all day long! And complain that children now spend all day inside on screens…
We had the moany neighbour who always complained about children playing outside on the estate too, though she was happy to use us a free labour for running her errands and weeding her garden!
older people whining about kids - it was ever thus!

WalkDontWalk · 06/04/2026 06:06

dreamiesformolly · 05/04/2026 19:05

If you’re struggling to ‘get past’ that, you really need to get out more.

I'll try.

In the same spirit of comradely advice, I'd suggest you might be happier if you stayed in more.

dreamiesformolly · 05/04/2026 19:05

WalkDontWalk · 05/04/2026 19:03

I'm still getting past 'it really has'.

...which is so unsupportable and unsupported a declaration that it really ought to be eligible for some sort of award for 'outrageous generalisations derived from narrow interpretations of personal experience subsequently presented as valid argument on social media'.

I may have to institute such an award. Obviously I need to work on the name. Give me a day or two.

If you’re struggling to ‘get past’ that, you really need to get out more.

dreamiesformolly · 05/04/2026 19:04

In what way do you consider it an unreasonable statement?

WalkDontWalk · 05/04/2026 19:03

I'm still getting past 'it really has'.

...which is so unsupportable and unsupported a declaration that it really ought to be eligible for some sort of award for 'outrageous generalisations derived from narrow interpretations of personal experience subsequently presented as valid argument on social media'.

I may have to institute such an award. Obviously I need to work on the name. Give me a day or two.

TheRealMagic · 05/04/2026 18:35

I do think it's true to say every generation thinks kids' behaviour has gone to pot, but the difference nowadays is that with some kids today it really has.

This has got to be a joke?

dreamiesformolly · 05/04/2026 18:01

WalkDontWalk · 05/04/2026 13:44

@dreamiesformolly Who are you to say it's 'absolute nonsense'? Perhaps you just haven't witnessed much of it personally.

Well, obviously I'd say much the same to you. 'Absolute nonsense' was your phrase, not mine. I simply bounced it back.

'Children used to be much better behaved on the whole than they are today' was what you said. But I'm glad to see you've modified that to I do think the majority are still well behaved. So not 'on the whole' then.

So you either think that the well-behaved majority is a smaller majority than it used to be, or you think that the ill-behaved minority, thougn much the same size as it used to be, is even more ill-behaved. I don't see how your evidence for that can be anything other than anecdotal. As is mine of course.

And yet you deny mine...

Given that you've stated your age, I'm going to hazard a guess that you know full well all these behaviours are worse now. You just don't want to admit it.

The last recourse of the weak argument. Declare that the other person agrees with you really - but they're lying.

Edited

None of what you have just typed changes my opinion that you’ve either had a very narrow set of experiences around children and their behaviour, or perhaps see the kind of kid behaviours I mentioned as OK. I stand by what I said.

And to answer your ‘either/or’ question, my view is that bad behaviour absolutely is getting worse. 100%.

WalkDontWalk · 05/04/2026 13:44

@dreamiesformolly Who are you to say it's 'absolute nonsense'? Perhaps you just haven't witnessed much of it personally.

Well, obviously I'd say much the same to you. 'Absolute nonsense' was your phrase, not mine. I simply bounced it back.

'Children used to be much better behaved on the whole than they are today' was what you said. But I'm glad to see you've modified that to I do think the majority are still well behaved. So not 'on the whole' then.

So you either think that the well-behaved majority is a smaller majority than it used to be, or you think that the ill-behaved minority, thougn much the same size as it used to be, is even more ill-behaved. I don't see how your evidence for that can be anything other than anecdotal. As is mine of course.

And yet you deny mine...

Given that you've stated your age, I'm going to hazard a guess that you know full well all these behaviours are worse now. You just don't want to admit it.

The last recourse of the weak argument. Declare that the other person agrees with you really - but they're lying.

dreamiesformolly · 05/04/2026 13:21

WalkDontWalk · 05/04/2026 12:55

Absolute nonsense. You notice the ill-behaved ones. My experience - and I'm in my sixties - is that children today are rather well-behaved, 'on the whole'.

I think a little of it depends on where you grew up. But much more of it depends on the tendency of the old to believe that everything's getting worse. Every generation thinks that kids today are ill-disciplined, feckless, lazy, self-centred, arrogant, entitled. Every single generation of old people bangs on about it. You see it in literature going back to the Greeks. But if it were true that each generation were noticeably and quantifiably less civilised than their grandparents, civilisation would have entirely collapsed hundreds of years ago.

No - the problem is not kids 'on the whole'. It's just that you're getting old.

Who are you to say it's 'absolute nonsense'? Perhaps you just haven't witnessed much of it personally.

I like children and I do think the majority are still well behaved, but this thread isn't about them, it's about the ones whose parents allow them to be feral because 'kids will be kids' and should apparently come first at all times, even when it's at the expense of other people. Children being allowed to have and do every single thing they want regardless of whether it's actually in the child's interests, 'no' not being in the parents' vocabulary, you're seriously saying you don't see this? Or see that there's more of it than there used to be?

Things like kids running round the tables in restaurants tripping up the wait staff, or screaming like they're being murdered in their gardens (I don't mean the occasional scream as a normal part of having fun btw, I mean that awful sustained din some of them seem to enjoy producing) have always gone on to some extent, yes - but at one time they were the exception rather than the rule. Admittedly stuff like having iPads blaring in public places without headphones is a relatively new one, but are you really fine and dandy with it disrupting your meal when you eat out? Parents did used to have a better grip on how to be strict when it was needed (I don't mean hitting them btw) and actually teaching kids how to behave in situations where other people's comfort has to be taken into account as well as their own.

I do think it's true to say every generation thinks kids' behaviour has gone to pot, but the difference nowadays is that with some kids today it really has. And actually I do feel that society, while not collapsing, is in a bad place because of excessively permissive parenting. What's going to happen when children who have grown up with no boundaries have to function as adults?

Given that you've stated your age, I'm going to hazard a guess that you know full well all these behaviours are worse now. You just don't want to admit it.

WalkDontWalk · 05/04/2026 12:55

dreamiesformolly · 04/04/2026 21:46

Absolute nonsense. Children used to be much better behaved on the whole than they are today.

Absolute nonsense. You notice the ill-behaved ones. My experience - and I'm in my sixties - is that children today are rather well-behaved, 'on the whole'.

I think a little of it depends on where you grew up. But much more of it depends on the tendency of the old to believe that everything's getting worse. Every generation thinks that kids today are ill-disciplined, feckless, lazy, self-centred, arrogant, entitled. Every single generation of old people bangs on about it. You see it in literature going back to the Greeks. But if it were true that each generation were noticeably and quantifiably less civilised than their grandparents, civilisation would have entirely collapsed hundreds of years ago.

No - the problem is not kids 'on the whole'. It's just that you're getting old.

Easterbunnyishotandcross · 04/04/2026 23:02

Back In The Day dc had more respect for adults. Now they expect their own way on everything..

Dollymylove · 04/04/2026 22:54

dreamiesformolly · 04/04/2026 21:46

Absolute nonsense. Children used to be much better behaved on the whole than they are today.

Thats because they arent taught manners and respect anymore. Now they are carrying weapons and murdering each other

BoogieTownTop · 04/04/2026 21:49

TheRealMagic · 04/04/2026 21:26

Children haven't changed; you've just got old.

Agreed!

dreamiesformolly · 04/04/2026 21:46

TheRealMagic · 04/04/2026 21:26

Children haven't changed; you've just got old.

Absolute nonsense. Children used to be much better behaved on the whole than they are today.

OonaStubbs · 04/04/2026 21:28

We used to play nicely as children, my mother would not have tolerated us making unnecessary noise.

TheRealMagic · 04/04/2026 21:26

OonaStubbs · 04/04/2026 20:15

Why can't children play nicely anymore? Why does everything they do have to involve noise?

Children haven't changed; you've just got old.

OonaStubbs · 04/04/2026 20:15

Why can't children play nicely anymore? Why does everything they do have to involve noise?

BoogieTownTop · 04/04/2026 19:29

Sunloungerhogger · 04/04/2026 16:18

Garrrrrg they’re at it again. Whump whump whump. One ball has already come over the fence, but it seems they have another ball. I wonder how many they have. Haven’t rung the doorbell - if they do, I will pretend to be out. If they eventually run out of balls because they’re all in my garden and so do actually come and ring the bell, I guess I’ll have to go round and have words with their parents. Not only do I not want to hear the whump whump whump, I don’t want to be continually interrupted by a ball coming over and someone asking for it back. Also when the weather is warmer and I want to sit out, I don’t want a ball landing on my head. I’m trying not to, because at the end of the day we have to live next to them, but I hate our immediate next door neighbours because of the football, and the selfish entitled parking. Literally everyone else on our little street is lovely, but we get the selfish entitled fuckers.

Nowhere near enough whumps to be effective!

Lovely here, children having fun, the campsite up the road has guests for the first time this year, BBQs, children playing, laughs and whumps.

Spring has sprung!

Easterbunnyishotandcross · 04/04/2026 16:26

Ime letting the ball down before handing it back - thus inconveniencing the dps having to find an inflater - will see less balls going your way.

Sunloungerhogger · 04/04/2026 16:18

Garrrrrg they’re at it again. Whump whump whump. One ball has already come over the fence, but it seems they have another ball. I wonder how many they have. Haven’t rung the doorbell - if they do, I will pretend to be out. If they eventually run out of balls because they’re all in my garden and so do actually come and ring the bell, I guess I’ll have to go round and have words with their parents. Not only do I not want to hear the whump whump whump, I don’t want to be continually interrupted by a ball coming over and someone asking for it back. Also when the weather is warmer and I want to sit out, I don’t want a ball landing on my head. I’m trying not to, because at the end of the day we have to live next to them, but I hate our immediate next door neighbours because of the football, and the selfish entitled parking. Literally everyone else on our little street is lovely, but we get the selfish entitled fuckers.

Scarabhead · 27/03/2026 22:08

HelenaWilson · 27/03/2026 14:00

I think I love you, @OooPourUsACupLove

(Whump)

Me too, sums up the annoying sound perfectly.

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