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

So priority goes to people doing ordinary residential area things, like kids playing in the garden.

What about people doing ordinary residential things like just wanting to enjoy their homes and gardens in peace? Or does priority always go to screaming children?

And so tired of the people who always pop up on these threads pretending not to know what screaming is. It's not ordinary sounds of children playing. It's this (be warned if you're wearing headphones, this is actual screaming.)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QYlzoplheEU&pp=ygUJc2NyZWFtaW5n

Kids playing in the garden is fine. Kids screaming is not. That is not an ordinary residential thing.

It isn't OP's fault, either, and there is a limit to how much noise nuisance is tolerable/reasonable in residential areas.

I feel for you but I worry any complaints to the parents or the council will be a waste of time and on here you'll get the standard move to the moon, change the way you work blah blah blah. You have my sympathies.

Wait until the paddling pools, hosepipes and water pistols come out!

The kids are allowed to enjoy their homes. If you can't work with the noise, you need to go somewhere else, like the office

The kids are allowed to enjoy their homes. If you can't work with the noise, you need to go somewhere else, like the office

What about other people who live there who are not working? Are they allowed to enjoy their homes, or must they go somewhere else?

I never let my kids scream repeatedly like this. I don’t like the sound of it, so I assume nobody else did either.

You're going to have to suck it up. The kids are playing where they are supposed to play. You're not really working where you're supposed to work. I'm sorry your workplace is too small to have you working from there - but that is not the neighbours problem. I'd advise purchasing a nice air conditioner fan and shutting the windows.

Your comment says an awful lot about you!

Of course it’s irritating when an OP has to keep repeating herself because people can’t be bothered to at least read the OP’s comments.

And, as lots of crap parents have said here, yes, kids are ‘allowed’ to scream in their gardens. Doesn’t mean they should though. I managed to be considerate to neighbours and curtail screaming from my kids with some firm reminders . It’s not that hard. And kids can still have fun without screeching. Who knew?!

If you weren't before - you're definitely coming off as a complainer type now...

Napalm Death

You have been given options to cope, but you choose to ignore them all, Do you just want someone to agree that the kids should be kept indoors? They’re kids. Young kids scream. You are ostensibly an adult, so need to sort yourself out. And yes, I did read the full post, but the fact that these families did not live near you last year is irrelevant, as is your previous problem with MH. Buy the earphones/mic.

Tbh I feel quite sorry for some of the parents that post on MN. It must be awful not to be able to control one's own children.

(With the obvious exception of SEN, before any SEN parents come for me, as I do understand that's different.)

There’s a difference between playing and screaming 🙄

True. And they will end up with the kind of children that nobody likes and starts to avoid as they get older. Not the kids’ fault of course.

You're going to have to suck it up.

And once again, what about people who are not wfh but are simply at home in their own homes? Are they required to 'suck it up' too?

Absolutely, but when people say kids are screaming, they often mean playing loudly. It's pretty rare to hear a kid literally just screaming.

I think some of us are responding assuming the screaming is spirited but regular children playing noise and others are being much more literal. Unless we gears what the op can hear, we really can't know for sure which it is.

I would record the kids screaming and play it full blast to them at 5 am

Yep, apparently anyone who wants to read a book in the garden, quietly enjoy a hobby, listen to the radio, watch the birds on the feeder...

They too must bow down to the superior needs of children who must be permitted to scream as loud as they possibly can for hours on end.

It is apparently beyond any reasonable expectation, to consider the needs of others and ask children to refrain from screaming and yelling whilst playing - for they are children, and their desires trump all.

You don't have to be working from home to find this awful, though I accept it would be additionally stressful.

Only selfish people with zero self awareness allow their children screech endlessly outside.
It is awful to hear. Laughing is fine, but screeching definitely not.

Children can play and have great fun without it.
They can be told to think of their neighbours trying to also enjoy their gardens.

Finally, someone who understands this.

This.

this has actually been banned in some countries as it can cause hearing problems and deafness in children. Very cruel

No probs, some of the replies she's received were definitely in need of deletion!

Some jobs are fully remote.

I actually moved because I got fed up with child noise, pestering to retrieve footballs etc.