A neighbour one - ball noise

[tenlittlecygnets]

We have a basketball hoop in our drive, between our house and next door. Ds (13) has played with it three times. Today he had been out there 5 mins when NDN appeared and told him to stop, as the noise was going right through his house.

WWYD? We say hi to NDNs but no more than that. I think he is BU as it's better for kids to be outside than on screens.

I get that the noise of ball bouncing is annoying but it had literally been for 5 mins!! They are much noisier - ndn shouts at kids, his kids are younger, ndn does lots of DIY - but we suck it up as that's part of living next door to other people!!

So, thinking of compromise - we will get a lighter ball and ds won't play for hours, but am going to say, sorry, it's not unreasonable noise. What do you think? Also, would you be ok with ndn speaking to your ds instead of to you?

Not universally, OP. You've also had supportive posts. Foam ball is very considerate of you.

As someone else alluded to, I think part of the problem with these annoying noises is that you never know when they are going to stop.

If you ndn knew that your son only ever played for half an hour at a time, approximately three times a week then that might help. But it would still be excrucitating.

I am glad you have bought a foam ball. But a chat between you reminding him that you put up with his drill and chainsaw might be interesting .

Betty, ds can hardly take his basketball goal to the park...

Thats why parks helpfully provide them for you, so he doesn't need to.

Yes, cheers, @AdobeWanKenobi, but ds would like to play with his own goal...

True, @Its90minutestonight - am surprised by how many people hate basketball noise, though!

True, @Its90minutestonight - am surprised by how many people hate basketball noise, though

I’m surprised you are still surprised after so many posted explained why they don’t like it.,

A difficult one and your son won't get the same satisfaction from a foam ball. Are you able to tell your neighbour that you've swapped the ball but living next door to families does mean putting up with some noise whether it's DIY, balls or loud children. At least then he'll see you've compromised and means you can go round when they're irritating you! Perhaps your son's previous two sessions were long ones and he had visions of it being like that again. We used to have a neighbour's son kick a football against their adjoining fence and it did our heads in - the following summer he was shooting a BB gun into the trees and the following year he was stripping down and revving a scooter out the front. I hope your son is OK with the new ball and, as others have suggested, your local park might have a designated area he could use.

@AdobeWanKenobi

Betty, ds can hardly take his basketball goal to the park...

Thats why parks helpfully provide them for you, so he doesn't need to.

Have you been to every park?

Have you been to every park?

Why soup, of all the parks in all the land I could have absolutely guaranteed yours wouldn’t have one.

Why do all these types of posts excuse noise by saying that at least they're not on screens

It's not one or the other. There's a whole spectrum of activities in between

YANBU - it's the noise of people living a normal life. Just as we are all entitled to do.

Repetitive thuds are incredibly annoying.

I think he is BU as it's better for kids to be outside than on screens.

Your son's only two options are thudding a basketball or sitting at a screen? Poor kid!

Your son's only two options are thudding a basketball or sitting at a screen? Poor kid!

Yes. Yes, they are.

@AdobeWanKenobi

Have you been to every park?

Why soup, of all the parks in all the land I could have absolutely guaranteed yours wouldn’t have one.

We've got no local parks per say and the shitty ones we do do not have hoops. So the kids play in our garden with theirs.

I think a basketball hoop is antisocial unless you have a massive garden with lots of space between you and neighbours.

I live in a terraced house and NDN's kids play basket ball all day every day. It drives me insane. I absolutely hate it. I have to change rooms when I'm on video calls and I wear noise cancelling head phones all day.

We're viewing houses and have discounted some of them as they have basket ball hoops in the garden. I know you cant plan for it in future but I dont want to move right next door to it.

I always say something if they are still playing after 10pm though.

I personally wouldn't mind if it was during the day and not lasting hours on end. It's kids having a bit of fun.

As someone who over a few years was driven to murderous thoughts by ball noise, and by the parents who gave not a shit about its impact on anyone else, I have every sympathy with your neighbour.

The noise of any kid doing that bounce-bounce-bounce thing with a large ball, still evokes a red mist.
Should add that I’ve never had the slightest problem with ordinary play-noise.

10pm is unreasonable!

So far ds has played with it three times: 2 x 30 mins and 1 x 5 mins.

Still, when next door next drills or does anything remotely noisy, I'll be right round there...

@AdobeWanKenobi

Have you been to every park?

Why soup, of all the parks in all the land I could have absolutely guaranteed yours wouldn’t have one.

Well, you're wrong. It does. So much for that attempt at a snide comment eh?

Not all the parks I've been to have them though.

We live very
close to a cockerel owner, I'm not a fan but as long as it's not crowing at 5am (which it's not anymore since I got up at 5:30 and put a note through their door) then there's nothing I can do about it. Next door might not like the noise but it's not unreasonable, just like them drilling is annoying but not unreasonable.

Of the 6 local parks I thought of, only 2 have hoops. The others have play equipment only.

@SoupDragon

Of the 6 local parks I thought of, only 2 have hoops. The others have play equipment only.

Thats a shame. Our local council has a full court in all our local parks and even the small local play area has a stand alone hoop for shooting practice.

I remember this being a problem when I was growing up and eventually neighbors stuck no ball games signs up all over our street, like they couldn't bare the sounds of kids having fun.
So depressing. The sounds and vibrations of a ball are so unbearable rather have kids sat in silence doing nothing I suppose.
If He's in his own garden within noise allowance times I'd ignore your NDN to be honest and let you kid enjoy the sport he likes.

My kids have got pogo sticks, and I've banned them from using them in the garden because of the noise they make, and it really does go all through the house, and obviously the NDNs will hear it too. It's the most annoying noise in the world if I'm honest!

It's a very annoying noise.
It seems every time we sit out in the garden the neighbour’s children decide to play basketball.
When we go in, they go in! They must like an audience.

I wouldn’t say anything but I do wish they would not do it, every, single, time!