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 😩

This thread is giving major competitive sleep deprivation. 🙄

I'm with your teens on that. I used to like getting up at 11. Mine always had a good lie in at weekends, 6am was the middle of the night even when little. Now I can't stay asleep too late and it is very annoying.

How? People waking up earlier typically go to bed earlier. I typically sleep 10 to 6.

How? People waking up earlier typically go to bed earlier. I typically sleep 10 to 6.

It's the comments like 'that's a lie-in for me/most people' and the 'most people have been up HOURS by then!' that I'm referring to. There's a whiff of judgement about them to my mind, like anyone who hasn't been up for 'hours' by 8 must be either lazy or morally deficient.

That's not sleep deprivation. It's also not competitive to tell the truth about when you, or most people you know get up. Most people do need to get up long before 8 to get children to childcare or school and themselves to work. I don't see where you are seeing any competition about it.

They do indeed but not at weekends or on days off.

Most people I know keep a similar routine, perhaps with an hour sleep in but young children are often up at the same time every day.

I'm just not seeing any sign of 'competition' here.

I work shifts in a hospital and am plagued by the noise of children playing in the summer (including my own!!!) during the day when I need to sleep. A fan, white noise and/or ear plugs are all it takes. I do also shut the windows during the really warm weather. Kids need to be allowed to play.

Well, if you don't see it, you don't see it. Not a lot I can do about that.

Can you share an example?

It's not judgement, it's just reality. Because of office, school and retail hours most people have been up for hours (or at least an hour) by 8am. If you sleep later than that, good for you, but you are an outlier. Stop being so obtuse.

Can you share an example?

I already did.

Mine wasn't :-). He liked a good lie in, just like his mum.

A quote that actually shows judgement or competitiveness.

It's not judgement, it's just reality. Because of office, school and retail hours most people have been up for hours (or at least an hour) by 8am. If you sleep later than that, good for you, but you are an outlier. Stop being so obtuse.

Obtuse? No, but I stand by my view that some people on here are being judgy/trying to virtue signal about their own waking hours. I've seen enough disparaging remarks about non-early wakers elsewhere on this forum over the years, worded in similar ways to how posts on here are worded, to have a healthy suspicion that at least some of the 'half the morning's gone by 8' brigade do consider themselves superior by 'virtue' of how early they get up. Granted I can't prove it, but I definitely suspect it.

A quote that actually shows judgement or competitiveness.

Same answer as before.

You seem to be the only one reading those comments so perhaps some projection is happening.

I might be right, I might be wrong, but let's not pretend subtext in communication isn't a thing.

I agree. The comment about others being 'competitive' often comes up and I do think it's usually imagined or projection. On heating threads especially, when it's much more likely to that people need to limit the cost of their heating or just feel cold at a lower temperature than others than any 'competition'.

At 19 I was going into work after a night clubbing - he should have loads of energy.

I'm not changing a normal routine for teenagers who like to sleep in till 11am.

I wake up at 6.45am because that's when my DH's alarm goes off for work and his is the earlier requirement. I may or not have woken naturally by then.

Even if you're a SAHM, things like school would force you up, even if you have kids who would sleep in for you. School holidays maybe an exception.

In the weekend I sometimes sleep in till 8 (my kids aren't young enough to force me up now), occasionally. I really wish my body clock would allow me to sleep in till 8 every weekend when it's an option. It usually likes to wake me up between 6 and 7 and I'm wide awake then, which is annoying.

I don't see how that's judging anyone or being superior about waking hours given it's all outside my control, so nothing to do with personal qualities.

No reason why you should, you can get on with what you need to do and leave them to sleep. That's what most parents do as far as I know.

That's what I did with mine, and they seemed to have the capacity to sleep through anything. Any neighbourhood teens can do the same with people's young kids following normal young kid routines.