Earliest reasonable time for a five-year-old to play in the garden

[DriveVerySlowlyPastNumber23IWantThemToSeeMyHat]

What is the earliest reasonable time a child should play out in the garden?

We live on a VERY busy main road - even at 2am, there are always cars and lorries trundling past.

DD is 5 and has a naturally loud voice 🙈

If you have lovely neighbours then treat them fairly. No children outside until after 9 on a Saturday, after 10 on a Sunday.

I'd hate you even more in a heatwave precisely because I hadn't got to sleep and that extra hour is even more precious because it's cool.

8am is fair game. 7am you're an inconsiderate twat.

9.30 - 10am.

I used to work in an college & we'd sometimes have exams going on in the little rooms right by where the students would sit to work or relax etc. We'd have signs to say when exams were on & to keep the noise down but if someone would talk a bit too loud, a member of senior staff would bellow across the room "BE QUIET!!!!! WE HAVE EXAMS ON!!!!" Twice as loud as anyone talking. Made no sense

Do they do this regularly?

If so, at 9.30 tonight pull your garden chairs as near to their boundary as you can. Play some music, laugh and talk loudly with the occasional swear word and scream. Stay there until your bedtime.

If it gets too cool and you are semi detached, make as much noise as you can in the house. Invest in a drum or get Alexa to play Big Dog Barking at top note.

Do this a few times and they may start to get the message.

You could talk to them but, in my experience, this will get you nowhere and so, sometimes the only way is to give them a good taste of their own medicine.

I have an 8am weekday/9am weekend rule with my (incredibly loud) 3 year old. If she's bouncing off the walls earlier we go down to the beach or for a walk in the woods

Not earlier than 8am. Ever. Noise even happy ones from children at 8am or earlier would do me in.
Please think of others.

Generally about 8, sometimes 7:30 on weekdays… tbh the older two aren’t really early risers, but I used to have my DN and DNephs who were up at like 4:30/5:00. Occasionally I have let them out before then but we will do something like hunt for bugs and obviously you need to be really quiet so we can sneak up on them…

8 or even 7.30 is fine in this weather where they will have to be inside for a huge period in the middle of the day

Don't any of you have birds that wake you up at 4am <<Robin, I'm looking at you>>. I really can't get worked up over kids playing out at 7.

7am? During half-term? I'd be fuming. Luckily one side of us are rarely at home and the other side the youngest is in Year 5 and don't seem up particularly early. My 5 year old is allowed out after 9 but he's pretty quiet, either plays with water or mud.. He's not really slept because of the heat but I still think neighbours with older kids are entitled to a lie in at half term.

I’d say 9 if he is going to be loud in the garden.
If not you could take him to a park.

It depends on your neighbourhood, OP.
If you were my neighbour and it was just child chatter, I’d be fine with 7am. I’m awake between 5.30-6 most days and had my patio door open at 6.30 this morning. My neighbour on one side is the same. The other left for work at 7am (as do I when not the holidays). My workman turned up at 7.45 to start work today (nothing noisy yet though).
My teenager can sleep through anything.

If it was screaming, though, then that would send me to the 9am camp. However, I like the sounds of a happy neighbourhood including children playing, next door’s teenager practising their drums, lawnmowers, chickens, etc. I just don’t like screaming or barking dogs.

9am

Weekdays- 9am. Before that I would say is anti-social.

It all depends on your neighbours. I'm in my 60s and work 2 days per week - have to get up at 6.00 to walk dogs before work and on the other days I just can't lie in. As soon as the sun is up I wake up and can't get back to sleep so I was in my garden cleaning the patio and watering plants at 6.30 this morning. Next door to the left is empty, being renovated and to the right is a single man who goes to work very early so I knew I wouldn't be bothering them. I honestly would not mind if a toddler was playing in next door's garden at 6.30. Could you have a word with your close neighbours and see what they think? If they like a lie in then I guess 8am during the week and 9am at weekends seems fair.

i think 8am on a weekday is fine. if it was normal kids playing noise then i'd not be bothered by a 7am start, but the kids a couple of doors down are screamers. my old neighbours had a wee boy who would be out at 6am but he was a pretty quiet little soul and you'd only occasionally hear a little squeak when he got excited about something.

Err no.

Don’t moan about my cockerel then.

8am on a Saturday is fine as building work starts then, always some bloody building work.

But that’s a pleasant noise to wake up to.

8am, perfectly acceptable. People dont stop their noisy BBQS at kids bed times do they !!!

lol when you have a BBQ what time do you go inside, you have some cheek 10 is almost afternoon !

Is there a rule for barking dogs too?