About letting dc practice basketball on the drive 5x a week?

[GCSquirrel]

The neighbour across the road has complained. This neighbour doesn’t actually live here full time, her and her dh come down 10 days a month as it’s their second home. She says that dc practicing is ruining her time here and that last time she was down she considered booking into a hotel 🙄.

Ds is 10 and is mad keen on basketball. He has one training session after school per week and a training session on either a Saturday or a Sunday. He doesn’t practice on the driveway on those days so he’s only out there 5 days a week. It always immediately after school on weekdays and never before 10am or after about 5pm at the weekend. I never let him stay out there for more than an hour. The driveway is across our front garden which has a 6 foot wall around it and a solid gate so the ball never bounces out. It’s just the noise of him bouncing that drives her mad.

I spoke to her and told her that I’m not going to stop dc from practicing. If she’d been slightly more reasonable about it I offer have asked her if there were times that it particularly bothered her and got dc to work around that. Instead she came marching across the road, banging on the door and telling me how much she’d paid for her house and how my family was ruining the one place that she came to relax. I’m on really good terms with all my other neighbours and they all know dc well enough to feel comfortable to go out and tell him to pack it in if it’s annoying them for whatever reason.

AIBU not to reduce dc practicing when neighbours are down?

YABU. The fact your other neighbours have told your dc to pack it in tells you they too find it annoying. This neighbours delivery may have been off but her sentiment is clearly felt with others in your road.
I’d get dc to reduce the amount of practise on the driveway and find a basket ball court in a local park instead. People have a right to enjoy their homes.

Five days a week of that I'd be going insane. It really is the most annoying sound. I think you are being a very inconsiderate neighbour tbh.

Well hes not playing, he's practicing. A repetitive, loud, methodical thump
Thump
Thump
Thump
Thump
Thump

Would drive a good woman mad.

Agreed with a previous suggestion about asking local councillors to fund a hoop in a shared play space. If neighbour complains ask her if she can support your application for one and direct her energies.

They probably do get annoyed by it. We’ve all lived next to each other for years though and still get on well. We’ve had, at various stages, the teenager who had 3 hour practices in their parent’s garage every weekend. The mum who did 11+ tutoring a few nights a week and all the parents would wait parked across the drives. The entire house renovation done by a single bloke who listened to Magic FM on full blast every hour of the day.

It’s a little cul-de-sac of 7 houses. We’re all good neighbours (apart from the complainers) and they all know my son well enough to tell him to go in if he’s being a nuisance. It’s just part of living in an area with other people. I don’t consider either my son playing basketball or any of the other things listed above as anything other than reasonable (if irritating at times) behaviour.

I think you need to reassure them that a) it’s never for more than an hour (and make sure your son sticks to it) and b) it will only be within certain hours.

For an incredibly irritating noise like a bouncing ball, dread of the noise starting up and/or not knowing when it’s going to stop are absolutely awful.

one hour a day wouldnt bother me, unless i was trying to get a baby to sleep.

The noise would melt my head. Same as dc bouncing football off fence or wall. I'd say 30min max at a time. Then break of an hour.
You can also buy quiet practise basketballs or look at putting down mats on driveway.

There isn’t one in a local park or he’d use that.

soundproofcentral.com/block-basketball-noise/

YABU there is no sound more annoying than a ball bouncing continuously, it’s very anti social for 5 hours a week.

5 x 1 hour sessions per week sounds pretty tough on your neighbours. YABU

"He has one training session after school per week and a training session on either a Saturday or a Sunday. He doesn’t practice on the driveway on those days so he’s only out there 5 days a week. It always immediately after school on weekdays and never before 10am or after about 5pm at the weekend."

First you say he doesn't practise on weekends and then you say never before 10 am or after 5pm at the weekends. So which one is it?

You can always lay some concrete or astroturf and a hoop in your garden, how would you like that? 😏

One hour of repetitive bouncing noise does sound annoying, OP. Could you reduce the duration to half an hour? Maybe one night drive him to a (further) park that does have a hoop or if there's someone else from his team who has a hoop could spend an evening there and reciprocate another evening at yours?

I take that to mean he practices with his team....

is there no basket ball pitch near by?

My neighbour has three young boys and the basketball is their favourite thing. They are out there for hours - boing, boing, boing, thwack. It can be annoying but when my children were younger I'm sure their noise was annoying. If you have neighbours you need to be prepared for a bit of noise and 1 hour a day doesn't sound bad at all!

I'd rather kids were outside playing than cooped up indoors

People are allowed reasonable enjoyment of their outside space - and that’s what your DC is doing. It’s not for long. It’s not during unsocial hours eg before 8am or after 10pm. So it’s perfectly ok.
If your neighbor wants a totally quiet environment she should have purchased a property without neighbors
Its great your DC has an interest and is enjoying being outside.
She can can complain to the council if she wants - but I doubt she would get anywhere.
Im really so surprised at other posters in this thread thinking children shouldn’t be allowed to use outdoor space.

I'd find it bloody annoying but for the amount of time he's allowed to practice I'd put up with it.

If they are only in that house for ten days a month, I would reduce the time your son plays basketball for those ten days. Maybe only play every couple of days or play every day but only for ten minutes.

The rest of the month, let him play as he already is.

My son has a basketball and the sound absolutely does my nut. I can only tolerate about 10 minutes of it absolute max.

Maybe he should have his hoop in the back of your house rather than at the front.
It would annoy me no end!

Maybe she should have spent all of her money on a detached house in the middle of nowhere if she wanted to be somewhere without annoying neighbours. Yes basketball can be annoying but your DS is within his rights to make that noise and someone has to be the noisiest neighbour.

I echo the other PP's, the non stop thud and inevitable bouncing off cars/windows (but of course that never happens) would piss me off 5 days on the trot every week. I live in a cul de sac and don't expect silence but some things are more annoying than others.

Don't stop your DS. Your neighbour is complaining because she isn't used to the noise. If she lived there permanently, it'd become a background noise, eventually. ;-)

He doesn’t practice on the days he has training. If he has training on a Saturday he doesn’t practice at home on the Saturday, he does it on the Sunday instead.