AIBU to struggle with neighbours' children screaming while working from home?

[fld]

One of the few things I am not looking forward to the next few days are screaming kids.

Two families that moved late last year and earlier this year have 5-6 kids between them and all they do is scream! They run outside and scream. As the properties are in an odd shaped quadrangle, their screams bounce off the walls. Making the screaming even more intense. The kids’ ages, c3-9 years old.

My job is hybrid, so didn’t get this issue last summer as properties the kids live in - one didn’t have kids and the other had kids and behaved.

I had to close a window to keep the screaming down. There is no way I would close a window when it’s 31c.

I do wish parents would tell their kids that screaming is not acceptable. My work is two thirds on calls ti various customers, other staff in other departments and my team’s colleagues. I can hear the screaming from wearing the call headset.

Any tips will be appreciated

Work in your workplace.

Most of them will be at school during a week day.

It’s just part of working from home I’m afraid. You can’t expect quiet living among other people. It’s why I live in the middle of nowhere!

Define screaming?

Can you go into the office the next few days if you are hybrid? Less noise “free “ good air conditioning?

or really good headset that blocks noise?

It will only be a year or two before the screaming naturally stops.

I agree screaming not needed but it is a home first before an office so I would work somewhere else the next few days.

Don't have your windows open when it's 31 degrees. You open your windows when it's colder outside than inside, ie early morning, then close them for the rest of the day to stop hotter air coming in. Also have you tried working on the other side of your house away from the source of the screaming.

If you can't cope with noise from children in their own gardens then you need to go into the office. It's not for them to be quiet so you can work in peace

Noise cancelling headphones with a mike are your friend here. I got through a summer with a massive building project on the other side of my office wall so they should cope with a bit of screaming.

Get a powerful speaker and blast out Classic FM or similar. And when they ask you to turn it down, you say "when you turn the kids down".

You have my sympathy - I've got screamy kids behind and to one side of me. Why can't 6 year old girls play without screaming?

The only good thing is that it's school-time currently. God help me when the summer holidays start.

And yes, noise cancelling headphones or work on the opposite side of the house if it's possible.

There's noise and there's screaming. No child needs to scream. And actually parents could consider teaching their daughters not to cry wolf. One day they might be screaming for a reason and need people to pay attention and help them.

Get one of those ultrasonic cat scarers and turn it on every time they scream. And off when they’re quiet. Adults don’t hear a thing but the kids will. Hopefully you can use it for some secret Pavlovian conditioning.

Not enough desks to do this.

Screaming happens 3-5pm when I am still working

My desk is on the other side of area where the kids scream but as said in OP the noise bounces off the walls.

You'll be told on here that you're a child hating crone that should put up with it without complaining.
I doubt there's much you can do, but I sympathise so much.
Screaming constantly is unacceptable. No-one objects to normal play, but screeching, and shrieking should be stopped.

I'm in my 40s and can still hear them thanks.

I loathe my neighbours out back who have these in their front garden - I can't get to my garage without the ear splitting noise hitting me.

I WFH too. While I understand posters who say go to the office or that it’s an area for living first and foremost, screaming children wouldn’t be a delight for those just “living” in their homes.

Screaming is unpleasant to hear whether you’re working or not and it’s so annoying when parents don’t tell their kids to keep the noise down out of consideration for everyone.

I get it. I WFH full time and am dreading the summer holidays - several of the girls have hit the screaming age now and only one parent actively parents this. The rest are nowhere to be seen at any time of day and the kids run free.

Don't get me wrong, they are mostly nice kids and doing what we did in the 80s with no mobile phones in sight which is fab, but I also do not wish to be a default adult for the safety and wellbeing of other people's kids because they can't be bothered.

I have been known to stick my head out and ask them to stop as well - a notable one was a screaming competition.... But we have a good community here where the parents don't get butthurt about that.

I work in a school (not at a school, we're a separate business). Kids scream. It's kind of what they do - there's something innate about it. You've been given lots of options to manage this. Have you tried talking to the parents to see if they will manage this by taking the kids to a park or activity during any important work periods?

I wfh full time and I think YABU. People have a right to enjoy their home, including making noise. It isn’t their fault you wfh and have calls.

C’mon there really isn’t much you can do and you know that. They’re kids. They scream and shout. It’s fucking annoying. But if they’re aged 3-9, the vast majority will be out of the house from 8.30-3.30pm.

Maybe do the most important calls in the core part of the day if you can and shut the windows when the blighters get home.

Short of buying a detached house with few and far between neighbours there’s nothing you can do.

I have no idea which child belongs to which parent. I even said 5-6 kids as don’t know how many do it

Go to a coworking space

The children are in their homes doing what children do. Out in the fresh air, having fun, playing games and enjoying life.

It's not their fault that some in society are becoming intolerant and self entered.

No kids should be screaming. I’m in terraced housing with tiny gardens, and while we can hear neighbours chatting and children playing, they’re not loud and no-one screams. If the children are getting too loud, the parents take them inside.

LOL. If a neighbour asked me to take my children to the park after school on a lovely, hot summers day so she could get some important work done I think I would laugh in her face.

As if anyone would do this!

I expect that parent has been working all day, picked up the kids from school, chucked them in the garden to play in a paddling pool while she gets dinner on. Why the fucking hell should she go out because a woman over the street who she’s never met has got a teams call with her regional manager at 4.10pm???

Honestly if the problem is genuinely that bad OP, your home is just not suitable for WFH, so you need to make other plans, go in to the office, hire a working space, go to Costa whatever. You can not expect children not to scream in their own back gardens in the summer months.

Ask for a noise cancelling headset. I’ve had a wfh involving mainly phone work since 2020 and that does the job.