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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:
38cody · 14/05/2017 18:13

YABU
Kids outside in the fresh air, having fun with friends and getting exercise.

Yes - very annoying... for them - living next to such a misery guts!

Hurrah to their parents for getting them off the tech.

JaneEyre70 · 14/05/2017 18:37

My mum adores her garden, she's a florist so is very green fingered and her courtyard is beyond heavenly. She's got an outdoor table with sofas, solar lamps, and more greenery than you can shake a stick at. She eats outside most nights as she doesn't have a dining room, and it's her "summer lounge" as she calls it. A huge canopy over it makes it usable for a lot of the year as it is very sheltered.

Until an Eastern European family rented the house next door. They saw mums awning and put one over a 10ft trampoline (without a net) that filled their entire courtyard. The kids came home from school, were put to bed for 2 hours and then spent until around 11pm screaming and yelling outside while mum and dad cracked open the vodka and smoked cigarettes endlessly. Due to the staggered garden heights, they screamed constantly at my mum "hello mrs" "what are you doing" ad infinity. My poor mum was driven indoors, not even able to open her door or windows due to the smoke, and she was utterly miserable with it.......complaints to the Landlord and council went unheard and it was only when they got new neighbours the other side with young kids that mum had an ally and the council did threaten them with removing the trampoline!! A few months later, they moved thankfully but I was so angry at what a change it made to my mums way of life. They are great in the right environment and when supervised by courteous adults!

IfYouGoDownToTheWoodsToday · 14/05/2017 18:43

YANBU

Playing in th garden with normal children noises, fine.

Screaming for hours on a trampoline, NOT fine.

People ought to have a little consideration for their neighbours.

And I'm sure many in here telling the OP, she is BU, have not really thought about what the OP has actually described. Listening to DC screaming for hours, for months of the year, would annoy the vast majority of people.

Itwillbeok1 · 14/05/2017 18:46

Hey
I just signed up to comment on this. Long time lurker. You are not out of order at all. you have a right to a bit of peace in your garden. Constant screaming and noise is awful. Just awful. Consideration works both ways. Your neighbours can do their thing sometimes but it should just be sometimes the world doesn't revolve around them.

AlexRose5 · 14/05/2017 18:46

OP
Tack some bamboo screening up , it's a cheap way to raise the fence . That will save the visual intrusion .
Re: the noise .... Well unless you live in a magical sound proof estate it won't be the only noise going on around you surely?
You live in an area with houses next to you . Other people isa concept you're going to have to deal with . Unless it's at stupid o'clock at night, people are well within their rights to make sounds.
If outside noises are that overwhelming for you then either stay inside or safe up for a cabin in the woods.

Tiredstressed · 14/05/2017 18:49

You want the right to enjoy your garden - your neighbours want the same. Sorry but it is an unfortunate part of living next to people.

mumto2two · 14/05/2017 18:52

I'm with OP on this one. There is of course nothing wrong with children having fun, but a little neighbourly regard would not go amiss.
Trampolines are more than just a well documented hazard these days, they can be noisy and intrusive. Thankfully our neighbour's kids are only ever allowed to play on theirs for a sociably accepted hour after school or so!

JigsawJim · 14/05/2017 19:03

If people don't mind trampolines with kids shrieking and the springs squeaking why are most trampolines positioned as far away as possible from the owners house?

QuiQuaiQuod · 14/05/2017 19:06

Im totes with you OP. I cant stand them. they are noisy and intrusive. lt kids be kids but with the unnecessary bandshee screaming that accompanies the jumping around.....and the loud ''music''.

I HATE THE SUMMER! or anytime the sun comes out for 5 mins.

EXPAT many people don't have the option or luxury to go and live in a remote part of the lovely English countryside, so saying they have to put up with it is unreasonable.

everyone deserves peace and quiet in this noisy world. an hour hre or there of nopise, that one thing, but as OPp says too, constant all day and night, frome arly morning to late night, its just wrong.

Spikeyball · 14/05/2017 19:16

If it is continually for hours on end then I think the op has a point. Ds has a trampoline and he is noisy anyway (has sn). If he has been noisy for a while, I would bring him in for a while. If there were children screaming for hours on end he wouldn't be able to go in the garden because he wouldn't cope with that noise.

DagenhamRoundhouse · 14/05/2017 19:20

Get a sprinkler and place it so that it sprays over the fence onto them!

damewithaname · 14/05/2017 19:22

Definitely unreasonable. Barking dogs are more of a pain.. especially when the neighbours are home.

Beebeeeight · 14/05/2017 19:23

Build a taller fence.

dementedma · 14/05/2017 19:26

Yanbu.
Another trampoline hater here. Kids shrieking late into the night in the summer ruins a summer evening for everyone else. Fucking selfish.

reuset · 14/05/2017 19:32

I thought you were going to talk about the dangers of them, I was all set to agree. Otherwise I think you're being a teensy bit intolerant.

CasanovaFrankenstein · 14/05/2017 19:33

I really sympathise OP. Kids being outside making noise relentlessly is different from 'playing outside', especially as they're teens and so you can't even think they'll be in bed soon. I live in a terrace and neighbour noise is a given, but consideration should be a given too.

Yes it's nice to hear children playing outside, it's one of the sounds of summer. But it's also nice to be outside without it, and to never feel like you can just sit and relax is bad for you!

Put them off by playing some music they'll hate occasionally??

Missolford33 · 14/05/2017 19:35

I think because your kids are older you forget.. I'm the same. I have less patience for kids now mines are big I forget that they are just having fun and to chill out they could be causing havoc and their not.

SheSaidHeSaid · 14/05/2017 19:36

I get the annoyance of the noise, I really do, but there isn't anything you can do about it as they aren't actually doing anything wrong.

Hopefully in time you'll tune it out.

Original poster
jamdonut · 14/05/2017 19:51

Beebeeeight

My fences are as big as allowed!

This afternoon there have been all sorts in the garden and even adults bouncing!

I give up!
I would love for those of you who think I'm an intolerant misery guts to come and sit in my garden, and see how you feel after an hour or two.

As I said earlier, I'm not averse to noise of children- I work all day with them as TA, but this is more than just usual noise.

( By the way - the children that live next door do not go to the school I work at!)

I know that realistically there is nothing I can do, but what happened to people having consideration for others.? That is how I was brought up, and what I passed on to my own children.

And to those who thought I was going to talk about the dangers.... They are dangerous! I know plenty of children who have had nasty accidents!

OP posts:
PinkSparklyPussyCat · 14/05/2017 19:55

The most annoying thing for me would be the peering over the fence with every bounce. If I got a ladder and kept popping my head over the fence the neighbours would quite rightly complain, so what's the difference?

fiverabbits · 14/05/2017 20:01

I have 2 children next door to me, one is 7, the other is 2.5 years old. They have a big garden but the only thing the eldest child has ever had to play with/on is a trampoline. The youngest is mostly carried round by a parent. They only stay in the garden for 10 minutes at a time and sometimes only once a week. BUT every night between 6 and 9 pm the children play upstairs and we hear constant banging which obviously the parents cannot hear.

bigmouthstrikesagain · 14/05/2017 20:05

Other people's children on trampolines squealing and peering over the fence and kicking balls over the fence is by definition irritating. But there is nowt to be done about it. I put up with the neighbours children, noise, football's and summer parties late into the night. But we also have a trampoline in the garden and ds plays a ball game using it that often leads to the ball going over the fence. The only difference is our trampoline is against a fence that runs along the pavement/ road so neighbours not affected as much. We don't have noisy parties and our children are not as noisy generally.

It is part of living next to other people really so yabu, but I do sympathise.

ImissTerry · 14/05/2017 20:34

YANBU - I moved house because of a trampoline. There was just one child who didn't jump high enough to see over the fence and she didn't even scream when she was on it but she was on it every single bloody night and most mornings. Rain, wind or shine. The squeak, squeak, squeak of those springs drove me to distraction. I know how you feel.

Clairescottshug · 14/05/2017 21:25

Before children I would agree, but after three sorry no. They are out having fun, in a constructive activity, not screaming and balling at 5am onward in the house, not causing anti social behaviour in the steel, kids need something fgs, let them have a bit of fun... go for a detached or something if it's that bad maybe.. xx

Clairescottshug · 14/05/2017 21:31

On the street I mean Grin

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