Boys playing in garden of terraced house

[whattheactualfuckery]

Where do we all stand with teenage kids playing in the garden? Especially when it's terraced houses.
My boys are sport mad, they play in football, basketball and cricket teams in and out of school.
At least half an hour but no more than an hour a day they're in the back garden kicking, throwing or bouncing a ball. There's no excess shouting.
Is this ok? They do go to the park, team practice etc but just like a muck about in their own garden.
I feel this is acceptable and wholesome behaviour, but a neighbour doesn't.

The noise of a football being kicked against a fence or wall is annoying, our next door neighbours son does it occasionally and it IS loud and irritating, despite the fact there is no shouting or anything else. But it's only occasionally every now and again, generally at tea time for a short time, we figure it's just part of living next door to kids in a terrace and we never complain.
If it was every single night it would be more irritating. Maybe it's just got on her nerves and she's snapped?
It's not unreasonable though, what your boys are doing.

I think you should be polite about it if she does come round about it, and ask what exactly it is she wants you to do - to me it sounds like they are making as minimal noise as possible for a very short period of time in their own garden.
Nothing unreasonable at all so she can't really argue.

It is isn't an ungodly hour of the morning or night, and they're not swearing outrageously, and they're not damaging anything then I can't see why it would warrant comment by your neighbour. I love children (including teens) playing out ... don't care if they're mine or someone elses ... and isn't it what we all did?

I live in a terrace - every night a young teen boy comes along our road stops outside my house and bounces his basketball up and down for what feels like half and hour (but in reality is probably ten minutes or so - i think he's practising how many times he can bounce it or something - no idea !) He's on his way to the park (where there is a basketball post).

He does his bouncing on the way and on the way back - it is noisy and it makes me a bit ragey and drives me slightly bonkers.
But - I figure there are much worse things he could be doing - he's not being bad, just a bit thoughtless, he's just a kid playing with a ball, and my general thinking is that kids playing out and being active is a good thing. So I ignore my irritation and reason it is only a short period of time (albeit everyday).

So no - I wouldn't moan about your kids playing in your garden - rereasonable noise is an occupational hazard of living in a terrace. And playing is reasonable behaviour for children. Shouting, swearing, constantly kicking a ball into neighbours gardens - not reasonable, but running around and playing fine in my book (though I might inwardly grit my teeth a little )

If teens are just playing football etc in your garden and not shouting excessively or using bad language I would just ignore the neighbour. If confronted I would just point out what you have said: they are teens and it is only an hour or so.

No. It's really annoying hearing a heavy football being kicked around repeatedly. It's disturbing and I would not want to sit in my garden / have the window open if I had to listen to the noise of the football for ages. What if the neighbour is working from home, revising, trying to rest. Why should they have to listen to this? It's a terraced house so all neighbours should be considerate of each other.
They should absolutely go to the park to play football.

Next doors children are currently shrieking around the garden (they appear to have fallen out over the slide). It is just a noise of nice weather.

DC2 will start their violin practice shortly and then the neighbourhood will have something to cry about.

In the hours that DS is doing this but seems tottaly reasonable.

If it was later, or very early, or banging against the fence, that's not on, but an hour max in the later afternoon... I don't understand the issue?!

What do people want teens to be doing?

So long as the ball doesn't go over the fence, there's no excessive screaming and shouting, there's no swearing, no ball banging against their fence, not past reasonable bedtime then she really gets no say.

Agree with upthread- just calmly say your children and entitled to use their garden and you will not be stopping them. Don't apologise.

I'm probably the neighbour people complain about. I let mine play football, in the summer hols they are out till its dark. Not screaming or swearing but playing.

I'm now feeling annoyed that she shouted at my kids! They've just said they think she filmed them, doesn't sound good to me either

OP don't be annoyed, just consider both sides. The lady finds the football annoying, and has to listen to it in HER own garden every day. Even if it's not unreasonable things can still be annoying to people and you've got to appreciate that too.

I regularly shout through the walls at my neighbours when they play music loudly on an evening, as that really annoys me, but it's not unreasonable of them to do it and it's a reasonable hour. (I don't actually shout at them, but I do say oh for fucks sake shut up already 😂 not loud enough for them to hear me though, just to deal with my own frustration at it, as I can't really say anything!).

Maybe she's just got fed up and felt she had to say something. Some people aren't as tolerant xx

Your neighbour is unreasonable.

No. It's really annoying hearing a heavy football being kicked around repeatedly. It's disturbing and I would not want to sit in my garden / have the window open if I had to listen to the noise of the football for ages. What if the neighbour is working from home, revising, trying to rest. Why should they have to listen to this?

Susanna30, Imagine a world you are not at the centre of, as the rest of us are living there.
If the temporary noise of children playing in their own garden is that distracting then buy some ear protectors or ear plugs to drown it out. You can't expect everyone else to restrict their lives to give you permanent silence.

you must have a big garden if there's enough space for teens to play football regularly to be fair.

But if they have goals and don't use a wall or a fence, it's not that noisy. I even put up with the noise from mine

but I wouldn't allow them to be noisy past 7pm, everybody is entitled to some peace and quiet.

I’d love it if my teens played in the garden. Let them get on with it - evenings are lighter and they are outside not stuck indoors looking at a screen.

Your neighbour is intolerant and unreasonable. WTF is she filming them for? I’d be knocking on her door for that.

The gardens along my terrace are 100 square metres, mine approx 150 as I'm at the end. So no not a large garden at all

Immediate thought is filming to report us

No. It's really annoying hearing a heavy football being kicked around repeatedly. It's disturbing and I would not want to sit in my garden / have the window open if I had to listen to the noise of the football for ages. What if the neighbour is working from home, revising, trying to rest. Why should they have to listen to this?

Living in a terrace means that you will hear more noise from neighbours. It's reasonable for children to play in their garden. As a society we need children to do healthy things like be active and play outside, more than we need absolute silence for neighbours.

Report to who though? Kids playing in garden in the afternoon horror won’t get her anywhere.

She’s just going to cause friction if she doesn’t realise that living in close proximity to others requires some degree of tolerance.

I’d go and knock and say ‘the boys think they saw you filming them?’ And see what she says.

Does she work shifts or is she ill? Anything to account for it do you think?

I think if you live on close proximity to others you need to expect noise. Not wishing kids to play ball in their garden is unreasonable.

Yes it can be annoying to listen to, but if you live in close proximity to others then you need to accept they have a right to live their life too. So kids playing, bbqs, power washing rhe patio, friends round, whatever it is, it's their right and you need to accept and expect it.

As a society we need children to do healthy things like be active and play outside, more than we need absolute silence for neighbours.

No one is saying they expect 'absolute silence'?
What they don't have to accept is a repetitive loud noise every day. And this is not 'kids playing'. It's teenagers who are capable of taking themselves to the park.

Living in a terrace myself I am all too aware of the noises we have to live with from neighbours. But making a loud noise repeatedly each day is unfair.

who are capable of taking themselves to the park fine if the parks by you are nice. Alas not all of them are. And if they're playing for half an hour, andits 30 minutes walk to my local park

I've got very boisterous kids next door to me who are always playing / cheering next door and I get approx 5 footballs a week in my garden in the summer. They are polite kids with no bad language and it's just kids being kids. They never wake me up / keep me up at night so I really don't mind. Obviously I'd rather a super tranquil garden to enjoy my book in peace but there's much worse in the world than a few kids playing

I have already said they go to the park. They only go to the park to meet friends to play football or basketball as a group. When at home they're just brothers wanting to go out for a knock about or practice shooting basketballs.

Your children are entitled to do what they are doing but I agree with a pp that the thudding of balls can be very irritating over an extended period and I can see how it would annoy someone with a short fuse . I assume your neighbour feels that your children are old enough to go to the park .