To ask to stop your children ‘play’ screaming?

[JediKnightingale]

I live in a cul de sac where we have around six families with small children (weirdly, all girls - not relevant I know) that range from ages 2 - 7. They all walk to school together with parents and at home time they congregate in the middle of the close. Mums chatting and the entire gaggle of tiny noise machines run around screaming for absolutely no reason for about 30/45 mins depending on the weather. During the holidays or at weekends they can be out there for hours at a time.

I and quite a few others work from home in our road - my home office is in the front part of my house and I literally cannot take or make phone calls due to the racket. Normal play noise is absolutely fine but WHY do parents put up with this stupid screaming? When my 3 were small I would never have allowed it but it doesn’t seem to even register with these parents.

Do you let your children play scream and if so would you be put out if you were asked (nicely) if they could play WITHOUT THE SCREAMS?

You are actually being serious right now aren't you?

Absolutely unbelievable.

'If a parent is incapable of controlling the horrific shrill screaming of their OWN children - and doesn't give a shit about how their screaming is impacting other peoples right to quiet enjoyment and peace, the person affected can get headphones/earplugs! or just DEAL WITH IT!'

Oh. MY. GOD! You are utterly shameless. I also agree with @Meowandthen

..· Today 08:02

You're one of those selfish parents, aren't you? Think the world revolves around your screaming brats.

And as for this!

@DodoTired · Today 09:17

There is (should be) no-one in residential area except parents, and kids .. and some curmudgeons pensioners should get a grip (because life certainly doesn’t revolve around them even if Tory party makes them believe otherwise)

WOW. Bet your neighbours love you. 🙄 The ageism is dripping from your posts, along with all the bile and vitriol. You don't sound very happy. Are you OK? Serious question.

@Pepsiisbetterthancoke · Today 09:29

It really is easy to spot the twatty folks that are failing at parenting on this thread

The world doesn’t revolve around your screaming kids and just makes you look like a bad parent. And before you say it this doesn’t include those with medical needs but not all screamers are doing that uncontrollably!

Yep. 100% agree with this. ^

@OnceinaMinion · Today 09:50

Most people like hearing children playing normally.

Just being able to scream blue murder and make as much noise as they like is not normal. Children are part of the community and therefore have to act that way too.

It’s like parents who left their children run amok in restaurants because ‘they’re enjoying themselves’ and spoiling it for everyone.

And this too. 100%.

@DodoTired · Today 09:46

It makes people look like a bad parent only to a certain category of BRITISH people. Many other cultures are less stuffy and dont have “children should be seen and not heard” culture. Are they all wrong and the only way is a British middle class way? Britain isn’t known for producing happy people, it is known for producing reserved “stiff upper lip” people which actually isn’t psychologically healthy.

@BriceNobeslovesMurielHeslop

There’s always a poster that is determined that “other” children frolic and scream unabashed while their parents look on beaming, while all British children live a life akin to a Dickensian orphan.

Exactly. It's a load of old shite. I am seriously embarrassed for 'DODO.' She is breathtakingly defensive on this thread. I wonder why? 😉

You've got a naive view of disabilities then. Lots are invisible and the issue isn't that they aren't accessible - although I agree with that - but much wider. E.g. physically getting to work. I don't actually mind kids playing either but would hate a push away from wfh which had actually been beneficial for many. Two things can exist at once.

@SabreIsMyFave

yes. I’m serious. Just because people decided in the last few years to WFH, doesn’t mean that everyone should bend over and create same level of quiet as in the City workspace.
It’s just as selfish.

and yes, Im totally ok, thank you very much.
just don’t like stuck up people who want to impose their “straight jacket-ness” onto the whole world. And im defending normal natural behaviours from this nonsense. As I said i 100% believe descriptions of “blood curling constant shrieking” are gross exaggerations and in reality people are harping on normal noise

Blood curdling screams coming from children is the EXACT thing that OP, and many other posters are complaining about @DodoTired NOT children playing and having fun and making normal 'children' noise. Many posts have said this.

You seem to be struggling to understand this. Why is this? NO-ONE minds children playing, and having fun. It's the horrific banshee screeching from SOME children that many people object to. You don't seem to mind it... Why? Are you oblivious to it now?

Why is this thread so jarring for you? Is it hitting a raw nerve??? You have had neighbours complaining about the shrill blood curdling screams from YOUR children haven't you. I'm right aren't I?

@DodoTired you can defend your position without calling other posters names or lumping huge groups of people in together, you know?

Agree with this. And the amount of defensiveness from @DodoTired is off the scale!

Hrtwt but I stopped taking grandson to soft play because the constant shrieking and screaming of girls running round made me feel ill and borderline murderous (that is an exaggeration before i'm jumped on) and never the boys but always the girls. Why??

Does life revolve around children then? Because so far the excuse for letting kids scream their heads off in residential areas is that the world doesn’t revolve around pensioners or those who work from home. I bet if your neighbour took up the drums you’d suddenly have a problem with being impacted by other peoples inconsiderate noise, especially when trying to get your kids to sleep. Would that make you curmudgeonly?
Also, news flash, those who don’t have kids also live in residential areas.

Our garden backs onto a school playing field. I have spent many a happy summer lunchtime sitting in my garden with a sandwich listening to the children playing. Giggling and, yes,some shouting/squealing.

But, my God, this last couple of summers the screaming needs to be heard to be believed. It sounds like there is a massacre going on. I now can't sit there until they have gone back in.

I was working in my front garden last year and I could hear this screaming at school finish time and I honestly thought a child had been run over. Along comes a Mum and her two boys, as it happens, just screaming at each other. I must have looked a bit perplexed as she just said to me Oh they do love their screaming competitions. I walked past their house a couple of days later and all I could hear was screaming. How does she stand it? God help their neighbours. And their vocal chords.

Obviously WFH has benefits, but only where it comes with an acceptance that people increasingly working from home can not expect to impose changes on the lives of people living normal non-work lives at home, which in fairness it sounds like you don't.

And as for my naive view of making workplaces accessible to people who have difficulty physically getting to work or being in certain environments, I actually would have thought those things went without saying.

Believe it or not, kids used to play out a lot more AND manage not to scream their heads off and have consideration for others. It’s because they were actually parented.

Nobody complained about my children (they actually rarely play in the garden and few times my toddler had a massive loud meltdown I did bring her inside, believe it or not - Im not inconsiderate towards my neighbours)

I explained above what I have an issue with and why I believe that many people here exaggerate and ‘criminalise’ natural behaviour. Just one post below you someone old is complaining about a noise in a SOFT PLAY 🤦‍♀️ now soft plays are definitely incredibly loud but that’s exactly what they are for. So complain about that is incredibly unreasonable.

@DoraSpenlow

Along comes a Mum and her two boys, as it happens, just screaming at each other. I must have looked a bit perplexed as she just said to me Oh they do love their screaming competitions.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, it does sound like children are competitively screaming at each other, to see who can be the loudest.

It's definitely a recent thing. As I said in a previous post, I remember hearing it when I a teenager and going to investigate because it was so rare. Not any more!

Some parents are lazy and just leave their kids to scream and mess around, and the kids think the world revolves around them 🙄

Interesting. I never let my children scream.

Soft play is not for screaming. It's for climbing and playing. I don't knowcwhy kids shriek in there.

Screaming seems to be a new thing. It simply didn't occur to me to scream my head off when I was a kid. It just wasn't what anyone did.

But today? Well, it's thanks to yet more shitty, self-centred parenting!

(I always think the screaming kids are the ones who will grow up to be the most irritating, socially inept adults around.)

Yes we screamed if something was wrong but we would have been dragged inside if we had been screaming for nothing in the garden as my parents wouldn't allow us to annoy the neighbours. There is no need for children to scream.

I'm with you, op. No need to scream. Personally, I'd tell them to bugger off.

She is inside her house all doors shut, likely double if not triple glazing and brick walls. It is clear if she can't be on the phone it is beyond just playing out its this competitive noise making that girls in particular indulge in. I actually think its attention seeking and I remember a couple of girls in my daughters class being the same, I can recall telling some, unless it stopped I would be calling their parents to take them home as it wasn't fair on my neighbours (kids party) and yes they were from families that paid "less attention" to their kids and more to their phones or other matters

I swear that the same people who complain about the noise of children outside are the same ones who bemoan that kids these days spend too much time on screens and don’t have the same freedom that they had as kids…

yup, totally annoying and horrible slack parenting, when mine were small l would not allow indescriminate screaming,...or they came in...there is no need
Why some parents don't explain to their offspring that not everyone wants to be disturbed by their screaming ....so stop it is beyond me....

Tell me you haven’t read the thread without telling me you haven’t read it….