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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Garden trampolines. I expect most will think IABU.

220 replies

jamdonut · 13/05/2017 11:29

Totally fed up. Next door have a trampoline which ( it seems) is in constant use ( or rather, whenever I am at home it is).

I have a nice , garden . Ex Local authority, so on an estate. I'd like to sit and relax in it, but all you can hear is the sound of squeaky springs, usually accompanied by kids screaming, or, teenagers who bounce so high you can see them over our fence. (Most of these kids do not live at the house, it seems the whole neighbourhood visits to use their garden [ hmm] )
I'm all for kids having fun, but in small gardens, is it fair to subject your neighbours to the accompanied noise/ inconvenience caused?

If you've got the sort of garden that is big enough to not overlook anyone else, all well and good, but I feel like I'm going to have nervous breakdown if I have to put up with this noise or the sight of shirtless teens above my fence any longer. It's like torture.

My neighbours are not the kind of people you can just " have a word with", either.( We lived here 8 years with no problems, before they were moved in 5 years ago)

I just wondered what the consensus of opinion is - am I actually unreasonable or have I turned into a miserable ' old' person? ( My own kids are 17, 20 and 24...but I would never have allowed them to annoy the neighbours like this).

OP posts:
Mermaidinthesea123 · 13/05/2017 15:14

I'm sick of the sight of the damned things, thay are like a countrywide plague.
I suppose they provide some exercise for the little darlings which is something.
Worse is the screaming of the kids 2 doors down, non stop from morning until dark. It's impossible to enjoy the garden for even one hour in the evening. My kid never shrieked all day, he amused himself drawing and building things.

AlexaAmbidextra · 13/05/2017 15:15

I think one of the problems is that many children these days can't play outside without screaming and shrieking incessantly. It just isn't necessary but their parents never seem to tell them to stop.

DailyMailReadersAreThick · 13/05/2017 15:18

YANBU at all. Sadly, as you can see from the thread, many parents don't consider their neighbours.

Original poster
jamdonut · 13/05/2017 15:19

Oh and expat their trampoline gets used almost all year, even in the rain Hmm December and January was lovely because they were hardly ever outside, but I didn't really want to sit outside myself, then!
Ever since about February half term the usage has begun to build up.

OP posts:
WankingMonkey · 13/05/2017 15:19

YABU IMO. If you want absolute quiet you could live somewhere without neighbours...which I only mentioned as you seem to think THEY should be somewhere without immediate neighbours

Kids enjoying themselves outside is a fantastic thing really given how often they are confined to screens

I do understand it might get annoying if its constant and if they were my kids I would be telling them not to screech if thats what they do though. But the sound of children/teens having fun is a good thing tbh.

ChardonnayKnickertonSmythe · 13/05/2017 15:20

My neighbours have some very squeaky and whiny children at the best of times.
Put them on a trampoline and it's a horror.

YANBU.

NotYoda · 13/05/2017 15:23

I would never have got one, for the reason you mention. I think where I am - terraced houses, tiny gardens - it would have been really selfish and I hate pissing off the neighbours because I don't want them to piss me off.

Having said that, if the kids weren't screaming I'd probably cope. Still wouldn't get one myself.

WankingMonkey · 13/05/2017 15:23

I would also prefer the sound of 24/7 trampolining kids than the sound of 24/7 home improvements that my neighbours seem to be doing at the moment. On both sides!

7am the drilling and banging will start. I am not even exaggerating when I say it goes on til 11pm or later without any breaks it seems. Fuck knows what they are doing. From how long this has gone on for I think they are rebuilding their own house inside their current one, nothing else could take this long Hmm

Railgunner1 · 13/05/2017 15:24

Earplugs? Headphones?

Writerwannabe83 · 13/05/2017 15:25

YANBU OP - there's one in both the gardens to the left and right to me and they drive me MAD.

And I wish the Government would introduce a Law that says children should not be allowed to play in their gardens after 7pm!! Grin

Fink · 13/05/2017 15:26

YABU ... if next door have kids and you're in a terraced house then you're going to hear them (and their friends) whatever happens. If something did happen to the trampoline and they had to play indoors, that would make just as much noise, or if they had to play in the garden without the trampoline ditto. I can't see that a trampoline makes any more noise than the average kid creates with anything else.

If the kids are excessively noisy, that's one thing, but it's not the equipment which is making them so.

MikeUniformMike · 13/05/2017 15:28

OP, you chose to live in a house that has neighbours, as did I. My neighbour's kids play football or trampoline and I am sick of being hassled to throw back balls. The noise they make sounds like the noise at the swimming baths on a very busy Saturday but they are kids. I just don't let the noise bother me. I don't like that they can see into my garden but the upstairs window overlooks my garden anyway. I love my garden.

kmc1111 · 13/05/2017 15:30

It's the noise that gets to me. I played out as a kid and so did my DC's, but when I/they got annoyingly loud I/they were told to keep it down for everyone's sake. Now so many children seem to go around shrieking and squealing as loud as they can for hours on end without anyone telling them to be quieter.

I put earplugs in the other day in my garden. I could still hear the neighbours kids shrieking and I was on the other side of my fairly large property. It can be like that for 10-15 hours over the weekend. I haven't truly enjoyed my garden since they moved in.

NotYoda · 13/05/2017 15:31

It sounds as if the OP is in quite an extreme situation:

Lots of children, teens, and noisy in other ways

Her situation is not solely about trampolines (although they are more attractive than the average garden)

Original poster
jamdonut · 13/05/2017 15:35

Missed a few posts somehow
Bluntness 100.
Gosh yes you got me bang to rights! I maybe did exaggerate a little but as I said, it's not just next doors kids, it's others that visit them too. And when I get in from work at 4pm it is going till at least 8:30. Today two teenage boys who do not live at the house were bouncing around from about 10:00 to 12:30 . I actually had a couple of hours respite, now it's going again, this time with a horde of smaller children who insist on screaming at the top of their lungs, and nobody saying a word to them.
If you think that's acceptable...

OP posts:
MikeUniformMike · 13/05/2017 15:36

Trampolines are dangerous. I don't understand why people have them.

Marmalade85 · 13/05/2017 15:37

I'm with you OP. I had neighbours like that and the noise drove me insane, couldn't even have my windows open. As pp have said get some headphones or take your hearing aids out.

NotYoda · 13/05/2017 15:38

That could be noise pollution and antisocial and you could think about reporting to the Council Noise Control team.

Unfortunately some people don't think that screaming is something they should stop their children from doing

Carriecakes80 · 13/05/2017 15:46

Sorry, I should make sure my kids stay in and play n their tablets like their mates!

Only joking, in fact, I am a mum of four, in the tiniest garden in the world, and I have made it into a haven for my kids. I have a 10ft trampoline that pretty much takes up the whole garden, except the tiny area where I sit to read to watch them, and I am very aware my kids can be noisy on there, ie the squeaking and the screaming, so I limit there time in the evenings, and in the Summer, I take my lot out to the woods and such, but you will get noise when you live near kids, thats life, and you probably don't realise this, but your kids will have annoyed people when they were younger too!
Kids need an outlet where they can be safe, scream, yell, and have fun, not constantly no, but just buy yourself some headphones and chill...it could be worse! x

ohtheholidays · 13/05/2017 15:46

I don't think YABU I believe that when it comes to living so close to one another there needs to be mutual respect and a bit of give and take and we used to have one of those trampolenes.

But our DC were younger,they couldn't look over anyone elses gardens when they were on there and if they were getting to loud we'd tell them to turn they're volume down and if they carried on they'd have to come of for a while and they were never out on there before 9.30 in the morning and they'd have to come of by 7pm so they wouldn't disturb any of the neighbours that had baby's or toddlers they might be trying to put to bed.

I think it's always a good idea to start teaching them to think about other people,teaching a child empathy is never a bad thing!

Original poster
jamdonut · 13/05/2017 15:51

And just to make it clear I have absolutely no problem with children being outside enjoying themselves, of course they should!

Just try to keep noise levels at a decent level. Have some thought for others.

OP posts:
Goldfishjane · 13/05/2017 15:55

YANBU at all
I feel for you

Cantusethatname · 13/05/2017 16:00

We had a lovely retired couple as neighbours when our 4 boys were small. I could hear them clinking wine glasses and listening to soft classical music in their garden. I was very mindful that my 4 boys could affect their quality of life and I did not let the boys scream in the garden. We got a trampoline but placed it as far away from their garden as possible. I don't think children's right to enjoy their gardens trumps adults' rights, why should it.

redfairy · 13/05/2017 16:28

YANBU. And I have every sympathy OP. My neighbours have a huge trampoline for their two little girls. I've never known children bounce for so bloomin' long. It's not the sound of them playing that bothers me as they are lovely girls; it's the constant looking over the fence shouting 'What you doing now?'
I've got a 6ft fence going up next week which should block them out a bit.
I think maybe OP you are a bit like me with grown children. Parents don't really understand how annoying their children can be until theirs are all grown up.

DesignedForLife · 13/05/2017 16:37

I think the parents should try to minimise the screaming, but otherwise maybe you could try and put up something to absorb some of the sound?

I love our garden, but it's massively overlooked by two neighbors, which I really hate and didn't think about before we moved in, so we are planting up tall growing things and putting up a trellis so we get a bit more privacy.

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