To expect parents to try to keep children quiet on campsites early in the morning?

[BobBobbity]

Camping this weekend at an event - lots of families, tents tightly packed in.

Me and the DC were woken up this morning at 6:45am by a group of children (would say 6-9ish age range) shrieking and shouting non-stop. No let up for about an hour.

AIBU to think parents should have tried to keep their noise down so early? My DC aren’t larks and normally sleep through anything but were both woken up and are already grumpy and tired.

Obviously some children wake up early and can be a bit excitable in a group, but this was soft-play-birthday-party level cacophony before 7am.

They probably didn't. There has been some shift in the last 15 years or so where kids just non-verbally scream and screech for no reason. They are not communicating like human beings, but like animals.

It's beyond obnoxious.

@DoubleTequilaSunrise a sound that wouldn't wake the neighbours on either side of a brick wall in our terrace probaby would wake neighbours through a few sheets of canvas in a field.

@ZeldaWillTellYourFortune oh yes, kids in the last 15 years have become different from any other children through history

I remember having a screaming phase as a child in the 90s, nothing new. Didn't you ever hear of Violet Elizabeth saying 'I'll scweam and scweam until I'm sthick' in the William stories?

Ahh well, I guess we know why you got out of the wrong side of the camp bed 😂

I lived within hearing distance of a junior school playground about 16 years ago. This isn’t new.

may I suggest that your recollection may be somewhat biased.

But even if you allow your DC to engage in an hour of unrelenting shouting and screaming at home (personally I wouldn’t tolerate it at home either, certainly not at that hour), it’s not exactly beyond the understanding of an average primary aged child that there are environments where those volumes aren’t appropriate? And that early morning on a campsite is one of them?

I don't allow them to shout and scream and as I said, I bring books and snacks etc when camping to keep DC quiet when they wake early. However, on certain mornings when DC wake up with the hump, there's not always anything you can do about it.

DD is sweet 99% of the time but if she gets in a mood it can take hours to shift it and in the meantime she's fairly noisy, despite best efforts at coaxing/bribing/stern talking tos etc.

Re PP saying kids have been permitted to be louder in last 15 years - I don't think they have, but I think society has become less tolerant of children. Led by the wfh trend and people expecting quiet all day every day because home is now a work environment.

Yes, I see what you are saying, it was certainly our friend's youngest modus operandi but what I was confused by was there was no correction, it was just supposed to be tolerated I think (which I managed to do by sitting on the roof top terrace and hiding, that slightly drowned it out)- that's why I wondered whether it was a new kind of parental technique, i.e there was a rationale behind not correcting them, something to do with self confidence or self esteem.

I think 'shrieking' makes a difference. No one should be allowing their child to shriek like that at any time, never mind early in the morning. People just don't seem to care anymore, anything for an easy life

Except it's not is it? Most campsites have a time when you need to keep it down.

There isn't a lot I'd agree with in how my parents parented but I will say, if we weren't adjusting our activities and volume appropriately to the fact that we were nearby to others, with noise travelling through thin fabric - let alone screaming - at 6:45am, we'd be warned two or three times and then the holiday would be over and we'd be taken home and told we could go again when we knew how to be considerate of other people. The same rules applied in any cafe, on a day out, etc. - behave considerately or you won't be engaging in that activity until such time as you can do so without unnecessarily/unreasonably disturbing others.

However harsh it seems, that I agree with. Children are still learning and developing, absolutely, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be taught to be considerate of others and specific circumstances by the time they're 6-9, other factors or needs excluded. Most established campsites have rules about being quiet in a certain timeframe (I've yet to see one than ends as early as 6:45 personally), and imo people should familiarise themselves and act accordingly.

YANBU, but not everyone is going to set and maintain boundaries with their kids properly.

I am tolerant of children, I mean in certain contexts I think you may be right as many people are choosing not to have them. Where I live in the south east, they do not have enough intake for the in the next 4 years to keep some infant schools open. I think if you see children less their behaviour is quite a culture shock when you are not regularly around them. That said, isn't there an element of teaching your DC common courtesy.

I don't think I said that it was. I just said that children being happy, even at a loud volume, doesn't bother me.

We were camping next to a family with children and toddlers up to about age 6.
The noise started at about 5 am.
Every day.
We were there for 11 nights.

I wouldn’t really have an issue with a child who was shouting and screaming because they were having a strop - no-one has total control over their children’s moods and sometimes the harder you try with a child who is in that kind of mood the worse it gets. It’d be irritating to be woken up early by a child in one of those moods but I’d generally have sympathy for the parents, no-one enjoys dealing with a child in that state.

In this case it was a group of happy kids who had been allowed to spiral into over-excited shouted and shrieking. They could still have been chatting and laughing together at a lower volume, that would have been fine. There’s a good chance that a parent reminding them to keep the volume down would have nipped it in the bud - but frankly I’d have been a lot less annoyed if there had been any indication at all that a parent had intervened at all.

I disagree. No other brits where I camped this year and there were loads of screeching kids up early. Outdone only by the hoards of shouty teenagers up late. 😬

Camping in a crowded field is not a place to expect much sleep - some stay up late and you'll hear it, some wake early and you hear it.

Yanbu to hope for better parenting - or even some parenting - to keep dc quietish in the early morning.

Some campgrounds are very good on noise control. Look for those. Sorry you had a poor night.

Yep. I think’suck it up’ springs to mind.

6.45 isn’t especially early

seems this attitude explains it all.

Shame a few always try to ruin it for everybody else.

No one is trying to ruin anything for other people. The only person trying anything is you, trying to misrepresent what others are saying.

Well on this occasion it reads like it was some form of festival. I'd suggest using your legs and walking to somewhere on site where there aren't sleeping people.

If it is just a field campsite in the middle of nowhere, then you need to investigate either ensuring your children are considerate of others. Or going somewhere where they can be taken out the way if they start making a racket at 6:30am.

6.45 IS ridiculously early, and you know it.

None of my kids or their friends are even awake at 6:45 on a school day.

pretending it's normal and everyone should expect to be disturbed at that time on holiday is disingenuous at best.

Well it's not a school day, is it? It's a weekend camping trip to an event in a field where you often get get woken up by the sunrise, which is before 6:30am. Add on the fact that many children do get up ridiculously early (you'd be an idiot if you've missed the threads here with parents asking for advice about their 430am rising child) and take away any of the other irrelevant things you've conjured up and you're left with quite a different story.

Oh for goodness sake. Yes 6.45 is early. That is why I don’t go camping. Because you can’t guarantee which type of parents you’ll be in a field with.

It’s pretty optimistic to go camping and expect it to be quiet until 8am…
I don’t think this has ever happened on any campsite I’ve ever been on. Why expect it? Ridiculous.

I mean there’s noise on my street outside from 7am. Noisy work can start at 7.30am. But campsites are quiet until 8am. Living in a dreamworld…

Honestly yes, I do think they should have shushed them up a bit until a little bit later. Not expecting silence but still, it's 6.45 and shouting is not really needed.

I don't think OP is asking for the earth with that - just still 7.30 or 8 when most peolple ARE up.

I take ear plugs.