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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think our neighbours are being unreasonable?

39 replies

Sebock · 10/09/2023 18:10

We live rurally. Our garden backs onto their paddock. Our house is central on an 8 acre plot. The kids have gotten the house out while I make dinner and are squirting each other. There have been squeals but it's not as if they are shrieking. Neighbours have just been round to complain about the noise....surely they can put up with distant noise from two kids for an hour...

OP posts:
OnAFrolicOfMyOwn · 10/09/2023 18:12

Have they form for this? If they rarely complain it's likely the noise is worse than you think. Children's screams can be headache-inducing.

Needanewnamebeingwatched · 10/09/2023 18:12

They are mad, let the kids carry on

CherryMaDeara · 10/09/2023 18:12

YANBU. It’s the last of the summer weather, and early still.

Ignore them.

Chestnutz · 10/09/2023 18:15

sounds Idyllic apart from your unreasonable neighbours. It’s not as if it’s going to be going on for ages! Don’t let them ruin your Sunday afternoon, enjoy the rest of the day!

CaroleSinger · 10/09/2023 18:18

An hour of screaming on a peaceful Sunday afternoon? Yeah, can't think why the neighbours might be a tad annoyed by that. How many more hours was it going to continue for before they complained? Perhaps not everyone finds it adorable.

CaroleSinger · 10/09/2023 18:20

Chestnutz · 10/09/2023 18:15

sounds Idyllic apart from your unreasonable neighbours. It’s not as if it’s going to be going on for ages! Don’t let them ruin your Sunday afternoon, enjoy the rest of the day!

And the neighbours Sunday afternoon before the hour of screaming started? Or doesn't that matter?

Teddleshon · 10/09/2023 18:20

Give me an hour of children having fun than a leaf blower or similar any day of the week.

JayAlfredPrufrock · 10/09/2023 18:22

So they are at least 4 acres away?

Smile and wave.

tuvamoodyson · 10/09/2023 18:22

Having fun screaming for an hour?

justanothermanicmonday1 · 10/09/2023 18:30

I mean they kinda are. But they have probably been enjoying a quiet Sunday and constant screaming is a headache. I'd just be more mindful especially if it's close to tea time and people want some peace. Apart from that crack on.

Panicmode1 · 10/09/2023 18:31

We live in an urban environment and the neighbours behind us have let their children scream in the garden since 9am this morning - they are still out there now, which means I have been unable to sit in my (small) garden all day. I have 4 children so do understand that children make noise, but unfettered for the whole day is antisocial and selfish IMO.

Your set up sounds totally different and if it genuinely was only an hour or so, and this is not common, then YANBU..equally, if you are minimising and your children are often screaming and causing a noise nuisance for long periods of time then I have sympathy with your neighbours.

WonkyDesk · 10/09/2023 18:31

I would say the neighbours sound very unreasonable. Crack on.

user1473878824 · 10/09/2023 18:32

CaroleSinger · 10/09/2023 18:18

An hour of screaming on a peaceful Sunday afternoon? Yeah, can't think why the neighbours might be a tad annoyed by that. How many more hours was it going to continue for before they complained? Perhaps not everyone finds it adorable.

Edited

Do you walk around with an ear horn in?

user1473878824 · 10/09/2023 18:34

For everyone who apparently has supersonic hearing

To think our neighbours are being unreasonable?
BirdBox12 · 10/09/2023 18:39

Kids don't need to be screaming. Your neighbours were not to know it wasn't going to be just an hour and I'm not convinced that your kids haven't been out there screaming at other times too.
I live next door to a couple with three kids. They scream and screech for hours on end. No respect for anyone else. I long for the colder months when they are forced back inside. They are totsl hypocrites too as if we started doing the same thing they would be round in seconds.

insideoutandupsidedown · 10/09/2023 18:40

You are central in a 8 acre plot ?? and the neighbours are therefore moaning about a water fight FOUR ACRES AWAY ??? tell them to fuck off .. or go buy their own Scottish island . !

The reason we live rurally is to be far enough away not to annoy anyone. We are only 2 acres away from neighbours and had 7 dc/dsc... never did anyone complain about massive teenage parties - huge sleepovers with 20 tents in the garden. etc .. they are knobs !

Nopenopenopenopenopenope · 10/09/2023 18:42

I'd swap the sound of kids having fun for the prick with the hedge cutter I'm having to listen to right now! I just quietly seethe rather than complain though. Presumably the other 6 days a week of his retirement are no good for cutting the hedge and he absolutely must make a racket on a Sunday evening.

PonyPatter44 · 10/09/2023 18:43

My neighbours kids scream too, and we live MUCH closer than that. Shouting, laughing, shrieking, I don't mind that, it's nice to hear kids playing as long as you're not close enough to hear WHAT they're saying. I hate screaming though.

The same neighbours have a really antisocial doorbell that announces "you are currently being recorded ". They are utter chavs!

ProfYaffle · 10/09/2023 18:50

They're complaining about noise from across not only your 8 acre plot but their paddock too? Totally unreasonable.

2jacqi · 10/09/2023 18:57

doubtful that they could even hear kids screaming that far away!!!!

Original poster
Sebock · 10/09/2023 20:33

@BirdBox12 We were away for 6 weeks over summer and truly they were out from 5-6 while I made dinner...my garden backs up to their paddock so they are a good distance away. Their plot must be 5-8 acres I would think. My kids really weren't screaming. If they were it would have driven me batty. They stormed over here last night thinking we were having a bonfire. We weren't and never have had one! It was coming across the fields from the farm! We've only lived here a year and before that it was a an old lady. I think they've gotten used to no noise at all. He was so aggressive he really scared my 5 year old. She's in her garden playing with a hose. She didn't expect a man to shout at her. I've really tried to be nice to them but they are just so unreasonable. They cut their grass at 10am on a Saturday and want us to cut at the same time. So far we have but I'm losing patience rapidly!

OP posts:
Breakawaytour · 10/09/2023 20:41

They sound bloody awful tbh, you poor thing 😞

JayAlfredPrufrock · 10/09/2023 22:18

They want you to cut your grass at the same time as them? Good grief they are mad.

Redbushteaforme · 10/09/2023 22:39

Good grief. They are being totally unreasonable. The whole point of living in the country with a large garden and children is to let the children play. Your neighbours are too far away to be suffering from any noise your children are making. Trying to be nice won't work, unfortunately. Just nod, say yes, and ignore the next time.

Honeyroar · 10/09/2023 22:54

To be fair, I live in a similar situation, and I hear our newest neighbour’s dog barking constantly (because they tie it outside and leave it). I’ve lived here all my life, so got used to the space and silence. So someone new that makes a bit more noise is a surprise.. Doesn’t mean that the new people are doing anything wrong particularly, just that those of us that have lived here for ages, without many neighbours, aren’t as used to the noise that people who have lived in more suburban areas won’t even register.. That said, these neighbours sound completely unreasonable. I wouldn’t put up with any more of their nonsense. Send them packing the minute they come over ranting. Tell them to learn some manners or you’ll take legal action (you don’t have to mean it!). And plant a big hedge along their paddock fence.