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 😩

8am is fine. The council are out with very noisy grass cutting equipment opposite my house before 8am.

I'm glad you had a quieter morning and your child got to sleep in.
If they make noise at 8am again, you could consider putting a noise complaint into your local council, they ultimately are the ones who can decide what is reasonable and unreasonable, not a bunch of mumsnetters.

The council wouldn’t do anything. I get if a child is screaming all day but seriously? Between 7 and 11 they are entitled to have fun and play. The OO’s son will have a rude awakening to the real world soon enough and he will realise the world doesn’t revolve around him

Lol at ‘glad your child got to sleep in’.

You mean the adult man that lives with op?

And there is absolutely zero chance of any council upholding a noise complaint about 1 child playing in their garden at a time completely acceptable in legal terms of noise creation.

I just can’t believe that she hand the cheek to ask them to quieten down. The council would laugh their heads off with that complaint

I really can't see the council bothering with, "The kids next door are noisily playing at 8am, during school holidays."

Totally agree

This actually makes me a little bit sad! How lovely that the kids are being encouraged to spend time outside and play, and that that’s what the children want to do during the summer instead of sitting inside looking at a screen. They are so lucky to have a usable garden to play in. You cannot ask your neighbours to lock their children inside until a time of day that suits your son. If it’s not working for him.. then he needs to make the change. Change rooms, get ear plugs, move elsewhere, get a new job perhaps.

Totally agree. She didn’t even try ear plugs before complaining which says a lot

I seem to be in the minority but I do think 8am is too early.
Our DC can use the garden from 10am Mon-Sat and from 11am Sundays.
However I know the lady next door works from home and the man opposite works late shifts during the week and I'm lucky to be able to be home during the holidays to keep DC entertained indoors outside those times.

You don’t let them out until 11 on Sundays? Why ever not?! What if it’s a hot day and they need to be out of the sun in the hottest part of the day?

10am during the week and 11am Sundays? Your poor kids. That's not necessary or reasonable IMO.

8am is too early.

It's 9am on weekdays and Saturdays, 10am on Sundays.

Them's the roolz

You don’t let them out until 11 on Sundays? Why ever not?! What if it’s a hot day and they need to be out of the sun in the hottest part of the day?

^

Park?? Bike ride?? Beach?? Forest?? Anything other than the garden?!

8am is not too early.
Before 7am is too early.

I think whoever believes 8am to be too early doesn’t have a job ??🤷🏼‍♀️

Car ownership has gradually eaten away children's freedom to play in the streets and roam across cities; now, increasingly, even the time they are allowed to be out in private gardens must be curtailed because of adults who want their homes to be workplaces. I work from home; it's my responsibility to use things like noise cancelling curtains and background music to make things work. It's not kids' responsibility to stay indoors for my convenience.

Most adults I know are serving and cleaning up breakfast and dealing with chores on weekend mornings; it isn't always possible for them to be roaming around ferrying their kids to human-free locations.

As for the OP: UK newbuild housing estates are notorious for being small and cramped, with little space or privacy between plots. If you move there, you will need to plan ahead and accept that there needs to be some give and take over this kind of stuff. It's reasonable to expect other people to keep quiet at times when noise regulations are enforced, but 8am is not that time. Kids play outside, and they are not always quiet. That is simply reality.

@annamilo I have kids and I was already ASKED (the OP didnt mention complaininig, she mentionned ASKING) for my son to be more quiet DURING THE DAY, because the neighboors baby was napping. I asked my son and his friend to be more quiet. When people ask nicely, many people make efforts. Nothing wrong with asking. And if the neighboors dont control their kids, I would do what some posters suggested, make some noise in the evening when the kids sleep to give them the taste of their own medicine.

Is that how people speak in real life?

Op, you were better off skipping the time he goes to bed, because some people think everyone falls asleep the moment they are in bed. He comes home at 11pm and go to bed midnight and starts his job at 11am, that's a tough routine with no time to even unwind. But posters think he is privileged.

Can you swap the rooms?

Unfortunately I think 8 am is not early. But then I wake naturally at 5 am on most days! And I wouldn’t hesitate to let my kids out to play at 8 am if they wanted to. Though I’d tell them to avoid shouting as some people are still sleeping. (But tbh most working people are up before 8 am.)

Why on earth should I?!

I like a relaxed Sunday morning. If my kids are outside in the garden making a reasonable amount of noise on a Sunday morning, what’s the issue? I don’t want to have to take them off my property if we want to be outside before 11am.

I’m all for keeping the peace with neighbours but will I fuck not use my own property at a reasonable time of the day. Madness to suggest anything different.

i have done this shift many times and as a parent, and then get up at 6:30/7 with the kids, get the boy some earplugs. The kids are having fun, what’s he going to if he ever has his own, tell them to be quiet?

Or not everyone works a 9-5 if you can consider that possiblity?

We generally don't let ours in the garden until closer to 9 because it seems a bit more reasonable in the holidays to give people a bit of a break. I live in an area where playing in the street is common from 8am until 10pm. The sound of kids screaming and booting balls at walls/fences/cars on and off for 14 hours for 6 weeks is grating.

Sorry but your idiot neighbour asking neighbouring kids to be quiet so their baby can nap during the day is even more nuts than the op. Babies can and do sleep in any circumstances if they are exposed to them from the get go. They have to. None of my younger kids would have slept at all if they insisted on silence for their naps. These type of parents shouldn’t be pandered to (much like op with her little boy…)