To think there's a happy medium re children playing out or being glued to x boxes

[lydiarobinson]

At this time of year you will often hear complaints about children being still outside playing noisy games or generally bothering the neighbours until quite late at night. One common response from parents is 'it's better than them being inside glued to their x-box' as if that's the only alternative.

Surely parents have some control over how much time can be spent on x boxes etc? What happened to parents playing board games or cards or paper games with their children for an hour before bedtime. Or even encouraging them to read a book if a parent is genuinely busy or exhausted.

But are some people so unwilling to engage for a short time with their children at the end of the day, or read with them, that the only alternative to their young kids still wandering around outside after dark is to have them sitting at home staring at a screen.

AIBU to think it's a pretty crap excuse to not call your children in at a reasonable time?

err.... Just read my post again

And having said all that, I still ask them to be in bed before 9.00pm, I still ask them to keep noise to an acceptable level. I still ask them to be considerate to the neighbourgs.

I did read it. I was commenting on your remark about your children preferring to be outside and OP having to understand that all children are different. But the OP wasn't talking about children who preferred being inside playing cards. She was talking about parents not using the excuse that their children were better off to be left outside until late because otherwise they'd just be staring at a computer screen.

YANBU.

And to be perfectly frank, I don't particularly care if other people's kids go home and rot their brains in front of Call of Duty anyway- so long as they're not screeching under my lounge window past my own children's bedtime.

So what time is it reasonable for children to be playing out til?

Mine aren't bothered about being outdoors anyway and have fairly early bedtime because of an early start. They are happy to read a book but I've never thought it was unreasonable for those who have more normal bedtimes to be playing out late.

If they go out after tea, say 7pm, is that OK? What time do they need to be in?

My DCs start going to bed at 7:30pm. Is the neighbourhood supposed to be silent by then?

Isn't it dark by 9pm for all but a couple of weeks a year?

Here it's the BBQs that are far more troublesome than children playing. All that loud raconteuring, even when they finish up relatively early, it's still far beyond DCs bedtimes.

I love seeing kids playing out on summer evenings. However it annoys me that they all congregate on the corner by my house screaming and shouting till after 9.30. None of them even live this end of the street . Im guessing their parents wouldn't be so keen for them to stay out so long if they were making too much noise outside their own houses... There is a field just a minutes walk away

Adventure why don't you just read the thread as your question has been answered several times.

In fact you asked that question at 12.01 and I answered it at 12.23.
Are you being disingenuous by asking it again?

I think Adventure was rather highlighting the discrepancies between what has been said on this thread,.

ie It's OK for the dcs to be out after tea but if after tea is after 7.00pm, doesn't it make it towards 9.00pm, a time that most posters are against?

On the other side, some children are going to bed much earlier (7.00~7.30pm), does it mean that actually no one is allowed to make noise after that 7.00pm (ie teenagers but also adults having a bbq)?

The issue of 9.00pm is an issue for a few weeks in the year, isn't it possible to make allowances for these few weeks?

These are very fair points.
People in general don't like having other people making a lot of noise in front of their windows.
So they don't like teenagers hanging around, even less so because they are supposed to be inside having a 'quiet' time.
They don't like people having noisy BBQ but they sort of tolerate because it's an adult activity and they probably will want to do the same anyway.
And it's a few times in the year so they will make an effort.

I think what has been said on here, several times, is that it's not okay for children to be out making noise at 9.30 - 10.00, and that using the excuse that they'd only be inside staring at a screen otherwise is not very satisfactory.

No one has said they shouldn't be out at 7.00 pm or that 'after tea' is any kind of benchmark.

You seem to be introducing arguments against things that haven't been said.

And around my way the 'issue of 9 o'clock' (much later than 9 actually) arises as soon as the clocks go forward and continues until well into September. It is not just for 4 or 5 weeks of the year.

If the noise level is actually anti-social then obviously there are laws to deal with that. But, yes, within the law, I'll be the judge of my kids bedtime.

Of course you will. But what does that have to do with them playing football outside? It's not a choice between playing football outside or going to bed.

TBH kids can stay out until 1am for all I care as long as they're quiet about it.

It's the thump, thump, thump of footballs accompanied by that strangulated squalling noise that only pubescent males (and bear-trapped foxes) make.

Completely agree with the PP who reckons parents would be a lot stricter if their kids were making that noise in their own gardens and they had to listen to it.

Good post, SaucyJack. I agree with all of it.