Neighbour banging on window at 2yo playing in the garden!

[Ibytam]

This happened about 15 minutes ago. These neighbours aren’t very pleasant tbh, I have no idea if either of them work night shifts but it’s the only reason I can assume a person would bang on the window because of a child playing in their garden, I figure they must be sleeping.

Anyway, I wanted to know what others thought of this because my immediate reaction has been to get him inside, it made me feel super awkward and I’m the kind of person who’s overly polite. After speaking to my mum, who seemed furious, I now realise maybe that was the wrong thing to do. She says it’s midday and you can’t stop people from being in their garden during the daytime just because they work night shifts, something that is entirely their own choice.

I can understand if he was screaming overly loud or crying etc, or maybe even multiple children screaming. But he was just going around on his trike shouting ‘beep beep’ whilst giggling to himself. Our garden is also in an L shape and he was actually playing on the side that’s furthest away from their house too.

What does everybody else think about this?

Ridiculous. A child playing out in the day is not the same as someone playing music loudly.

If you're a surgeon who works nights, and you need to sleep to do your job properly, then you ensure you have a sound proofed room, noise cancelling ear plugs etc etc.

Your job, your responsibility.

Most surgeons I know (and its several!!) live no where fucking near anyone else in quite big houses and are not short of the means to sound proof and ensure they get a good nights kip.

The reason I asked was there were two small female childen in a neighbouring garden over the weekend shouting "thrre, two, one, go" for AN HOUR!

small female children

Do you mean girls?

I would intervene if it was early/late or if they were shrieking/being obnoxious. Repeatedly saying something in a slightly excited voice, be it for 1 minute or 12 hours, is normal toddler behaviour and their development trumps the need of some miserable adult who hasn't heard of earplugs. A child should of course be taught manners but they should also be free to explore and develop especially in their own home.

Decent double glazing will muffle the noise of a two year old sufficiently to sleep. If not get some earplugs. People can’t be expected to temper their perfectly reasonable noise levels to cover every eventuality. Our neighbours were noisy and we moved from city centre to an isolated house - that option is available to everyone and if you can’t afford that option then you have to compromise.

Cant think of anything more depressing than keeping kids inside for fear of upsetting some knobhead neighbour.

But that’s just normal child’s play? Kids are annoying. That’s just life.

It's the equivalent of people being in a hot tub in their garden, or having barbeques and parties out there or older kids on trampolines, or music, or noisy lawnmowers or DIY.

Not all annoying noise is unreasonable. Just because something annoys someone doesn't make it unreasonable.

But it may suit their situation? You can’t police whether people can accept night shift jobs or not just because you had the luxury of a choice. The country would fall apart without night shift workers (and no, I’m not one and never have been).

Not to say they are right and you’re wrong in this situation, but it’s pretty naive and unreasonable to say they should get a different job. It must be difficult to sleep in the day, and someone has to do it. Unlikely that every shift worker can live rurally with no neighbours.

I’m not saying get a different job? I’m just saying don’t bang your window at my 2yo playing in his garden at midday?

That's absolutely fine then. But this is the first time you've clarified that.

Oh yes, I remember summer days when I was on nights…

I loved it when September came, bringing cooler darker wetter days!

However, nights fitted in with my household at the time, I just used a fan for white noise and cracked on.
Smile and wave at your silly neighbours!

All those poor kids, who can't read or react to the world around them, and just sit in isolation, because sometimes they were asked to be a bit quieter in their gardens. They just couldn't develop. Before the 1970s, nobody could speak.

Why do people never read the OP before commenting.Seriously it’s not bloody hard.

My dad always worked shifts and whilst it was annoying for him to woken by children/traffic/building noise/ cold callers during the day he didn't expect the world to tiptoe around to accommodate his working patterns.

Get your child back out in that garden and ignore them. It's a them problem.

Their heads would explode living in my former house - hordes of screaming kids all summer, footballs landing in the garden, the works.

Are you sure he wasn’t banging at a cat or pigeon in the garden?

That was my point.

Your neighbours don't know they're born. My autistic brother sings opera in his room.

Why can't people communicate ffs! They were totally out of order by reacting like that to a toddler. The adult thing to do would be to speak to you directly, if they work night shift then you'd know and could plan you day accordingly.

I had this happen when I was wee. Singing in my own back garden. Neighbour shouted out of his window to shut up as he was a night shifter.

Mum put a record on and put the speaker full blast by the back window. He soon moved, and I’ve never forgotten how wonderful my Mum was.

Yes, I wouldn't knock on my own window to show disapproval of something. It doesn't feel the same as banging on the ceiling in response to overhead noise. Are you sure they weren't trying to get your attention for another reason?

Sorry, maybe wasn't clear - I agree 😊.

His angry face staring in to my soul gestured it was towards my son in the garden. 😂

Your mum is right!