Neighbours kids playing outside early…

[FooFightersFan]

It’s the school holidays and I appreciate that by starting this thread I’m going to sound like a right grump, but here goes…

Our garden backs onto two houses, both of which are owned by couples with young kids. All four parents work from home full time.

The kids (youngest 3, all primary school aged) regularly play outside in the gardens. The houses are new build with literally no plants or shrubs. Just lawn surrounded by fence / brick walls. The noise just bounces around as there is nothing to ‘absorb’ it.

I accept that they are noisy when they play because they are young, energetic and kids!

Now that the school summer holidays are well under way, it’s become apparent that getting up and out into the garden at 8am is their routine. And they shout. A lot.
Then at 10am they go inside and there is silence for a while.

I can deal with it, I have 2 kids and I appreciate that’s what kids are like.

and here’s the “but”…

My son works full time and his room overlooks our back garden. He works 12 hour shifts a lot of days, in hospitality. Most shifts mean he is home around 11pm and in bed by midnight. He’s getting increasingly fed up with the neighbour kids’ morning routine.

During term time, the outside playing is just at the weekend. But now it’s a daily occurrence due to the holidays, I really feel for my son, because being woken up 90 mins before he needs to be up for his next shift is pretty miserable.

WIBU to message or pop round to my neighbours and see if they can encourage their kids to be quieter (a big ask) or to not let them out before 9:00.

I’ve become that grumpy neighbour 😩

I appreciate it's annoying but you can't reasonably ask them not to use their garden during summer at 8am. Can your son use some earplugs? 8am isn't early.

I think earplugs. I didn't let my kids play at 8am when young but you can't really ask the neighbour to not allow it.

8am isn't early. Your son is getting his 8 hours which should be plenty.

8am isn't early and your son, if he's in bed by midnight, is getting a decent amount of sleep. YABU.

He could try earplugs.
8am is early when you’ve been on your feet from 11am until gone 10:30 in a busy restaurant kitchen.

8am? You are being completely unreasonable. Buy ear plugs.

The council will have no issue with normal human noise at 8am.

Having worked night shifts for 12 years I'm afraid its ear plugs & black out blinds or stop moaning.

It really isn’t , 8am isn’t early at all. YABU.

I disagree with the majority, 8am is early, especially for loud noise. Some people are just inconsiderate of their neighbours.

Oh come on! I worked those shifts myself for a long time. I didn't expect the world to stop for me. I used ear plugs if I couldn't just sleep through it. I used to live near a pub where the glass bins were emptied about 7am. Human life.

If you are really concerned, you could move to a more rural area?

@bigageap yeah. I think it’s the way forward.

I do get it, I've done hospitality shifts before I had kids, but it's just one of those things. If you work lates or nights you will often have your sleep disturbed by the 9-5ers.

Kids being quiet outside before ten am may be a stretch I'm afraid.

It's 10:36am here and my five year old still hasn't gone out to play just yet, as we are not morning people! But I know several of the kids in his class wake up every single day at 5am. I think if their parents let them play in their own back gardens from 8:30/9am sort of time that's completely reasonable. 🤷

Can his room be sound proofed at all? Can he wear those little ear plugs for bed?

The layout of your gardens and them having no sound buffering and being on top of each other definitely won't help either!

a white noise machine could really help.

YABU. 8 hours sleep is literally a dream for many. Earplugs and a grip FTW.
🙄

Could your son swap bedrooms with someone else in the house so his room doesn't overlook the gardens? Might dull the noise a bit for him. I used to work in hospitality so i understand the difficulty with shifts, but 8am really isnt early enough to complain about kids in gardens in the summer holidays.

I thought you were going to say 6am or something 🫣

when my son was that age I had already kept him indoors and quiet for 2hrs by 8am - I do think black out blinds, ear plugs and possibly a white noise machine are the way to go.

🤣 it’s so funny that I’m unreasonable. But screaming outside at 8am isn’t.

What if your neighbours were to ask your son to adjust his shifts? His late shift pattern is not your neighbour's problem. 8am is a reasonable time I thought you were going to say 6am or something.

On here you will always be told you’re unreasonable and you should live on an island if you don’t want noise. It’s baffling.

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable at all. I would not have let mine out playing at that time. And they’ll be able to see your son’s curtains still drawn. People are so entitled now. It’s depressing

8am is early if they run around screaming!!!

I think 9am would be better. You could have a nice word with them, asking if they would mind. But in reality, 8am is fine. Most people live in the 9-5 work life. My husband works rotating shifts, good quality ear plugs are the answer.

Cross posted with you.

I'm on your side OP. Fully aware that I'm a grumpy old woman and I should live in a field, but I don't, so grumpy I shall remain.

I've been on leave this week and I've been woken at 7/8am every day by vans loading, power tools, lawnmowers and kids screaming. Can't do anything about it but of course it's annoying!

You can try explaining your situation, but I doubt you'll get anywhere. I remember when I was a kid, the next door neighbour playing in a band in a nightclub and was home much later than 11.00 pm. He used to shout at us out of his window to go and play elsewhere as he was trying to sleep. We'd no concept of the noise we might have been making, but this was in the day when we "played outside" and could relocate ourselves to the fields next to the estate where we lived, and we did. But we still thought he was a bit strange for telling us to be quiet.

I'm not a morning person, at all. And I go to bed later than your son does. I don't have kids.

I would still not feel entitled to complain about kids playing outside at 8am. It's really not that early. I thought you were going to say they were outside at 6am or something. But they're not, they're getting up and going outside to play after their breakfast for a couple of hours, which sounds pretty fair to me.

Yes, the noise would probably annoy me a bit. But that would be absolutely my problem it would not be reasonable of me to complain about it. Same applies to you and your son.