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

I think @fld is getting an extra hard time by mentioning working from home

the thread title should have just been AIBU to struggle with neighbours' children screaming

no child should be screaming for hours unless my neighbours daughters SCREAM! Like they’re being chased by a bear into the arms of Harry Styles

Cue someone asking if the kids are "ND"....

Can you explain the situation to your boss? Maybe they can then make sure you have a desk in the office?

We have a neighbour with an autistic daughter who will be on her swing for hours singing loudly and shouting slogans and sayings over and over again. It’s been tough in the heatwaves but what can you do. I’m certainly not going to say anything. Just have to suck it up

My neighbours seem to scream pretty constantly from after school until 10pm
when I worked from home, customers would comment on it

For a start don’t open your windows. Your house will stay cooler if the windows are shut.

See, I’m glad I read this and it’s not just me. We live in Glasgow in a tenement, not a posh a posh one, so it can be a bit hectic. We’ve lived there 20+ years, and in all that time me and my misses have always commented on the kids screaming. And when I say screaming I mean full on, being murdered screaming, they also partake in synchronised and competitive screaming. There this one kid about 5-6 who every afternoon bawls his eyes out, just real deep down inconsolable crying like a 3 year old, which he’ll do several times each afternoon. All that being said, it doesn’t particularly bother us, per se, it just a bit strange, as our kid wasn’t like that, and I don’t remember doing that when I was a kid. I work from home, but my ‘office’ is in the front of the house, so the noise of the kids playing doesn’t affect me. As to is OP being unreasonable, I guess it has to be a yes, not an emphatic yes, I do feel their pain, but a yes nonetheless.

Air-conditioning unit in the room you work in

YANBU to find it annoying, constant screaming from kids is not necessary and a decent parent would be teaching them to keep it down. Though, if they're mainly doing it 3 - 5, the parents may be doing their best to minimize disturbance by sticking to office hours. But it's highly unlikely you can stop them.

Things to try - Tell your work you've been informed the neighbours are doing some building for a few days and ask if you can be accommodated in office., or as PP say, don't have your window open, cool the house down in the morning, and don't open the windows until the evening (this is normally the best way to keep a place cool, even without screamers). If you can, have a portable air conditioner with the outlet stuck out of a window facing the other side of your home from the open area the kids play in. Alternatively jury-rig a swamp cooler. Also, if possible, move your office to the other side of your home from the open area. Good, sound canceling head set. Deep breaths and a dart board with a photo of the kids on.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the children were also at work.

This. Also, other people's children don't have to accommodate the fact that you choose to WFH.

Again another poster that doesn’t read my facts.

WFH was ok last year. Then 6-8 months ago, two families with their kids - 6 between them moved in and their kids scream.

I do wish posters would read the facts before jumping onto threads with statements like “you chose to WFH”

Again if posters read my posts properly, I left my previous job as I was suffering from bad mental health and burnout. Was unemployed for 8 months as the job market is rubbish.

Also to the posters who suggest I move. I own my property. Do you realise how much it costs to move? Money I don’t have.

I will be going through this thread and report anyone who has not read my posts. You have no idea how giving ideas to people when you don’t read the facts is.

It doesn't matter when you chose to WFH, and while I am sorry about your mental health issues they have nothing to do with the children. Kids are kids and they are allowed to scream in their own back yards.

As for reporting anyone who "hasn't read your posts" - that says a lot more about you than it does anyone else, and yes, you sound just the sort who complains about anything which doesn't suit your agenda.

Report all you like, I couldn't care less as I don't intend wasting any more of my precious time on your silly thread.

Wound too tight much? Just get noise canceling headphones. You live and work in a residential area. Find a way to deal with it ir take your laptop to a library or coffee shop to work if you must. Your neighbors have no reason to accommodate your work from home situation.

Reasonable people will agree about high postcard screaming (doubt most parents tolerate that either, why would they?), however there absolutely are people who object to normal children noise and play.

That and the helping neighbours thread. People are so selfish and inconsiderate these days. These kids are going to grow up thinking the world revolves around them and be selfish arseholes themselves

There is no need for children to scream. If my children ever screamed they had to come inside, they soon learnt not to scream. It’s lazy parenting and it would drive me insane.
You have my sympathies.

Back then all the nasty noisy children were sent off to work at age 5. If you were a tennant farmer you could pretty much put your children to work at 3 getting them feeding animals/ letting animals out/ helping harvesting the potatoes.

Judging by their updates they would probably moan about the farm traffic and muck spreaders. Perhaps a deserted island would be better.

It isn’t the case that people are not reading your posts. They are telling you that all of your reasons given do not take away from the fact that you have no power to force these children to do anything.

You WFH by choice. Same as night shift workers chose that career. You don’t own the other houses on the street or control the age/ reproductive status of the neighbours. Nobody else is responsible for your MH or the circumstances that brought you to this house, or this job.

That means that your working environment evolves. It will never be guaranteed staying the same. If they move out the next neighbour could have a crying baby or a barking dog. Or endless house repairs. Or a person who blasts music all day.

The power that is within your gift is to speak politely to the parents and be prepared to be ignored. Cut out the sound with headphones, or move location. Or suck it up until they get bored

You can't reasonably expect work conditions in a domestic environment. If you don't like to wfh then look for an office-based job. It isn't really your neighbour's issue.

Are you really suggesting that children who live in their own homes, and play outside even loudly, should be stopped because YOU wfh?

Get ear plugs.

Close your windows and get an ac unit.

Tell your employer about your issue and once they stopped laughing at you ask them for a permanent desk.

Go outside and talk to the children and parents themselves and see what they say.

I’m afraid you really don’t know what you’re talking about. People complain about children on screens. They complaint about them playing outside. Give over.

Put noise cancelling headphones in

I’d go with the loud music at full blast . Unnecessary screaming on a daily basis would wreck your enjoyment of your home so I’d give them a taste of what ongoing noise really can do to you .

This thread really shows how people cannot live on top of each other in dense housing set ups . People could be respectful of others but aren’t . This is a new thing where parents don’t parent any longer .