Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To despair of new neighbours' shrieking children?

340 replies

saraclara · 17/04/2021 19:08

It's been a glorious afternoon, but I've had to spend it indoors, and even with my doors closed I can hear them. I don't know how they can shriek for this long without having really sore throats. It's not ordinary play shouting, it's just pointless daft shrieking as far as I can tell. They've been out there for at least four hours. There was a break for about 20 minutes, then it started up again. I'm guessing from the tone of the shrieks that they're about 7-9 years old?

There's nothing I can do about it, is there? This is it for the spring and summer.

I could weep.

OP posts:
DenisetheMenace · 18/04/2021 20:42

Magnificentmug12
Because that’s what kids do! “

Well no, most of them don’t. Talk, giggle, laugh, yes.
Shriek or scream, no.

lynsey91 · 19/04/2021 13:36

The sun is shining and the schools are back so lovely and peaceful today.

Idiot neighbours haven't even put their yappy dogs in the garden today so it is blissful

skodadoda · 19/04/2021 14:39

@rawlikesushi

"I’m a good neighbour and would tell my kids to be quiet but if someone shouted at them without talking to me first I'd give them carte Blanche to carry on and be louder if they wished."

I can't imagine modelling this behaviour for my children. 'Your behaviour has upset someone so you must do it more.' Honestly, what will those kids turn out like? Actually, as a teacher, I've already got a good idea.

Couldn’t agree more!
skodadoda · 19/04/2021 15:18

@FOJN

If you want silence to make an inconsiderate amount of noise buy a house with a garden that is not near neighbours!
Yay!!!
skodadoda · 19/04/2021 15:22

@Magnificentmug12

Because that’s what kids do! You don’t have more of a right than they do. Why can you not be considerate that they have been in lockdown for a year with nothing to do? Or is it just your wants that are important?

If you want silence buy a house with a garden that is not near neighbours!

Your kids don’t have more of a right to impose their shrieking on others who want just normal levels of noise. Being considerate should work both ways.
Cosmos45 · 19/04/2021 15:23

I just wanted to say I totally sympathise.. I too have this problem - live a long way from them but can still hear the kids screaming whilst I am inside with all doors and windows shut. Actually sat here now with a white noise machine and noise cancelling headphones and can still hear them. It is our dream house and we have completely renovated it over the last 5 years to our tastes but my mental health can't take it and we will probably have to move.

FourTeaFallOut · 19/04/2021 15:28

I'll do you one better, I'm a few doors away from a mother who shrieks alongside playing with her children in the garden in the most emphatic display of performance parenting that you could ever have the misfortune to hear. The entire crew of cbeebies have nothing on her.

Whanganui · 19/04/2021 15:50

Try a dog whistle on them.

Thiscantreallybehappening · 19/04/2021 16:13

I just wanted to say I totally sympathise.. I too have this problem - live a long way from them but can still hear the kids screaming whilst I am inside with all doors and windows shut. Actually sat here now with a white noise machine and noise cancelling headphones and can still hear them. It is our dream house and we have completely renovated it over the last 5 years to our tastes but my mental health can't take it and we will probably have to move.

This is exactly the situation we are facing.

Cosmos45 · 19/04/2021 16:39

@Thiscantreallybehappening I am actually on rightmove now and DH is going to be phoning the estate agents for a valuation. It is galling, it really is but we have resigned ourselves to it never ending. We have tried to engage and discuss to no avail and I am convinced especially today certain things have been done as an act of defiance - this is erecting a full size bouncy castle literally at the furthest corner of their property and getting as close as they can to us and inviting 10 kids round who have been screaming and shrieking all afternoon. I thought they should be in school but apparently not.

SugarHorse · 19/04/2021 17:04

@Chamonixshoopshoop

Kids have suffered the most through this year Of lock downs. Let them bloody play. If you’re that sensitive to noise, you need to find a house in a more rural location.
How on earth do you know who has suffered the most through lockdown?! Confused
SugarHorse · 19/04/2021 17:10

@lilyblue5

Pretty much my kids, the more I tell them off the funnier they think their noises are and the louder they get. I put them in the garden to give my ears a break. They are so loud. You aren’t being unreasonable I feel sorry for my neighbours
Perhaps it would be better to take a less passive approach to parenting then?
Jennifer2021 · 19/04/2021 17:10

@Thiscantreallybehappening and @cosmos45 you have my sympathies. I've tried to engage politely to no avail too. Would love to be able to move but I'm not in a financial position to do so until someone gives me a job.

stayathomer · 19/04/2021 17:12

Yes, agreedNoodle.I get a bit stressed about it. I have some very unpleasant neighbours who I am quite scared of, but I've also lovely neighbours, one family with very small toddlers / babies & I try really hard to take this into consideration while not stopping my kids being out.I know I need to take them out somewhere for some chunk of the day to make sure they won't disturb the road.
This is me. My two youngest are screechers and so loud in everything they do compared to how my eldest were and I feel bad for them that I'm constantly shushing them but if their noises are bothering me they must be killing everyone else as theres no other kids about. Saying that every so often I lay off them just a little and for a while so they can be themselves. Sorry opBlush

Billandben444 · 19/04/2021 17:15

I'd buy one of these and use it just when they shriek - shriek-training at its sneakiest as adults can't hear it.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito

(I'm sort of joking, I think)

BluntlySpoken · 19/04/2021 17:18

It wouldn't bother me
Our local FB page is full of people moaning about noise, well a certain few moaners.
In the nice weather my kids are out all day. OK they don't shreik but can be noisy at times. But theure having fun. In the fresh air. Not on ipads

One person complained when someone had a tea party and the kids had whistles in their party bags.. They whistled for about 15min. Then the moaner complained as was told he was an old misery guts by about 40 people.

Original poster
saraclara · 19/04/2021 17:35

15 minutes of a load of kids using whistles in the garden? That would actually be painful.
And then 40 people ganged up on an old guy for being annoyed by it?

OP posts:
tvdinners43 · 19/04/2021 17:39

@saraclara I think you could be my neighbour! We have had a family recently move in to our once quiet neighbourhood and the children are very loud and shrieks! The parents sit outside with them most of the time from what I can hear but make no attempt to quiet them. Yesterday they had visitors who were twice as loud!

WombatChocolate · 19/04/2021 17:39

Hmm. Party bags with whistles are the kind of thing to issue right at the end of the party as people leave the party with strict instructions not to use until in the car or at home. Issuing whistles to loads of kids to all blow in the garden at once, in an urban area where lots of people might be outside is extremely crass.

Cosmos45 · 19/04/2021 17:48

@Chamonixshoopshoop the irony of it is I DO have a house in a rural location. It is surrounded by fields (currently with lambs in) and I have a half acre garden. For years it was blissfully quiet. Then an arrogant arsehole moved in to the neighbouring property and due to be it being so rural I think he thinks he can make as much noise as he likes and no-one can hear him. He fails to realise despite us being in detached houses on a rural lane there are still neighbours.

Gothichouse40 · 19/04/2021 17:56

I don't know why but I don't remember all this high-pitched screaming from children that seems to happen now. My own 2 were not angels, but If I felt they were disturbing others I asked them to keep the noise down. Im lucky with my neighbours children as it's mainly ordinary playing noises. I did ask another friend if she thought children and this high-pitched screaming had got worse than when our children were small ,and she replied yes, definitely. Is it food additives or what? It seems to be everywhere and not just in people's gardens.

Shehasadiamondinthesky · 19/04/2021 17:59

What I suggest is you and your husband stand in the garden and screech all day until 10pm then ask them how they like it.
Start a primal screaming therapy group and run it from your garden.

Radio4Rocks · 19/04/2021 18:02

So many posters who seem to think it's ok to let their DCs shriek and upset others. Normal DC noise is lovely to hear but screams and shrieks aren't. Presumably it counts as a noise nuisance if it happens a lot and the council may deal with it.

Why some people think their DCs matter more than the rest of the world is bewildering. I couldn't bear the noise our two made when they were shrieking and in they came if they didn't calm it down. it's what decent people do.

Shehasadiamondinthesky · 19/04/2021 18:10

The whole family sound feral.

crashbandicoot4 · 19/04/2021 18:11

I don't understand parents who let their kids shriek.
I treated unnecessary screaming as a bad behaviour and they would be sat down away from play if I heard it. They certainly were not allowed to steam in the garden, it's anti social and rude.

I'd have to tell them to stop screaming and speak to the parents