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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think that if young children are having full on tantrums outside, they should be taken indoors?

152 replies

toonoisie · 08/04/2026 18:29

My next door neighbours have a couple of toddlers who play a lot in their garden. I’m not expecting silence and normal playing, laughing, even the odd cry doesn’t bother me.

But what’s starting to really grate is that when the tantrums kick off, they just leave them outside. These aren’t quick little moments either, it’s full screaming, crying, shouting, going on and on. Sometimes the parents are out there but just let it carry on, other times they actually go back inside and leave the kids out there still in the middle of it.

Even when they’re just “playing” it’s very loud, lots of screaming rather than normal chatter, but I’ve tried to ignore that because kids are kids. It’s the tantrums being left to play out in the garden that I’m struggling with.

It feels a bit unfair that everyone else has to listen to prolonged screaming when it could just be taken inside and dealt with there. I wouldn’t mind nearly as much if they at least brought them in once it escalates.

I also don’t feel like I can just have a quiet word with them as we’ve had issues over parking in the past, so it’s not exactly a comfortable or friendly situation.

OP posts:
LiviaDrusillaAugusta · 09/04/2026 18:49

cubistqueen · 09/04/2026 18:44

Nah. There are some things that don’t need to be a learning curve. Leaving your kid to scream in the garden without dealing with it is one of them. I knew that as a child, as a childfree adult, as the parent of two toddlers and still knkw it now they are adult. They won’t be toddlers forever but will end up friendless and hated if their behaviour is not dealt with by their actual parents now.

Well said, it’s not the responsibility of others to sit by and smile indulgently while you are trying to work out the whole parenting thing.

cubistqueen · 09/04/2026 19:13

LiviaDrusillaAugusta · 09/04/2026 18:49

Well said, it’s not the responsibility of others to sit by and smile indulgently while you are trying to work out the whole parenting thing.

oh we’ll get our revenge when the unruly toddler turns into a feral teenager and the parents wonder why they are being treated like crap.

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