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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Is 8am on a su day an acceptable time to take your kids to a play park?

150 replies

DrinkingAllTheGin · 29/05/2022 08:24

There is a play park in the middle of our housing estate. It is very very close to a lot of houses and flats. And particularly close to my flat. About 2 meters from my bedroom window.

At 7.50 this morning a dad came out with his 3 children and started playing with a basket ball and letting them run up the slide. General playing noise.

I don't mind the noise the rest of the day, I chose this flat after all, but 8am is too early. Right?

This woke me up and I assumed it was about 10.
DH is on his first day off in 10 days. Thankfully he could sleep through a small bomb and hasn't woken up.

AIBU to say 8am is inside play time?

Oh and I can't go out to say something. I look like a swamp monster before I shower.

OP posts:
Original poster
DrinkingAllTheGin · 29/05/2022 10:08

We have looked to move but as we live in the south, prices mean we can't afford anything at the moment.

Not because of the park, but because we would like a garden.

OP posts:
Seasidefuntime · 29/05/2022 10:09

DrinkingAllTheGin · 29/05/2022 08:32

They have gone inside now as the toddler fell over and went into full toddler melt down.

I've been here 5 years and this is the first morning there has been a family in the play area so early.

I did know the risks when I bought the place. Hence why I haven't/didn't ask them to come back later.

First time in 5 years? Not really an issue then is it really….

starfishmummy · 29/05/2022 10:09

AIBU to say 8am is inside play time?

Not of you lived here. We're in a semi. Joined on neighbours who seemingly habe no carpets, have their grandchildren staying and they've been running up and down the landing and stairs like a herd of elephants.

Shinyandnew1 · 29/05/2022 10:11

I would say 8am is fine for parents to take kids to a playground. None of our local playgrounds are 2 meters from anyone’s bedroom window though-that would have really put me off moving there!

Astonishing that this is the first time it’s happened in 5 years really!

Mellowyellow222 · 29/05/2022 10:12

Basket balls bouncing are loud and it is probably echoing.

I think it is a little early to play basket ball - but not early for a kids play park.

we went to a euro camp site a few years ago and the kids play areas where beside some tents and caravans - dotted around the site/. We asked not to be beside the play parks for this very reason.

you will get early morning noise all through the summer

bridgetreilly · 29/05/2022 10:18

I do think a park is different from a private garden, even in a residential area. If it’s only happened once in five years, I definitely think you just have to suck it up.

Svara · 29/05/2022 10:18

I think it is a little early to play basket ball - but not early for a kids play park.
Same

MrsR87 · 29/05/2022 10:36

This thread has made me smile as we had a new family move into to the house behind us this week and this morning their little boy was running around in their garden at 7.30. I said to my husband, according to the vast majority of mumsnet users, this is out of order and too early…and I explained that there is often a thread about this at the weekend and wondered if there would be one today!
Having our own 18 month it doesn’t really bother me as it’s not like we are getting a lie in but that said, I wouldn’t let my DS play on the garden at that time as we have plenty of childless neighbours too and I would want to disturb them before 8am.

Luredbyapomegranate · 29/05/2022 10:37

On a Sunday I’d say 10 for loud playing in garden and streets (9 on Saturday),.

but for a space designated as a play ground then 8 is fine I’d say.

CruCru · 29/05/2022 10:46

The basket hall sounds a bit annoying (in fairness it would annoy me any time, not just at 8am). I tend to think that playgrounds are fair game once they’re unlocked (I think they are unlocked at 8am near me) but it doesn’t sound as though this one is ever locked if teenagers were in it at 3am

Original poster
DrinkingAllTheGin · 29/05/2022 10:52

Ironically at 10.45 there are now no kids in the play area.

I know I need to suck it up. But doesn't stop it being annoying.
I recognise most families in our area and this one has either walked a little way to come to this play area or are new to the estate.

Usually the playing doesn't start until 10ish.
I agree there is nothing I can do as I can't afford to move and I do accept that I have to put up with it.

The kids play outside at all daylight hours and it is nice to see they have a chance to play outside.

It was actually rare for a parent to be with them. Some round here just let very small kids out with no supervision. Like 3 or 4 year old.

OP posts:
Original poster
DrinkingAllTheGin · 29/05/2022 10:53

And no, never locked. Even in lockdown when parks were all closed.

OP posts:
SoggyPaper · 29/05/2022 10:57

Because everyone has unlimited funds that don't restrict their house buying options don't they 🙄

There are always trade offs involved in buying a house/flat (or renting one). You take the full set of circumstances around you into account and choose the option that works best for you. There are always compromises.

My house has a crappy yard rather than a garden and no dedicated parking. It’s in the middle of several streets of very similar terraced houses. The parking is a bloody nightmare. More so because everyone has massive cars now and the streets aren’t very wide. But it is in a location convenient to my life and has the kind of internal spaces I wanted. If I had a budget that stretched £300k more, I could have bought a house with an actual garden, a driveway and a garage. But I don’t. So I choose the best option available to me.

In the past, my options have been far more constrained and I’ve had to make much, much worse trade offs (which is the least worst of the crappy flats in dangerous areas with drug-related murders in the street sort of trade offs). So I am totally sympathetic to it being shit when you have to choose between crap and crapper. But it’s us what it is. The problem is that you have to live with your bedroom
window very close to the play park (and the developer having made shit fencing choices). It’s inevitable that people will use it, so you just gave to figure out ways to live with that.

SomePosters · 29/05/2022 11:01

12yearsinazkaban · 29/05/2022 08:28

yabu
it's a park, he's probably been up with the kids for 2 hours if he's got to the park for 8.
People aren't going to stop their lives because some stranger wants to sleep in.

Right?!?

how are people so entitled they believe that everyone in their estate should tiptoe round their preferred sleep pattern

I just can’t imagine feeling entitled to say kid shouldn’t play in the park… the park!

orwellwasright · 29/05/2022 11:06

Interesting double standards. A while back there was a similar thread about gardens and the response was pretty much universal that people shouldn't let their children play in the garden at that time on a Sunday.

I suspect that people are horrified at the thought of noise in their nice suburban semi but don't really care about noise from a play park in the middle of an estate because they'd never live somewhere like that.

SoggyPaper · 29/05/2022 11:06

I do think that letting your kids repeated bang the gate in the park and make the fences clatter is crap at any time though. That’s going to be irritating to people at any time.

That said, parents who can’t be arsed stopping that kind of shit is just a hazard of play parks. Same as it’s crap behaviour for people to get ridiculously pissed, leave the pub in a rowdy manner and vomit in the street, but you can expect some degree of that if you live next to a pub.

Badgirlriri · 29/05/2022 11:07

There was a thread recently about postnatal ward hell and people were commenting on why people are so entitled and inconsiderate these days…

well they only have to look at this thread. Of course it’s too early to playing basketball disturbing all the neighbours at that time in morning. We’d all be saying the same if he was mowing his lawn and power washing his drive.

Just because he has chosen to have children and they unfortunately get him up at 5:30 doesn’t mean everyone else should suffer.

SoggyPaper · 29/05/2022 11:11

The postnatal ward situation is different though because it’s a hospital environment where people are recovering from (sometimes very traumatic) births and are just stuck in with the other people. Of course everyone - and their visitors - should be considerate of everyone else.

Its not comparable to a family going to the play park to play. This is more comparable to people who go to soft play and seem to think it’s ridiculous that it’s full of other people more or less ignoring their unruly children. You could have predicted that before you went.

Glitterblue · 29/05/2022 11:23

There's no way I'd take mine somewhere as close to flats at that time in the morning . In our town there are a few on housing estates but also 3 that are nowhere near houses so I'd be going to one of those ones. There are other things to do outside with kids until a reasonable hour. We used to live in a flat where there was a playpark just outside, and there was a sign on the gate saying it wasn't to be used between 9pm and 9am. Of course some people paid no attention.

Thatswhyimacat · 29/05/2022 11:29

I feel like 8 is borderline, 9 onwards is fine.

It doesn't really matter what time the kids got up - I suffer from chronic insomnia and might be awake from 2am, I'm not allowed to start hoovering or playing music at 5 just because I've been up for hours.

DucklingDaisy · 29/05/2022 11:32

DrinkingAllTheGin · 29/05/2022 10:52

Ironically at 10.45 there are now no kids in the play area.

I know I need to suck it up. But doesn't stop it being annoying.
I recognise most families in our area and this one has either walked a little way to come to this play area or are new to the estate.

Usually the playing doesn't start until 10ish.
I agree there is nothing I can do as I can't afford to move and I do accept that I have to put up with it.

The kids play outside at all daylight hours and it is nice to see they have a chance to play outside.

It was actually rare for a parent to be with them. Some round here just let very small kids out with no supervision. Like 3 or 4 year old.

It seems less of an inconvenience than people having a party or something. Kids have a right to live their lives too.

420Bruh · 29/05/2022 11:33

Some places are residential for miles though.

YABU 8am is fine. You chose to live next to a playpark.

orwellwasright · 29/05/2022 11:35

DON'T play in gardens because you'll upset middle class garden owners

DO play in estate play parks because you'll only upset working class flat owners

Pretty much sums up the prevailing attitude on Mumsnet

DucklingDaisy · 29/05/2022 11:35

How many of the people saying it is unreasonable would like it if next door told them to e.g. not eat in the garden after 6.30pm because that’s when the baby goes to bed? Or not to play music during afternoon nap time?

Families with small children often keep different hours to all adult households. That can be mutually inconvenient, but someone it’s only small children and their parents who’re expected not to do normal activities in reasonable waking hours.

Spikeyball · 29/05/2022 11:37

We always go anywhere early because ds is autistic and cannot cope with lots of other children around him. We did lots of early play park visits because that was the only time he could use them. We rarely saw anyone else him them and ds wasn't loud although if he was that would have been unavoidable.

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