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.

Sorry 15yo🤦‍♀️ and the girl he hangs around with is 17yo.

My DC went to an all boys secondary. No screaming there. The occasional gruff shout during a rugby or football match but when they’re lads any noise is so low you can hardly hear it.
Primary school near me quite a bit of shouting and the odd scream. Next door to me 3 little boys. I hardly hear them in the summer unless they’re jumping on their trampoline shouting “Hello” as I mow the lawn . 😂

I don't think screaming is normal, but it sounds more like they are playing as you also mention shrieking. So basically noisy kids.
I too would find it frustrating but if you live in an area where a lot of families live then I think it is to be expected.
You don't want to work in the office because of parking, but could you find somewhere else to work - library, cafe for example.

The previous family next door to us had children who screamed, and it was all day during the school holidays. The current family have children the same age who play in the garden and have fun without screaming - just the normal sound of children playing. It's so much more pleasant to sit in the garden now.

They're not. She's clarified that they're shrieking and squealing which is very different. Unfortunately the original choice of words has stuck.

There's some bloke down the road that keeps screaming, I presume he's gaming or watching sportsball.

I'd like him to stop.

I guess he's what happens if no-one tells kids to pipe down 😂

Laughter, chatting, crying if they fall over fine. Screaming and roaring with raised voices is awful.

WFH makes you very aware of how noisy life is! Noisy people, noisy dogs, construction work. People being noisy and older kids screaming is inconsiderate and shouldn't really be happening, but that's life.

The kids round our way make loads of normal, loud noises when they're playing. They shout each others' names, they roar, they laugh, they kick footballs, etc. it's very loud but it's a nice sound because it's kids enjoying themselves. It's doesn't worry you or set your teeth on edge.

One day the blood-curdling screaming started. First of all my instinct told me something was wrong with one of them. Then they all kicked off. I looked out of the window and saw a kid I didn't recognise. Probably a cousin visiting or something. Fortunately when that child left normal pleasant chaos and noise resumed.

Screaming is not normal. Shouting is. We used to gently discourage screaming so that it had a use, i.e. for danger, pain or emergency. Those who have allowed screaming and then become deaf to it tell us it's normal, but it's not.

It’s a shame that people lack comprehension.

OP is not complaining that they can hear children play. They are complaining that they are SCREAMING, which, unless additional needs or they are in genuine danger, should not be happening. I was taught that you must not scream unless it’s an emergency.

Guess we can see who lets their children scream in RL.

I feel for you, OP!

The ordinary, often loud noise of children playing is quite another matter from that very high pitched screaming - personally I never tolerated it from dds beyond the toddler stage.
We used to have neighbours with 4 kids who seemed to be permanently on the trampoline - one of them screaming almost non stop. Thank goodness they eventually moved on.

It’s no exaggeration to say I often felt positively murderous.

But if anyone dares to object nowadays, they’re labelled an evil child hater. All part of the general lack of consideration/anti social behaviour that too often seems to have become the norm.

It BLOWS MY MIND the amount of tolerance other parents seem to have for screaming children.

I love children and young people - I adore the sounds of joyous children playing outdoors in the summertime. But screaming I find unbelievably offensive to my ears. I have always swiftly told my own kids to pack it in if it is just mindless high pitched noise. It totally does my head in and I cannot for the life of me understand why it’s acceptable to some supervisory adults…

It’s hugely annoying. However, ultimately you can’t control the behaviour of others so you need to consider what you can do about the situation. Get some noise cancelling headphones, find a background noise that works for you (mines lo-fi hip hop!) some acoustic panels or soft furnishings, and do your best to ignore.

I’ve worked from home at least part of the week for 15 years. Absolutely no one on a Teams meeting cares if your neighbours are playing in the road. They won’t be able to hear them unless you have some fancy audio set up that picks up every sound. Children are in school nearly every day. Just plan to go into the office during school holidays (it will be nice and quiet there!). My office is 100 miles from home and I go in during school holidays to avoid my own children. 😂

I work in a secondary school. Lunchtime sounds like a zombie attack is going on outside. Lots of shrieking and screaming.

I also work from home. Totally fine with normal outdoor noise - lawnmowers, kids playing in back gardens, dogs barking on and off, bit of DIY etc BUT the local secondary school finishes at 2pm every Wednesday and there’s a group of about 10 girls probably aged 12-14 that walk past loudly screeching, playing loud music on their phones, play fighting/jostling each other into the road from a narrow path. It drives me mad - yes they are having fun with their friends but there is no need to be screeching so loud, they are old enough to know this is ridiculous immature behaviour. There are also 3 large parks with fields they could hang out in nearby.

I have never said anything to them as I’m aware that they’d probably do it even more or start to hang outside my house every day and I’d be known as that “crazy lady” or whatever but it is so annoying. In my opinion, there is no need to scream unless you are a baby/toddler, injured or being attacked.

Not council flats ! Maybe you should get another job.

’What age should children stop screaming all the time’

what age should adults stop exaggerating?! The kids are in school 9-3 so it’s not really all the time now is it. You can comfortably not wear your headset for those 6 hours.

id just be happy the kids are having fun and being outside not glued individually to their phones

Agreed. Children scream, shout etc while playing as part of play, including older children. A child's right to play is listed as one of the fundamental human rights applicable to children and protected by law.

So while yes it is annoying especially if you're noise sensitive, there is nothing you can do about it as they are fully entitled to use their space for playing in this way. Noise cancelling headphones may help especially if you can get ones with a mic attached instead of a cheap headset.

I wfh and regularly hear my neighbours kids out playing. It's part of living in a residential area. You either move to somewhere rural or you go into the office if you need a quieter space/ rent a work station nearby. You're working in and around their homes, so you can't expect it to sound like an office space.

There is a huge difference between kids laughing and shouting and actual screaming.

There is no need for the screaming

I wfh and just would just wear my headset as this is normal residential noise (it will be worse in the summer holidays) but I like hearing kids/teens outside.

The bottom line is you choose to WFH up to seven out of ten days per fortnight . That is a lot.

If you can’t affect the noise levels where you live then you should go into the office to work. It’s really that simple. You owe it to your employer.

YABVU

Children out playing should not have to edit their noises so you can work without your headphones on. It’s their residence area too. Either wear your headphones or go into the office.

It’s not normal noise that the OP is talking about - it’s children SCREAMING! Those that think this is normal noise clearly are the parents of the screamers!

(Disclaimer re ND children who can’t help it obvs)

I’m constantly trying to drill into my children that they shouldn’t be screaming unless they’re in danger or in pain. They haven’t quite got there yet but they’re only 2, 4 and 6.