And lo, the screaming in gardens has started

[Lludmilla]

Kids have been off school 1.5 days. That didn't take long, did it??

(And yes, I know this is a polarising topic on here, but today I'm really struggling to wfh due to constant screaming from kids playing in gardens. And no, I don't mean shouting or laughing or giggling, none of which I'd have a problem with... I mean full-on, top-of-the-lungs screaming.)

I get that we have to make allowances/keep things in proportion etc etc at a time like this, I really do. I also get that it's nice that we at least have some sunshine during all this, and I think it's great that kids can play in their gardens. But the SCREAMING. It's like this every single year in my street as soon as the sun dares to show its face, it gets to me and makes it hard to concentrate on work, and sometimes I need to vent even though I know I'm likely to get a pasting for it.

Surely it can't just be me?

There is a middle ground between silence and incessant, eardrum-splitting screaming. That's all people are asking for. That parents help their children find the middle ground. Not to stop all noise, not to stop running around, not to stop laughing, not to stop playful shouting or any other normal childhood noise. Just to parent them enough to teach them that screaming at top volume for hours when you aren't hurt or being chased by an escaped leopard is not a considerate or necessary thing to do.

So you are complaining about something that is not an issue for you
Still missing the point.

I've had noisy neighbours. I don't have to have inconsiderate neighbours now to have an opinion on inconsiderate neighbours.

As I've said for all the claims that shouting and screaming is totally normal and reasonable, nobody has explained to me when I walk round my area and other local areas why I'm not hit with a wall of sound from shouting and screaming children. If such behaviour is so normal and reasonable how come the vast majority of people don't behave that way?

Surely if this sort of shouting/screaming/making a racket is the norm and totally reasonable then families who enjoy their garden and children who play without doing it would be in the minority?

It's always the same arguments when people try to justify inconsiderate levels of noise:

• If you don't accept our unreasonable and inconsiderate levels of noise then you must want quiet and/or silence
• If you want silence then don't be in a family friendly venue / don't live in a family area (even though people are never insisting on silence or unreasonable levels of quiet and have usually said they have no issues with reasonable noise)
• Actually, our inconsiderate actions are normal so anyone objecting is uptight
• When it's pointed out that most people are reasonable and don't behave in the inconsiderate way: well what are you complaining about if most people don't behave this way? You've got no grounds to have an issue with unreasonable noise. (Misses the point that the fact most people don't behave that way suggests it's not normal or widely considered acceptable)

Gran22 OnlyTheLangoftheTitBerg
Great posts.
Anyone would think that most people are reasonable and considerate.

Screaming kids are not as bad as garden power tools

None of you have had it as bad as someone practicing the bagpipes in their back garden every single Sunday morning.

Lord, years ago we had students who were musicians move into the block. Bagpipes, drums, electric guitars all played at various times of the day and night. Coke in from wherever at 3am what a fab time to get some practice in.
Locals teamed together and well, noisy fuckers are no longer here.

You win!

@BeetrootRocks for goodness sake, for about the twentieth time I am NOT asking for the girl next door to be silent or not to laugh or even scream sometimes. I am asking for her not to scream constantly for 8/9/10 hours a day.

Nothing to do with not being able to go to school or whatever. She did it last year.

I have woken today with an absolutely splitting headache. I am grateful that it is too cold and windy for the neighbours next door to be in their garden.

I am NOT asking for the girl next door to be silent or not to laugh or even scream sometimes. I am asking for her not to scream constantly for 8/9/10 hours a day
But you are so very awful.
Didn't you get the memo that objecting to constant screaming and shouting means you hate children, want to enforce silence, want to suck all the happiness out of them and harvest their traumatised souls.

I’m going to ask french lion king dad and Spanish lion king dad to keep their noise down (the dads not the kids). They are bloody loud and relentless.

It started at a rather late 7am this morning with the chasing of the small children around the flats (we are in the middle so get it in stereo) with screaming (children) and hollering / roaring (dads). Now both flats just have crying. Overstimulate your kids and chase them until they fall over (wooden floors), great idea but they never learn.

@Lordfrontpaw

I hope they roar straight back at you

Poor kids, trapped in flats for days possibly months on end

@LolaSmiles

Have you ever walked past a school or nursery at play time? Loud isn't it? Lots of screaming and shouting.

They’ve always done it. Nothing new. We are all stuck indoors, including my son who is trying to revise for some exams that may never happen. And we never chased him around screaming until he fell over and cried - we live in a block of flats and give a shit avi it pet neighbours.

Interesting autocorrect! We ‘give a shit about our neighbours’!

Headphones.

If he had younger siblings he'd be doing that already

I spent half the morning being a roaring, boy eating Hoover this morning. You missed out

I'm loving hearing the neighbours' girls running around at home, laughing and playing. Occasionally running up and down the stairs etc. It's lovely.

If they started constantly screaming, it wouldn't be nice.

They seem to have gotten a memo, they can play without screaming. They are young primary and nursery age.

Come to think of it. Think everyone around here has got the memo. Either that or there's only me and the neighbours still here, and the rest went elsewhere

canigooutyet
Everyone round here also got the memo about considerate noise levels.

Everyone in my old area got that memo too, except for one family. They were awful to live near and I felt so sorry for the neighbours either side. It was bad enough being half way up the street.
It's funny how considerate people are in the majority.

Well I actually heard the mother of Miss Screech shouting at her yesterday. She was indoors and I could hear her in my garden (there is quite a gap between our houses).

"Stop with the fucking screaming" were her words. Lovely language but obviously she has had enough of it at last

We’ve had crying/wailing for a big chunk of today from upstairs. About an hour of Joe Wix type jumping and whooping with much laughing, cheering shrieking but mostly crying.

It’s going my head in to be honest - dad downstairs was just yelling as usual all day - not angry, he just speaks really really loudly and stands on the balcony to holler at (god knows what, passing birds maybe?).

I live next door to the Tantrum family. Mr T's special parenting wheeze is to scream 'CALM DOWN!' at the top of his voice. To be fair, they've got a bit better, but the early years were a strain.

BBC radio stars lead the nation in a mass singalong oh come one, haven't we suffered enough living under people doing the Wix thing??

I wish the DC next door could communicate with each other in something other than a scream. They're 7 and 10. For several hours a day.

They are doing my head in.

I thought the ceiling was going to fall down with all the Wixing that was going on this morning!