Full disclosure: I'm noise sensitive so there's every chance I'm being a bit of a twat.
Since 2pm today (when the rain let up) there have been children playing out on the street, as there have been most days during the holidays. Due to the shape of the street, the 'best' place to play is pretty much right outside my flat. By coincidence, none of the children playing are actually outside their own homes...that's just the way it's worked out as the more family friendly homes (with more bedrooms, front and back gardens etc) aren't near the small bit of greenery that's good for playing.
The problem is the noise...there's the kind of noise levels that you'd expect in a particularly good park, but all condensed into this very small area, and add in a good dose of screaming-for-screaming's-sake. That level isn't constant, but there are 3 or 4 households that don't supervise their kids at all (most keep their front door open and pop out occasionally, and those with younger kids come out with them) so when these kids are out, the screaming commences and I enter my own personal hell until they go home. When it's gotten loud enough to scare DD (16mo), I've been out myself to ask them to keep it down, but it never lasts more than an hour or two before they've forgotten, and I really don't want to be supervising other people's children all the time anyway.
I don't really know what else I can do about it though...if these parents won't supervise their kids out of concern for their safety (all primary school aged children), they're certainly not going to do it to monitor their noise levels, especially when it doesn't actually affect them. But, AIBU to wish the parents would be more considerate and monitor their kid's noise levels when they're playing outside someone else's home?