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

That's different, I agree. But not the same thing as the mindless screaming OP is talking about.

That's disingenuous. People, in the main, don't complain about kids 'playing outside', they complain about anti-social levels of screaming. So much twisting of OP's words on this thread.

And I strongly doubt that OP's employers are so unprofessional that they'd laugh at OP for wanting to be able to concentrate while working. Says a lot about you that that's your assumption, though.

Mature.

Are people being deliberately obtuse?
Normal playing = fine
2 hours of screaming = not fine
No child NEEDS to scream constantly and some parents need to actually parent.
Would you be so dismissive if the complaint came from someone trying to sleep due to shift work, or someone who is ill?

We really need some kind of public education campaign about this in this country. I’m amazed by how many homes I see with their windows flung wide open in the hottest part of the day. If it’s 31 degrees outside what do you think will happen when you open your windows to let all that warm air into your home?

I bet they would, you know. Because them and their right to not bother parenting properly, y'know. 🙄

In my experience there's usually a lot of deliberate obtuseness on threads of this topic. People who can't or won't impose any boundaries around how their kids play aren't keen to own up to it, so they'd rather pretend not to know what people mean about some levels of screaming being anti-social. But hey, those of us who think there are limits to what is tolerable are probably just miserable child-haters who want kids indoors on devices instead, eh?

If the windows are closed the house is intolerably stuffy. I close the curtains on the side of the house where the sun is and change them as the sun moves around, but the windows stay open.

There’s a young girl who lives near me who screams her head off. She walks home from school with her mum and literally stops in the middle of the pavement and screams. She screams when she gets in the car, she screams when she gets out of the car. She screams when she’s on her bike. She is just one non-stop scream! Her mum does absolutely nothing. Just stands beside her looking sheepish. She never tells her to stop. It’s the most bizarre behaviour. One of these days I will go and tell little Miss Scream to stop! Because her mum is clearly not going to tell her. So I fully sympathise OP. I work from home and know it’s an absolute privilege. I hear kids playing, lawns being mowed, building work, road works, loud motorbikes. But nothing is worse than screaming. I really don’t know why children aren’t told to stop!

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?

Is this a joke?

Why should the parents organise their day to suit a neighbour who - for her own convenience - works from home?

The neighbours and their children have the right to enjoy their home and the children have the right to be children and scream if that's how they need to let off steam after school. If they want to do that in their own garden during daylight hours, they should be allowed to do so.

OP is the person who needs to take herself elsewhere during busy periods, not her neighbours. She should explain to her employer why she needs to work from work and let them deal with the problem.

This is yours and your employer's problem to deal with. If you can't do your job properly at home you and your employer need to find a solution.

Because she's the one with the problem.

The neighbours' children are doing what children do on their own property and their is nothing wrong with that.

The sound of children playing is background noise that should be easy enough to block out. I find people constantly talking in the officer to be a lot more distracting than, kids playing, dogs barking etc at home.

You consider incessant screaming to be 'doing what children do'?? Were you allowed to spend all day screaming in the garden when you were a child?

I appreciate school holidays are different, but at the moment, this is only an issue when:

• it's a WFH day (hybrid role so not every day)
• between the hours of 3-5pm.

2 hours 2 or 3 times a week when you put up with noise,.use headphones or keep windows shut.

Or move to a detached house with no neighbours.

It’s poor parenting.
Anyone who comments kids should be allowed to be kids in their own backyards, of course they can. But this is about screaming kids! It’s not ok!

Another “just move” 🤔🤔🤔 how about those with the nuisance kids move?

not everyone is in a position to move or can afford to move to a detached house. 🙄🙄

How about as a community we help each other out?!

Oh but dogs are doing what dogs do… bark…
same excuse others on this thread are having about kids… doing what they do… making a noise!!
constant screaming and barking dogs are not ok and goes back to parents and owners not taking responsibility

WELL THEN SHE NEEDS SOME BETTER HEADPHONES. OR TO TALK TO THE PARENTS.
Ahem, and chill…..

I’m quite old now. I don’t remember any screaming in my childhood. Is it partly because our whole environment is noisier now?

OP should move house rather than parents should actually, heaven forbid, parent? Just wow. Has this thread hit a nerve with you for some reason?

Whilst I can offer no advice on screaming kids, may I suggest you open your windows early in the morning and get an exchange of air, then close them when things heat up. To help stay cool, have your considered a small aircon unit to help? You can run them for short periods of time and then turn off when you are on calls. With the amount of tech you have running, I imagine the room would be quite hot anyway, so having a way to keep cool would help. Also, consider some reflective window film to help keep your room cool.

I don't think my parents would have allowed me to scream.

However, I do remember my son's 5th birthday party which was a whole class one, and OMG the girls. My ears were ringing afterwards. So I think it's been going on for at least 15 years.

Also even the teens like to scream. I've officiated at athletics competitions and when the gun goes off the girls scream. They know it's coming and they are just being performative. I was also swimming once when the lights went out. The back-up lights were on in seconds. Of course the (teen) girls screamed and carried on screaming. When told to stop, they said it was scary. What - at least a minute after the lights had come back on?

Looking at some of the attitudes towards screaming children on this thread, it's easy to see why society is seeing more and more adults who still haven't grown out of screaming when excited. Just saying.

This is the reason that businesses weren’t built in residential areas.