WIBU? - Child waking the street

[Iltavilli]

We live on a cul de sac with a ginnel (alley for non-northerners) at the bottom, so it is often used as a cut through for people walking children to the local schools about half a mile away. Leaving the house this morning around 8am (huge lie in as I normally leave at 6am), a girl of around 7 or 8 was being walked to school by her mum.

The girl was banging what looked like two plastic sticks together, quite loudly, and was shouting “get up, get up, it’s time for school and work” all the way along the street. She was about 100 metres ahead of her mum, but mum was laughing along and not trying to stop her. I said to the girl that some people, like nurses, work at night and need to sleep in the morning so they can take care of people the next night. The girl burst into tears, and as mum got to where we were (outside my house) shouted at me for making her daughter cry.

Given the weather is so warm, and people have windows open to sleep, was I wrong to ask the girl to stop - but also to explain why she should stop?

8am on a weekday isn't that early, so possibly yabu...

That would have driven mental, well done for saying something - hopefully nipped it in the bud.....

As a shift worker I'd have done the same!

Good for you. 8am may not be early for day workers, but as the OP said, it could be a night or shift worker who has recently gone to bed. The mother should have had more control over her DD and stopped her before you needed to step in. Did you say anything back to the mother?

YANBU. The mother should have dealt with it as soon as the girl started but some people are selfish/oblivious to the fact that people have different lifestyles to them.

Well done for saying something.

That would really grind my gears too. I don't know if I would have said anything, but I don't think you were in the wrong to say something.

God, no, YANBU. There's no way I'd allow my kids to do that, but if they did, I'd be perfectly happy for a stranger to point out what awful behaviour it was.

YABU it’s plenty early enough for noise of whatever nature. As a night worker I accept there’s going to be noise at that time and it’s likely to be a one off anyway.

I mumbled something to the mum about explaining that not everyone goes to work in the day, but like a coward, then ran off to the train.

There’s a secondary school next to the primary, so teenagers walk past too, naturally also quite loudly when with friends. I think it was the fact this girl was banging sticks and telling people to get up that got to me more than just general street noise.

Not U at all!!

YANBU

If she'd been doing that outside my house yesterday, where I was trying to go back to sleep with a not-quite-migrainey headache, I'd have been cheering you on in my drowsy-pain-reliefy fog OP. Good on you.

Ywnbu. You explained why in a clear enough way.

Dh worked nights last week and although he would have just about been in bed by 8, and doesn't expect silence, that would have pissed him off.

I think I would have been equally pissed of at the mum for laughing along with her daughter. It's one thing for a child to not understand the concept of people working nights, but an adult can understand it perfectly well and should have stopped her daughter herself.

It doesn't matter if it's not early for some people, the mother is ridiculously rude! I bet she would be the first one to complain if anyone was disturbing her own precious darling!

Yes, people work shift, people are ill, people have exams, it's never acceptable to scream the neighbourhood down. Sometimes kids are noisy, but it's up to the parents to teach them not to.

Well done Op! Theres a big difference between disturbing people unintentionally and making noise deliberately. This was deliberate, and so unacceptable.

Good on you I say. Selfish parent encouraging selfish silly behaviour in her child. I wonder if mum would like a night shift worker outside their house at 10pm banging sticks and screeching “get up get up it’s time for work”

You seem quite pleased that you made a 7-year-old cry.

The mother sounds like an over indulging arsehole, who is bringing her child up to be an ignorant little brat. The very fact that they knew that her noise would waken people, shows what a selfish wanker the mother is.

Good for you, OP. I used to work twilights and wouldn’t finish until 1am, home and into bed for 2 or after. I would have been fucking livid if a spoilt child woke me up at that time. Yes, there is a certain amount of noise that you might expect, but to be deliberately woken up is very different.

YANBU. As an ex shift worker she would have driven me insane and I’m sure what I’d have shouted out the window would have been far less eloquent

YABU. You shouldn't have interfered.

Yabvu

We leave at 8:30 some mornings, and I still tell my girls to be mindful of volume as our whole route is residential

It's always to early for unecessary noise made on purpose. Modern life is noisy enough without that, so yanbu at all.

You seem quite pleased that you made a 7-year-old cry.

If her mother can’t bring the child up to have manners and be considerate of other, tough shit. The mother didn’t give a dam about how other people would feel, including the sleeping babies/toddlers in those people’s houses, did she?

A child walking down the street making noise in the daytime is fine...they do not need to consider night shift workers ffs. You shouldn't have said anything to her, you had no right.