AIBU to think there's a limit to 'normal child noise'?

[yelyah22]

I'll start by saying OF COURSE I know that children make noise, and that at 5.30pm on a sunny weekend evening they're bound to be playing out. I also know I live on a street of terraced houses so there's precious little garden space and we're all quite tightly packed, so a certain amount of having to deal with neighbours' noise is unavoidable.

But the kids who live opposite me are currently ROARING like ...dinousaurs? Not sure what they're playing, but it's very very very loud and they've been doing it for about 3 hours now while the mum lies in her front yard on a sun lounger with her headphones in.

They do this a lot - I get that they're children and they're playing, but when they're screeching for hours on end surely you'd tell them to keep it down a bit after a while? Their neighbours, who were also sitting out the front on their bench, have just gone inside and shut their windows and next door to me just leaned over the wall to get a parcel and rolled their eyes when the screaming intensified, so it's not just me. I'm just trying to enjoy the tiny bit of front yard I have and do some work out here and I can't hear myself think!

Full disclaimer: I do not have children, evidently. I would pay a very large premium to live on a street where nobody had children. But I try to be understanding because I know they need the space to play and explore and have fun, and living on a terraced street with no garden means that they will be playing directly outside my house. I'm not an ogre - I am v friendly about being run into with scooters, caught in water gun crossfire etc, always make sure we have sweets in at Halloween for them. But Christ I'd be mortified if I had children and they were disturbing the entire street for hours on end. Or maybe I wouldn't, who knows!?

AIBU to think you should tell your children to be quiet if they're being extra loud? Or am I being a clueless non-parent and this is the price you pay for living somewhere that isn't a smallholding in the middle of nowhere?

I wouldn't have tolerated this from my own children, and they would have been sent indoors. It's so important that they're raised to consider other people.

For me, I don’t allow very loud noise - especially high pitched shrill screaming (particular bug bear). However, I’d always recognise I don’t know the ins and outs of others lives. I don’t know if their child has a condition or experiences that makes them struggle more with noise, so I don’t judge. It doesn’t mean it isn’t frustrating sometimes though, if you’re trying to work or it’s late at night.

The thing I struggle more with are huge groups of teens making loud noise on the street for hours in the very late night/early morning. (Yes teens on dirt bikes over the summer screaming, catcalling and roaring up and down the road for an hour and a half at 3am - I’m looking at you!) It doesn’t make my blood boil, but I did mention on the phone when reporting it that if they woke my DC I might just have to throttle them and make sure the roads nicely slicked for tomorrow. Equally, when my DC are teens I’ll be coming down hard on them if they don’t respect noise levels as I do now, but I do try to keep in mind that I just don’t know what’s going on for other people.