To let my sons stay out playing football

[shudacuda]

With the evenings being so much brighter and longer I have been letting my ds 1 and 2 (aged 11 and 13) stay out playing football at the weekends until about 10.30. They don't play on the road but use the green, which is about 3 minutes walk from our house. A couple of other boys are also out there at that time and they play together. Apparently last night someone from one of the surrounding houses came out and asked them to stop playing as it was 'too late' to be out making noise.

I was a bit surprised as I don't really think it's that late for a summer evening, particularly as they were playing on the green and not kicking the ball around directly outside someone's house.

I don't want to cause hassle with the neighbours so not sure WIBU to let them continue to play out there until that time as long as no one else complains?

It's too late. We go to sleep maximum at 10pm because we have a son with SN who wakes up extremely early and we need out sleep. Noise after 10pm is totally unacceptable in a residential area

I've got 2 DSs & I think in by 9 is more than reasobanle - I like them in by 8.30 on school nights. 4 boys of that age can be really loud.

I don't understand where this assumption comes from that because kids are on summer holidays, that the neighbours don't need to go to bed.

Ds goes to bed at the same time every night and miserable if he doesn't. He can't seem to sleep in. After 3 or 4 days of this he would be a nightmare. I go to bed at 10 as I am up at 5.30am.

This doesn't change because the kids are off school. If they are loud enough for people to hear them, they shouldn't be there at 10.30 at night

Too late.
Everyone has different sleeping patterns, so you have to urr on the side of caution I think. 10.30pm is OK providing you're getting a lie in the following day. BUT, shift workers / those with young kids etc could be getting up at 5.30am.

I'd be peeved, but only because I start the day at 5am with my youngest, so 10.30pm noise would be too late. Unfortunately, my DS3 doesn't appreciate summer evenings = lie in.
Equally, I could let him out in the garden to make noise at some ungodly hour in the morning. I don't let him out before 9am though.

It's not just about having to be up early the next day. If you live beside a Green you usually have kids out there all afternoon whacking a ball around. In Summer they're back out after tea whacking and shouting. By 9pm you really have had enough of the ongoing thump of the ball and the children shouting. Just because you live beside a green doesn't mean you have no rights whatsoever. Truth be told most of us would probably prefer if the kids gave it a rest at about 7, but accept it's the summer, kids want to be out playing and some compromise is called for.

But by 9-9.30 I think the compromising should shift to the kids and their parents and, regardless of whether they're on holidays or not, they should be called in to give others a bit of peace and quiet.

Most parents understand this, but there are always the selfish few who start bleating about it being Summer, and it's only for a few weeks (not true, it usually goes on from about April til mid Sept) and didn't we all play out until all hours as children.

10:30 is way too late to be 'playing out'.

Did you stay out later than that then, when you were 11?

Too late.

It's inconsiderate, and it's amazing how so often the most rigorous defenders of children being allowed use the green until late at night during summer are those who don't actually live beside the green themselves.

And no, I don't remember a time when children played out until 'all hours', while neighbours beamed fondly through the windows at them. That is all in people's imagination. Either their perception of what was 'all hours' as children was skewed and they were actually called in at quite a civilised hour, or they had inconsiderate parents who were ignorant of or unconcerned about annoyed neighbours wishing they'd bring their bloody kids in.

Definitely too late. The local teenagers round here have generally stopped being noisy on the streets or playing football on the field by much earlier than that.
DS is 14 and has to be in by 9 on a school night, 10ish during the holidays. He'd be in big trouble if I found out he was disturbing other people by thudding a football near their homes.

YABU
Just because it's summer, shift patterns and the need for quiet don't evaporate.