Is anyone else becoming less tolerant of noise as they get older?

[LessNoisePlease]

I've never been a fan of noise but now that I'm verging on middle age, I'm finding it increasingly insufferable. I'm diagnosed autistic which certainly doesn't help but it seems to be getting worse.

My street has always been on the quiet side but they've built some new homes in the next street and there's now lots of young kids there. Apparently none of them can play without shrieking and screaming as though they're being flayed alive. I expect normal kid noise, and there are others in the street, but for some reason practically all children now seem to feel the need to scream constantly.

A neighbour is using a pressure washer and that seems unbearable. I'm planning a move anyway but I think I may have to change what I was looking for and move to the middle of nowhere.(Slight exaggeration).

I'm not autistic that I know of, and now my youngest is 5 (I'm 38), I've noticed I cannot handle any electronic tuneless toys. DD found some dog robot thing in the charity shop and I said no. The lady even said she could have it for free with the other things I was buying, and I was mean mum saying still no!

When it gets busy at home and I'm trying to cook something tricky, I wish I had noise cancelling headphones.

Yes, but it depends what noise. Children's noise doesn't bother me at all. Just as well, as wanting children silent is ridiculous - that seen & not heard thing. Loud raucous adults is what I hate, I have to leave the vicinity immediately and not give them the attention they crave.

You can't stop social living noise so, get noise cancelling headphones. My neighbour is lovely but she has a really loud voice and when she's on the phone it's unbearable. My headphones cancel her out.

Yep, I cant abide screeching kids.

Absolutely. Also diagnosed autistic. It's getting worse the older I get, mid 40s now.

DH eats crisps out of a big packet and rustles and crunches. I have to get him a bowl. Can't tolerate the noise at all.

Yes. If a group of people are having different conversations near me I can't bear it. It's even worse if there's background noise like a TV or radio.

Yep. Nearly 44. Reading mumsnet in conservatory with loop earplugs in as next door have ‘people round’ in the garden. They’re not even being that loud. Other side was using a strimmer earlier for what seemed like two hours…

Me too, mine is part of long COVID as the noise is sensory overload and drains my energy. It's really difficult.

Yes me too. A woman shouted right in my ear as I passed by her yesterday. I nearly punched her !

I cannot bear, in any shape or form, “music” played too loud, in shops.
The last time I visited a M&S (not my local one) I noticed it for the first time, I couldn’t wait to get out. Fast paced music in a shop stresses me. Loud music in any shop, likewise. I find it very intrusive.

Noise I can't control drives me crazy. I'm 58 and going a bit deaf and it suits me just fine.

How about that moment in department stores when you're between two different concessions and they are both playing different music? (adopts fetal position)

Children don't bother me at all that's natural but I hate loud thumping music

51 here and hate, hate, HATE noise of any kind! I live in a 200yr old cottage with no sound insulation, but luckily both sides are fabulous neighbours.

Atm the birds in the garden are having some kind of rave, and the minster is ringing its bells like there is no tomorrow, but I can tolerate that kind of racket! I've even opened the back door so I can hear said racket. And it's really loud, so much that I can't think properly!

When I was 20, if I heard loud rock coming from next door, and the smell of weed, I'd probably go round and try and cadge a toke. At 30, I'd do that if I wasn't too busy. At 40, I'd have tried to ignore it. Now, I'll seethe about it.

Well I am getting old now, but in neighbourly noise has always annoyed me. We once backed on to an open paddock. Sadly no more........Our neighbours beyond the bottom of the garden can't do anything in spring/summer without a noisy power tool - be it a strimmer, power washer, lawn mower, electric sander etc etc. And they seem to be able to sand/strim/mow all day long, even though the gardens are the size of a postage stamp. Still, it does drown out the racket of their children a bit. Why do people let their kids whack seven shades out of the fences with a football? Don't they hear the thud thud thud? Not to mention the expense of replacing the fence panels prematurely. And what is it about allowing kids of all ages to screech? Laughter and excitement is fine but the screeching goes right through me, surely I'm not the only one. And these aren't toddlers. None of them seems able to light a barbecue without copious amount of stinky accelerant. We joke that they are eating lighter fuel pie. Just get a sodding gas one.

Yep, my neighbours who can't close a door without slamming it and those sodding farty exhausts on everything with wheels and an engine are currently top of the list.

😖

Yep, especially background or repetitive noises. Its drives me crazy. I have 3 teens, one will be listening to music, on playing video games on voice chat with friends, another on a group call on speaker phone with 8 other girls. My house backs on to woodland so i can hear birds constantly all day (which i quite like when theres no other sound or im not watching things) and a public foot path isnt too far away i hear kids riding their bokes and ringing their bells etc as soon as the weather is nice. Its literally drives me crazy nowadays. I spend my time with ear buds in watching stuff on the laptop or listening to podcasts from my phone so i dont have to listen to everything in the back ground all the time.

Yes, although I've never been fantastically tolerant. I particularly can't abide unnecessary noise such as people conducting phone conversations on loud speaker, or repetitive sounds. I think I'm going to retire to an anechoic chamber.

I've been raging at noisy fuckers lately.
We live behind a chip shop, and constantly get people sat outside with their engines idling blaring music, I like my music loud but I don't inflict my taste on anyone else.
I was trying to talk on the phone the other day, but couldn't hear because of someone's stereo, I've got 2' thick walls and could hear it all over the house.
I went outside and politely asked him to turn it down, he laughed and turned it up. Prick.
And as for my neighbour across the road, with his noisy bastard motor bike, revving it up at 5.30am 🤬.
There's been temporary traffic lights near my house, while they very noisily dig up the road starting at 7am, so non stop cars idling and blaring music, plus the temporary bus stop with the school kids yelling.
I've been close to a mental breakdown this week 🙃

This is my thread. I decided yesterday to never go to a coffee shop again. BANG BANG CLATTER HISS constantly. 😩

.......and chairs scraping on tiled floors!!!!!

I’ve struggled with noise sensitivity since having long Covid. It’s worse when I’m tired or stressed, and the Loop earplugs help a lot!

We're so overwhelmed by noise, lights and smells on a daily basis that it makes us all less tolerable.

Noise is the easiest one to pick out but I expect you'll find powerful smells and dazzling lights too much too.

It's becoming much more common.

When you can't concentrate on the film at the cinema as now appears normal to eat none stop from sitting down to leaving.
Also that bleeding kid and his thump thump football in a no ball games area!!

I don't think it's an age thing, I think noise levels have risen and we have a massive noise pollution problem generally - people listening to music on trains without headphones, making calls on loudspeaker (or noisy normal speaker), having loud garden parties, garden cinemas, stupidly noisy car exhausts etc.

None of it makes for a quiet time!

And yes, certain kids seem to be very screechy. But they do tend to go to bed. Eventually :)