What age should children stop screaming all the time - WFH

[Cgko]

WFH 6-7 times a fortnight. Never had a hybrid job before.

Yesterday afternoon after school there were 3 girls wearing academy uniform - year 7 onwards running around and screaming.

Plus a couple of families who have around 6 kids between them spend all the school holidays if it’s dry riding bikes outside my home screaming. I say the oldest child in that group is 9.

How do ask the children not to scream all the time?

I wear a headset for telephone calls and Teams. I don’t want to wear it all the time.

Travelling to the office is 18 miles away each way and on days I don’t have an allocated parking space. Let’s just say there are 100 more staff on the books, than parking bays. Obviously about half the staff walk, use PT or cycle and probably about at most 70% of staff are working in the office. it’s £7.50 to park. Travelling on public transport is £12 each day and need to leave home an hour earlier and get home an hour later compared to driving.

You live in a residential area, it's main use is for residential use, not business use. If you want quiet like you'd have in an office go to your office. If you want the convenience in working in your home in a residential area there will be normal residential noise which will include children playing outside. Those are your choices

My neighbours kids are in high school, still screaming their heads off. I’m certain mine, and indeed myself, had been scream free for a number of years by their age. But nobody seems to be telling them to shut it, so I expect they will still be screaming at work.

Can you move your office to the other side of the house? Other than that I'm not sure what else you can do, they're entitled to enjoy the space in the same way you are entitled to wfh.

I agree.

I WFH for one job and the toddler in the paddling pool last summer was annoying.
But it's my choice to WFH, and the toddler was being a toddler in their own back garden.

It's a mystery to me why any children over the age of 3 (I'm being generous here) need to scream, if there is no neurodevelopmental disorder. I used to work in an office that overlooked a primary school playground. Every single break there would be some young kid (probably more than one) screaming for the sake of it. It's physically painful. My parents would have had a few choice words for us if we had even attempted to scream for no reason. Nowadays we live near a girls' school and there is a lot of shrieking at the end of the school day. Really tiresome. You have my sympathy, OP.

It's annoying but there's nothing you can do.

You're working in a residential area.

They're not living in a commercial area.

😂

Yeah I agree with this completely.

Kids play, they make noise and as long as they aren’t doing it at 11pm I don’t see the issue really. If you want an office environment then you go to the office, whatever that costs you.

....normal residential noise which will include children playing outside.

Screaming is not normal residential noise nor an essential part of children playing outside.

The fact op is wfh is irrelevant really. The screaming would be equally objectionable if she was retired or a sahm.

I just wear headphones at the first hint of noise.

Screaming is not normal residential noise nor an essential part of children playing outside.

But it is normal residential noise.

As the 100s of MN threads through the Summer will attest.

It's been a normal residential noise since time began, although it doesn't make it less annoying.

They stop when someone tells them too.
Have you (politely) asked them not to scream?
I've done it a few times in places like the park to children but saying it in a silly/friendly way.
For example "Are you guys being eaten by wolves? No? Then don't scream so loud please".
I used to frequently get a "Sorry" and they'd quiet down.

I love quite near a school and I can hear them at break and lunch. They’re loud even at secondary age although there is less actual scream ing

When you say screaming do you mean squealing or like screaming each other's names

Kids are always screaming where I live. My kids never screamed. I would ask them why they needed to scream when they are 1 metre apart. It’s another social skill that kids are not developing. They will all turn into annoying noisy neighbours.

I get that it's annoying, but if you want the quiet atmosphere of an office environment you need to go into the office. You can't expect your neighbours to treat your residential neighbourhood like a workplace because you WFH.

I live opposite a primary school.
The children are naturally noisy but when they get too screamy (usually the after-school club to be honest) they are told to "be quiet".
In fact just the other day I heard the after school staff saying "if you lot can't just play without screaming then you'll all have to come back indoors".
Children just need to be TOLD.

It's a tricky one OP. I can't for the life of me understand the need for screaming. I work with little kids and they love letting loose outside running and shouting, but if it's that high pitched screaming then we ask them to stop and they always do. It's not something completely impulsive that they can't control.

All that said you are choosing to WFH and I'd have much more sympathy for a shift worker or sahm trying to get a toddler to nap. I wonder if you could gently ask them to not scream so loud when near your house but you need to be very careful how you phrase it. I wouldn't make a fuss telling the parents just gently ask the kids to keep it down a bit. You can always tell them you are ill or working shifts, if they can change their behaviour for a shift worker then they can change for you too. I wouldn't get my hopes up though

I'm quite strict with mine as I'm a big believer that screams are for emergencies.

Some people don't care though. My DPs used to live near a nursery and I remember visiting and running towards the upper window in a panic at hearing them all screaming. I genuinely thought something bad was happening and was shocked when DM told me they always all scream the entire playtime. A staff member was playing monsters and encouraging it!

'You are hurting my ears' is a gentle way of saying it if they are quite young.

I told my 10yo to stop screaming today.
Offensive screechy yelps for no reason.

I don't know how the parents stand it on a sensory level, let alone how they don't die of embarrassment at the noise their offspring is making.

Laugher - beautiful.
The babble of kids in a playground - wholesome.
Kids calling each others names - fine.
Squuueeeeaaaalll! Yeeeeepp! - hideous.

Squealing, shrieking.

To the PP about moving the desk etc to another part of my home. It already is. I live in a flat at the end of the block. The room backs onto the next street's parking lot for about 6 properties.

No child baring a toddler just found their voice should be screwing bar an emergency. It’s poor lax parenting if they are not calling their children in or telling them to stop.

Actually the area in the office that my team work in the office backs onto council flats. Get the screaming sometimes.

With decent parents? By about 3. Without? That shit can last well into teenage years 🤦‍♀️