to not stop my DC's playing in the garden because it upsets someones dog?

[ozzysocks]

I have 3DC, DS1 is 7, DS2 is 4 and DD is 8 weeks. We are lucky enough to have an 80ft garden at the end of which we have a trampoline and climbing frame. This easter hols we have been out at parks etc most of the week but came home this afternoon at 2pm with my SIL and her 3 DCs aged 4,3 and 7 months. They all played in the garden until 4pm when we let the older ones watch a film inside. At 5.30 a man came to the door and talked to SIL while I was BFing DD upstairs, I could hear he was annoyed about something, so I stopped and went to the door.
I asked how I could help as I lived here not SIL, after angrily muttering about having to repeat himself he told me he wanted to complain about the children's noise! He arrived home from to find his wife very upset. Apparently the children screamed all afternoon (they didn't, there was a couple of tantrums which were resolved within 5 mins and a water fight at one point with some shouting). Apparently this noise disturbs their dog and makes it bark which in turn upset the wife???
I explained we had visitors today and he said well its happened before. I guess we do sometimes have BBQ's with friends and their kids, but never going on too late. I said well they are young children and I didn't think there was any problem with playing in their own garden. I also pointed its not our fault that they have a neurotic dog and also mentioned that there are lots of children in the surrounding gardens at which point he said "yes, you are not the only people I've spoken to". My SIL said she didn't think they were being too loud, he replied "yes well maybe you are used to the noise but our children have grown up and left home" I was polite to him and said If the boys screamed incessantly (not likely to happen!) then of course I would tell them to be stop, but explained that I would not be able to or want to stop my children enjoying themselves in their own garden. My boys are always in bed by 7.30 and are polite well behaved kids who just like to be boisterous and have fun in their own space!
AIBU? What should I have said? Time for I think

Row of London terraces. To our left next door but one - family with three boys: 11, 8, 6 - lots of normal happy family noise - dog too. To our right South African couple with children who have barbecues - fairly normal and doesn't annoy. A few hundred yards away we have the now ritzy but possibly overdeveloped Putney Embankment with its pubs and bars. Doesn't annoy us in the slightest (except for the occasionally reveller effing and blinding in the early hours, but the next door neighbours who have been there for more than forty years are incensed even after having years to get used to it. The answer we feel is that if they don't like it, they should have moved a very long time ago to a detached house in the middle of a field. They also complain about the three boys and the South Africans - and the parking and the traffic and the parking controls in the Sainsburys car park and I shouldn't have my washing out on Sundays, etc., etc.. They, of course, are entirely and completely faultless and have never made anybody's life a misery. We rub along quite well with them somehow and they have always sent in presents for our children but the others have been through hell.

We live in a fairly quiet area, but next door have a lad about 11 years old, and there are families with small children to the back of us - and as the weather gets better, there is going to be more noise. Last year I remember sitting in the garden, listening to the shrieks of laughter as some little girls played in a paddling pool, and thinking how nice it was that they were playing outside and having such fun.

The kids from our road play on the turning circle outside our house (we're in a cul de sac), so there's plenty going on out there too, but it doesn't bother me.

It sounds to me from ozzysocks' OP as if the level of noise from her garden is perfectly reasonable, and about the normal level you'd expect from a family home - and it stops at a very reasonable time. If her neighbour's dog barks at any noise it is their responsibility to train their dog not to bark. Our dog almost never barks, so I don't have firsthand experience of it, but I am sure Vallhala can tell us if it is reasonable to think that a barky dog can be trained to be quieter and less nervous of noise.

Children annoy dog
dog annoys wife
wife annoys husband

Tell him that he can break the chain by getting rid of any link except your children.

gardens are for enjoying as you see fit.Including children playing.

onceamai why shouldn't you have your washing out on a Sunday??

They are not from in the 1940s and believe that Monday Is Washing Day?

My friend's mother was once asked by her snobby neighbours to please remove her washing from the line by 2pm, as they didn't wish to look at it whilst they were entertaining guests for afternoon tea!!

Next door have a trampoline right next to our fence. There are regular occurences of several screeching 8 year old girls on it at once. I don't mind. They put up with our DS screaming in the middle of the night for 9 months. It works both ways.

YANBU. All I'd do is tell the DCs not to actually scream.

IMHO the dog is the problem. If it barks at children having fun outside, it is probably a bit demented from being kept in too much. Same as the neighbour's wife. Why did she have to wait for her husband to come home if it was bothering her? Can she not speak to people herself? Equally, if you spent all day indoors, you could legitimately complain about their dog barking, which is generally considered more offensive than children playing.

People take priority over dogs. You are also entitled to use all of your garden.

I agree with posters who have said people who feel like your neighbours should make a point of organising their lives so that they can live in places with no near neighbours, or retirement complexes.

Clam - did she need to put on another load of washing? You'd need clean knicks after wetting yourself laughing wouldn't you?

Some people are just bonkers.