Neighbour noise in early morning

[ILikePotato]

We had new neighbours move in a couple of months ago, a couple with a 6 year old boy. Haven’t really had much to do with them apart from the odd hello and such when we see them outside. They are quite noisy, very stompy, slam doors, and the little lad runs around a lot. Normal neighbour noise, even though it is annoying, and we live in a terrace so it’s to be expected. I haven’t mentioned anything, as I’m sure they hear the odd noise coming from us, but we don’t have kids no running about etc, and we are generally quite quiet.

the last week to 10 days I have been woken up at about 6am as the lad goes in to the parents bedroom, which we share a wall with and runs about being quite loud. Do I pop round and mention it? I am in no way expecting silence all day, but I am starting to get a bit annoyed with waking up so early and having to play white noise to drown him out and hopefully get some more sleep. I’ve tried ear plugs and I just can’t keep them in all night, and the couple of times I’ve still got them in by the time the morning comes around, I can still hear the banging about as it’s so loud! I also can’t swap to another room in the house, as there are only 2 rooms bedrooms and they are both on that wall, so you can still hear it.

I’m torn about going to say something or not, so asking for opinions…..

My neighbours must be the exception here. I have been told by my neighbour to let him be in the garden and not keep him quiet as I was reminded these are family homes.

He knows if he goes out before 9 am at the weekend he's to keep it down. But it's a bit hard too enforce it when someone cuts their hedge at same time.

He's 6,mention it to them as they may not know how loud they are. They may not be too pleased

On weekdays too?

For what it's worth, I wouldn't put my kids outside that early either as I would be considerate! However, in the UK 'night hours' are 11pm-7am. If you said they were out there at midnight or 5am, I'd find that very unreasonable. The joys of living in houses attached to others! (Semi D here).

You don’t have any other neighbours? Just him?

Unfortunately, he's been allowed to get away with it, so going to be hard to stop him all together, but I'd certainly say something. As a compromise 7am is more reasonable. You could well be quiet neighbours and they might not be aware of the issue.

I’m dreading Saturday morning, the thought of being woken up at 6am!

off to boots today to try and get some silicone ear plugs!

Only on mumsnet can you be trumped by someone living by a helicopter pad 🤣

Say something, hopefully they will take him downstairs because they obviously aren’t going back to sleep.

😄It was a posting .

I’m with you, OP. 6am is not a reasonable time for anyone to making a racket, and a 6 year old should be perfectly capable of occupying themselves quietly for an hour or so. Ridiculous.

On a similar theme, what time do you think is acceptable for children to be playing in the garden? I've been woken up at 6.45 on Sunday and 7 am yesterday by my neighbours, out in their garden with their toddlers. I left my windows shut last night, despite the heat, but even then was woken up at 7 by them

7:30 weekdays 8:00 weekends however the noise should be controlled, or at least try.

However if they go out earlier now and again then no biggie. For all you know they might have woken at first light around 5am and be climbing the walls. The more important issue is are the parents trying to keep the loud noises to a minimum early on.

My alarm goes off at 6 on weekdays and my DC (7) gets up for 6.15am. She isn’t loud in the morning but there will be usual movement noises- shower, doing breakfast etc. To me, during the week it doesn’t sound that early.

Some of the responses to you are bonkers! 😂So you have to go to sleep earlier to accommodate your neighbour putting her children in the garden at 7am!! 😂Not everyone is up at 6am! What about people working shifts? People with insomnia? Unbelievably selfish! What happened to consideration of other people? Never, ever, would I have put my children out to run about and scream in the garden at 7am no matter what!

6am is a perfectly normal time to be waking up though, it's not like it's the middle of the night. If you "mention it to them" you'll look like the unhinged neighbour.

I don't let mine out until 9 (occasionally 8 but send them to the park, no basketball) on a Saturday and 10 on a Sunday.

@ILikePotato There's different variation of Loop earplugs. 'Quiet' are for sleeping and blocking noise and they're the ones I use. There's also 'experience' and another one who's name I can't remember that full noise rather than block. I highly recommend the Quiet ones.

I live in a terrace. First set of neighbours had a toddler and newborn. I NEVER heard them.
Second set had no kids but two very barky dogs.
Third set have a two and four year old and I hear them all the time - they speak very loudly to their kids and each other and the grandmother is often visiting from abroad and I can hear them walking home from a block away!
The dogs were the worst by far though. The kids don't bother me at all - even if woken up by them. I think it's nice having family life going on around me.

I've been in my house for 25 years and only now that a new neighbour has moved in do I have a noise issue!

Makes me realise how lucky I was all those years!

It's really only their tv, it's incredibly loud, often on in the day when I'm working from home, and if I'm in my living room in the evening, I have to play white noise or similar to drown it out.

I do have misophonia and ADHD so can't help focusing on irritating noise! I'm hoping in time my brain will learn to tune it out.

I feel for you OP. If it bothers you, it bothers you. Problem is there's nothing really you can do about it and that's not a good feeling.

Normal family noise. Best left. They can't help it. We are up at 6am every day, lots of noise etc. It's just family life🤷

When we moved from a terrace to a very rural farmhouse I was so excited to not have to deal with neighbour noise anymore. I get that you can't stop kids being kids so I never moaned about it, but I was so ready for the peace and tranquility of the countryside. I now get woken at 6am every day by a peacock screaming outside my window.

Such is life.

We didn't let our 6 yr old run up and down stairs or scream/shout or jump on beds or out in the garden at 6am. If she was up early it was quiet cuddles in front of the tv downstairs.

We wouldn't be happy if an adult was doing that next door at 6am or someone was leaving their dog to bark at 6am so didn't assume that was ok for our 6 yr old.
Big difference between a toddler or baby crying and a 6 yr old. She knew how to be quiet when asked in school so could cope with being quiet for an hour or two at home.

OP its reasonable to speak to them - they can presumably take their 6 yr old into another room/watch tv with them etc for an hour or two. (Assuming they don't all have to be out the door for work/school by 7am or something).

I'm not the poster you're replying to but, for me, yes. I've seen these discussions on MN many times and quite often the argument that "XYZ is a perfectly normal time to be up on a week day" is based on the assumption that everyone has children or a long commute.

I don't have kids, my commute is 20 minutes door to door and I work from home twice a week. On WFH days my alarm goes off at 8:15am.

I don't sleep well (chronic illness plus a delayed circadian rhythm - common in neurodivergent people) and I simply don't need to be up that early so yes, I'd be annoyed at any level of (avoidable) neighbour noise first thing in the morning - week day or not.

But is running about loudly “normal” noise? Yes in one way I suppose it is, but there is also massive chunks of time when I know they are in, but he isn’t running about stomping, so it just goes to show that they can stop him and his default setting isn’t just noisy. When he is a bit stompy during the day it isn’t so bad as there is tv or music or whatever to drown out the sound a bit. It’s just a bit jarring being woken from sleep by loud noises in the other side of your bedroom wall.

to those who say “my kids make noise that early, it’s normal” would you make absolutely no attempt to try and change a behaviour if someone mentioned it?
If say I was using my washing machine late at night (I don’t) and it was waking their baby, and they mentioned it, I would avoid using it then.

I’ve never said I expect complete silence at all times, far from it, I live in a terraced house on a busy street, there will be noise which I accept.

we are hoping to move in the next few years, so will look for something detached, but it’s a few years away unfortunately. It won’t quite be the mansion in the middle of nowhere that people say you should move to if you don’t want to hear any noise though!

If you think that is reasonable to make noise at 7am then you are as bad and selfish as everyone else that thinks that just because you are up the world should be up.

Keeping noisy kids from being hyper in the morning, even adults banging around in a car or slamming car doors and chatting loudly before 8am is what I would say is just having a decent amount of RESPECT.

Trouble is with this generation is there’s less consideration for others, less empathy, less real life social but plenty of entitled, plenty of image crafting on social media accounts which is just perfect for people with selfish narcissistic tendencies.

Normal for who? You! So therefore it follows that it's normal for everyone else? 🙄

I'm fed up with my neighbors children screaming and fighting and banging every morning from 7am it's really affecting the quality of my sleep as I have fibromyalgia the mother seems to ignore them and plays video games .she also puts the tumble dryer and washing machine on at 6.30 in the morning . This is affecting my physical and mental health it's been going on for over a year . She has no respect or consideration. What should I do ?