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

Buy decent headphones - I have good ones that clear background noise. Your work should be able to help,

None of that is relevant to the noise of children playing.
it’s not their fault that you don’t have an appropriate place to work. That is on you and your employer.

Entitlement of parents is, I fully believe, at never before seen levels. So, let the little shits scream. Invest in really good noise cancelling headphones. Then blast heavy metal/church music/soft rock/whatever is most objectionable ballads in their direction. LOUDLY.
I can think of literally zero reason why your preference to listen to say Brahms act 12 is less important than the need of those ill bred children to shriek. Get the head phones and the speakers and crack on!

I don't have kids myself, and as for the comment about MN mums not parenting their children, well that's probably because the mums are at work elsewhere and don't have to listen to their screaming darlings. 😊

As said upthread, OP has 3 monitors she uses. Can't really pack those into a backpack.

You dont have to hot desk. Get your employer to pay for a fixed desk

This is what I have done. Bought myself a little dab roberts radio on radio 6 music and boy, that thing is loud on full volume. When the screaming and the dogs barking doesn't stop, I put that on in the garden when I am out there to enjoy not listening to the endless noise of others. It works. They go in.

The job is working from home. End of?

Prior to my new neighbours moving in, id have said you were being unreasonable, HOWEVER, having now experienced a child screaming for absolutely no reason for hours whilst playing (& not being parented ) I feel your pain.....

People saying don't work from home are missing the point, there's no need for a child to be screaming constantly- its ridiculous.

Oh okay well guess screaming kids it is then

This is not the happy paddling pool screaming though. Last summer I had a group of young girls outside my house screaming in each other's faces to see who could scream the loudest. They did it most days for the whole of the six weeks holiday. They are not parented. They are not supervised, monitored, taken to the park or for days out. They come out at about 1pm and are out until about 10pm. There are also boys who play football outside our houses. The balls hit the doors and windows. One neighbour snapped, went out with a large knife and stabbed some of the footballs. Not appropriate, not acceptable and the children's parents reported him to the police but he only did what we all wanted to do. These children all have gardens but their parents put them out into the street and we suffer because of it.

Yes, inconsiderate parenting it is then!

Every time they scream run around and ask if they need you to call an ambulance or the police as somebody just be dying to make that much noise!!

And bloody good for you! Keep doing it, badly behaved children have been let down by their parents but that shouldn’t stop anyone else from working from their own home or enjoying their own garden in peace!

Or put a letter through their letterbox saying you will be calling social services from now on as you are concerned for child welfare

I know, it’s a ludicrous suggestion.

Not everyone has the choice to work in an office!

I doubt it. Every desk has 2 monitors, keyboard and a mouse on it, You plug in your laptop into the cables and that becomes your 3rd monitor. Most employers hot desk now.

Plus its the norm for more people on the books for an office than spaces for them to work at. Even when I worked in a call centre 20 years ago, it was the same. The department had 14 teams and only had room for 10 teams - the other 4 teams, it was their day off.

If it wasn't for my neighbour on my other side, who is an absolute darling, I would put it on all summer long. Instead I warn her to close her windows and she's a real sport about it, so much so she will often tell me when she's going out to put the music on! But she hates the screaming and dogs barking as much as I do.

While screaming kids are annoying, no-one should have to change their home life to suit someone who wants their environment to be work-friendly. People who work from home don't get to dictate that their neighbours provide them with a quiet working environment.

Absolutely not. Why should op have to travel because inconsiderate neighbours can’t control their offspring?

keeping your windows closed during the day is actually better when its hot. Open them at night to get cooler air in, then close them during the day. I work from home all the time and this helps enourmously.

100%Parents are one of the most entitled and self important bunch of people I’ve ever come across in society. It pisses me off. Guess what? The world doesn’t revolve around you and your kids!

Take work out of it.
Should any neighbour have to listen to children screaming for hours?

No, they shouldn’t! Children are perfectly capable of playing and being outside without screaming incessantly.