How to approach neighbour about 6am screaming…

[Larrythecatforpm]

My neighbour opposite has young children, I sympathise and understand kids that age are going to make noise, it’s just what they do.

However every single weekend for the past 6 months since then moved in (and I imagine most of the summer hols) the neighbour has been letting them play out in the front garden from 6am or getting them in the car and they just scream full pelt non stop.
It’s right opposite my bedroom window, they wake me up and I can’t get back to sleep.
I am absolutely sick of it. They are council tenants can I put in a noise complaint? I have mentioned it to the mother before and she didn’t seem to see the issue using the excuse they’re little.

This morning it was from 5.45am.

It won’t work.
I wear earplugs beacuse my OH is a habitual sleep mouth-breather. Despite the earplugs I was woken up as 6.20 this morning by a fox who spent half an hour somewhere nearby going ‘EEEUURGGGG!….EEERRUUUUGGGHHH!’.
Earplugs are only so good, they don’t block out screeching.
🦊

Who knows - perhaps she does. Asking small children to be quiet isn't usually particularly effective - so perhaps she's an ineffective parent who asks her small children to be quiet, which predictably achieves nothing.
If the small children are whining and screaming there's probably something that needs attending to - they are hungry, tired, want to be comforted, don't want to get in the car... Their mother should theoretically have those things covered and plan to prevent the situation arising, if she were a wonderful parent in a perfect situation.
It sounds rather as though the situation is all round a bit sub par, and she's possibly a sub par parent, but who knows - perhaps she's doing her best.

Either way it's a bit of a storm in a tea cup by the sound of it, if you actually read all the posts properly. It's a few minutes of irritating noise at a time it's not wildly unusual for some people to be leaving for work, or at least getting up for work. Annoying but not hours of screaming at all.

Home made cakes laced with arsenic.

Sleeping pills crushed and mixed in the iceing.

Scream in distress? Or scream while playing/having fun?

What difference does it make to the OP. Its too early.

Hear, hear!

If you read the opening post in it's entirety and the 13:22 post by the OP you will see that it's 10-20 minutes and sometimes crying or whining and happens when their mother is getting them into the car or when they follow her into the garden when she goes outside to smoke.

The mother could definitely handle the early starts better, but the outrage on the thread is largely about exaggerated, imaginary scenarios different from the one the OP 's posts actually describe when you get past the emotive language.

There's no way a noise complaint about the actual scenario would be acted on.

Put a complaint in with their landlord. Social housing providers have robust ASB policies in place to deal with this sort of thing.

You can make a noise complaint whether they are council tenants or not.Talk to the Environmental Health team,they will have you fill out a diary.

So what part of Op's posts about being woken up every day at 6am or earlier are you disagreeing with? Her point is either valid or it's not. It doesn't matter if it's 5 minutes or 1 hour, OP is being disturbed every single morning.

She's asking whether she can put a noise complaint in.

Obviously she can if she wants, but it won't go anywhere because the mother is not (despite multiple posters inventions) turfing the children out alone into the garden to scream for hours. She's with them for a few minutes or she's putting them in the car. That's daily noise.

It's irritating to be woken up but actually reading all the posts shows that it's not hours of uninterrupted "full pelt" screaming (which no human child is capable of doing day after day without damaging themselves) at all, nor are the children "turfed out".

Beyond that your question doesn't make sense. It's valid to be irritated. It's invalid to be so hyperbolic about what is sometimes ten minutes of whining whilst getting kids in the car. Either way there's nothing to be achieved with a noise complaint.

I find your posts difficult to follow. You seem to be both defending the mother of the small children and criticising her at the same time.

perhaps she's an ineffective parent who asks her small children to be quiet which predictably achieves nothing.

If the small children are whining and screaming there's probably something that needs attending to - they are hungry, tired, want to be comforted don't want to get in the car... Their mother should theoretically have those things covered and plan to prevent the situation arising

she's possibly a sub par parent, but who knows

The mother could definitely handle the early starts better

Because the children are not screaming for hours you have deemed this ok? I can't really work out your stance.

Do you think shop bought would so - some Mr Kipling Fandant Fancies 😂

Yes.

I'm saying it's a storm in a tea cup. It's a small irritation and the hyperbole of the thread is daft.

It's certainly not a 'small irritation'. Would you let your DC annoy your neighbours at 5.45am?

My council guidance on neighbour disputes is to first speak to your neighbours to explain the situation and try to resolve it between yourselves. This was recommended up thread. (imo home baking isn’t needed). If that doesn’t improve things, then raise a complaint, keep a log etc.

Some of these replies are absolutely fucking nuts.

I would be raging inside after this long.

I live in council housing and these Issues are so hard to live with ( I have experience and understanding sadly),

There is often a different type of behaviour that I find to be feral and gutter level quite often in social housing.

The regulations are that noise needs to be lower during 11;pm to 7am - so she isn't really abiding by that.

I don't care if it's kids, I have a child who is so loud, with extra needs. I wouldn't let them in the garden before 9am, usually 9.30. Because I'm not a total cunt.

I've done the stfu out the window before and find it can often lead to long-standing problems.

I have learnt that the formal route tends to work best.

Councils can have anti social behaviours teams, maybe neighbourhood housing officers still - hopefully.

I would telephone and ask to speak to the housing team at this stage - not environmental health. The housing team or anti social behaviour team. Explain the significance of the impact. Highlight the 7am rule.

It's not ok and she can stick those kids in front of the TV until 9 and suck it up imo.

You could call anonymously first and ask what they can do about this type of scenario. I would ask for a resolution because saying sorry can't help is not ok. I don't believe they would say that tbh.

The usual thing is to send a letter out, something generic like ' be mindful of the time you're creating noise and be considerate of your neighbours.' I've had issues where this was done on my behalf and certain things got better.

If I was buying and saw that ( a call and a letter), it wouldn't be enough to put me off buying.

I don't understand the putting them in the car bit.
Does there parent put her children in the car at 6am and leave them in there to scream?

I would have assumed she's taking them to whoever looks after them while she works.

If she left them in the car it would obviously be a matter for social services and the main focus of the post, you'd think.

My DC are adults and nearly.

Where we lived when they were small (working farming village, all the children took buses to school, school started earlier than here) the village was very much awake by 6am and there was lots going on from about that time, especially at this time of year. There were groups of children walking to the bus stop from around 6:15 on school days and farming noises on any day of the week.

I never turfed my children out, but I find the people saying no noise before 9am surprising - when I was a child we were forced to attend 9am church every Sunday for example, so I find it unlikely to be true that nobody makes noise before 9am.

Yes, I do find it a lot of fus about something that's only irritating. It's not music blasting all night every night, it's a few minutes while an apparently mildly incompetent parent gets her kids out the door to go wherever she has to go, or stands in the garden smoking. I'm no fan of smoking and wish my own neighbours wouldn't do it near my fence, but it's an irritation too. People can be irritating.

Ok that explains why you don't get it then.

Also so I find it unlikely to be true that nobody makes noise before 9am
I don't think anyone on here said that.

What does that have to do with anything?

A few posters have - a quick scroll back a few posts and raisinglittlepeople12, JulietteHasAGun said no child noise before 9am, just as examples.

Barking dogs are often more of an issue than child noise, because people really do leave dogs outside barking for hours and hours, unlike the few minutes involved in the OP's scenario.

Children screaming? Have you ever shopped in Tesco…I assume parents take their little darlings there to lubricate their vocal cords & scream non-stop during the whole family shopping day out!