Screaming child in tent next door

[Sittininafield]

AIBU to think the parents are selfish knob heads. Fourth night in a row. Toddler screams from 10.30 till 11.30 ish every night and then periodically every couple of hours. Not sad baby crying but toddler tantrum screaming and shouting. I am beginning to think it is the spawn of satan. Why would you go camping if your child doesn’t sleep, and why wouldn’t you go home out of consideration for others after a couple of nights? They are quite now but I’m awake since the last screams at 3.30. Should I go and shake their tent in sleep deprived, demented re-wenge?

He's a toddler? That's what they do.

In which case maybe camping is not the best idea for a holiday

No you shouldn't it's none of your business what they are doing. They are not their to please you and the world dosent revolve around you.
Refrain from engaging with them unless you are going to be friendly.

How did you enjoy your camping holiday with the screamy kid?

You have it exactly the wrong way round. The world doesn't revolve around parents and their screaming kids. As i have said several times on this thread and people are reading right past it (yes, #NotAllPeople - i am grateful for that): of course some noise during the day is fine. Ear splitting screeching for more than about a minute also not really acceptable during the day but anyway...

Noise, any loud persistent noise after about 11pm is unacceptable. Unless you're at a festival, then it's everyone for themselves. This includes drunken shouting, boomboxes, and, yes, screaming children. One night would be just about acceptable if they apologised and then packed up and went home. Anything after that? For sure i will be complaining about it. Your desire to take your baby everywhere doesn't trump everyone else's right to not have that noise keeping them awake night after night. And it isn't at home where the council say "tough tits" it is a campsite. And it is why i love camping in Europe so much because it is pretty much a universal rule, and wherever I've been it also includes the hours from 12 until 2 pm, and it has been enforced.

These types of posts always makes me laugh! Do you understand that most people on this site are parents, and we don’t think that the world revolves around us just because we have given birth 😀
we don’t think that other people should have a shit holiday because some parents thinks it’s perfectly acceptable for little Jocasta to scream to her heart’s content!

I don’t care what the cause of the crying is. Just step
up and you know, parent! If you don’t, then inevitably at some point, other people will tell you and them to stfu!

mm

I also never breastfed on a loo in a Pizza hut (if that was for me because i did mention PH as an example of a family friendly place to eat rather than taking your adorable little screechers to L'Escargot)

You could be describing my dh, @Dexionmagic - he will wake me up from a deep sleep by howling with pain, right in my ear! It’s bad enough being in bed next to him - I wouldn’t inflict him on a camp site!

You know babies and toddlers crying isn’t usually a sign of misbehaving right? It’s a sign that something is wrong and crying (or even screaming) is the only way they have of communicating there is a problem.

Before you leap on me, I would (and did) remove my inconsolable toddler from the campsite. She wasn’t misbehaving though.

Babies and toddlers can go anywhere. Planes. Camp sites. Hotels. The Ritz. Anywhere you can go.

Yes, but you have a responsibility to exercise some judgement in where you take said babies and toddlers. Just because you have the right to go somewhere does not mean it is a good idea. Is taking a new born to the cinema a good idea? Is taking your toddler to a high end restaurant where they will get bored and kick off a good idea? Playing the 'they can't help it' card is especially poor, they have no agency as to whether they go camping or to the Ritz, it is the parents thinking others have to just suck it up when there is a high chance that said kids will be disruptive.

‘Behaving’ is what they are doing. Neutral. Of course babies and toddlers crying isn’t ‘misbehaviour’, but that makes it no more bearable for anyone else.

Hahahahaha yes that is true. Although if the OP is sharing a tent with her own kids, they may be a bit traumatised 😂
Take a middle of the night trip to the loo and 'accidentally trip over their guy ropes and bring the tent down on their heads? That would give them something to cry about.

The parents of this kid were probably the ones having the noisy camping sex three years ago…

Aaah @Twiglets1 -you're my kin

Yeah @DillonPanthersTexas I do get that. I think I've been a right dick in some of my posts. Sorry. I just feel emotional about this subject. I've got a toddler with complex needs and a 18 month old. I haven't ever taken them on holiday because they both wake at night. I don't take them even to pizza hut. Sorry @Brefugee I take them to the park and to the swimming pool and thats it. I want to be a fearless mum who takes them everywhere with me but I'm so worried people will think I'm some awful mum and my kids are ruining their fun. It's not just camp sites...its everywhere you are made to feel you can't go if you have noisy unsettled kids. And yes its very isolating. And no...its nobody's problem but mine. I certainly don't think that anyone should give on shiny shit about my kids. But just a little compassion towards knackered mums would be great.

@Sittininafield Come over to the MN Camping board (under Travel), less of the AIBU vibe and ‘I would never go camping’ yawnery.

But surely you see that in this scenario - arranging a camp site holiday given your are fully aware of the likely outcome - is not going to be at all pleasant for other campers?

So you bide your time until older and in meantime do things that are available to your family without impacting others quite so much (and presumably being stressful for you)

Sounds just like the family we had camping in the adjacent pitch in late June - so they still haven't sorted out their child then! Are they ineffectively asking the child to be quieter, rather than addressing whatever is the issue? 🙄We were grateful when they left after four nights.

Are you now assuming that I've never been a knackered mum with shouty kids and nobody tutting at me?

There is nobody here (on this thread) that i can see that hasn't said don't take your kids to a play park (they are for kids) or a campsite. Nobody has said they must be silent as the grave and not move a muscle. Nobody.

What they have said is that it would be great, thanks, if the indulgence that (some) parents of (noisy) children are demanding of the rest of the world in terms of putting up with their screeching offspring could be returned in terms of not letting screeching for hours on end go on for 4 flipping nights.

Yes. We get it. It's hard. It was hard for me too, but when we went camping - our kids didn't screech the tent down at midnight, and 2 and 4. And they weren't up running around before 7 either. We didn't just shrug and say "aw, it's what they do".

So yes, i do get it. But if people are going to purposely infer from "stop screeching all night" that i think children should be banned from everywhere, then I can't help you. Because i have never ever, even in my worst pre-DCs child-loathing days, said anything of the sort.

I don't think you want to ban children everywhere @Brefugee Of course I don't. You haven't said that. Nobody has accused you of that. It's you who keeps bringing that up as an accusation.

What you have said is that you would stop toddlers screaming at 2am. And what I'm saying is that it's not always possible.

"Not letting it go on for four flipping nights"

How do you propose someone does that? If it was that easy - there wouldn't be a whole sleep consultant industry based on parents who are kept up by crying children night after night for months and years.

If your argument is that those parents with such children should not go on holiday where they might be heard by others than fine....that's a point of view. But your smug "I didn't let my kids do that" isn't very helpful. Well done you. If you've got the magic formula that gets kids to sleep through the night - then go make your millions.

This would do my head in. Why do the parents not help him, placate him, out of courtesy to other campers at least?

The problem is there are too many moaners out there.

People don't talk to one another or be friendly, then all of a sudden they perceive a problem so the first time they talk to that person in the tent is to moan.
Don't go anywhere where's there's other people if you don't like it. It's not your campsite and you need to suck.it up.

I swear I could never tell someone to be quiet. I might think it but I wouldn't say it. All it does is cause I'll feeling for the rest of the holiday/train journey whatever.

Suck it up ppl make noise. Don't speak to someone just to reprimand them.

How do you propose someone does that? If it was that easy - there wouldn't be a whole sleep consultant industry based on parents who are kept up by crying children night after night for months and years.

if they had any sense of decency? they would pack up and go home. As I've said before.

This thread is ridiculous. Pack up and go home because your child is crying? Really?!

If you go camping expecting silence then maybe you should be the one to pack up and go home... And then adjust your expectations when choosing to sleep in a field without walls separating you from others!

FYI. Camping is my idea of hell for many reasons but this is one of them - no privacy or separation from others! Don't choose it if you don't want that. 🤷‍♀️

God yeah. Just the thought of it gives me the fear..🤣🤣🤣🤣

If you don't want to be able to hear people all around you (including toddler tantrums) and also whoever mentioned snoring, then don't go camping? 😂

Nobody is expecting silence when camping. We just don’t expect entitled parents to make us all stay up because they decided to bring a child who screams for hours throughout the entire night.