Thud, thud, thud!

[Littlewiseone]

Kid next door most evenings of late (and all summer during the world cup) kicking a football in their back garden. It's either against the back of the house which is connected to ours with only a fence between us, or being slammed off the decking. It's the most god awful thumping that resonates through our whole downstairs area - living space and kitchen - and it means sitting outside to enjoy the evening is impossible, as is leaving open the patio door. It goes on for an hour or two. I've already asked once for the kicking to stop before 8am when I'm putting my son down, but now I want to ask it to stop completely. AIBU to ask this or do I need to just deal with it.

You need to just deal with it. It’s a kid playing in his garden. In a few years that will be your kid.

The weather will turn fairly soon and be dark early, you child will also be playing out soon enough. Will you let them play with a ball, run ,jump? Not worth sweating over now.

It's a child playing in his garden for a few hours. It's a completely normal part of living near others. I suspect your child or even yourself do things that annoy your neighbours but they sensibly don't say anything because its just life.

I missed that bit, is she going to adopt him? 😱

(Added Munch's Scream)

It’ll be dark at 8pm. Much earlier than that very soon.

Sorry but unless he’s kicking it against your actual wall or fence then he’s allowed to kick his ball.

She quite clearly means in a few years her child will be the one paying and making noise, probably with a ball. Are you always so literal?

Been there. Good news is it doesn’t last forever, couple of summers and they all grow out of it/ are allowed out to hopefully find a field and if not, annoy others

I think pp is joking (I found it funny!)

The dark nights are petty much here now. But regardless, if he’s going it for an hour or two then you are being very unreasonable.

lol, no you can’t ask them to completely ban him from playing football in his own garden.

Annoying though.

Sending sympathy, OP, that noise is one I find incredibly intrusive and irritating.

Ear plugs? Play some music through headphones?

it’s a total pain in the arse.
i had that from child number one next door
then child number one on the other side.
then child number two.
then child number three
then child number four.
and so it went on. 9 kids in total. bang bang bang. and dont forget scrape scrape thud thing when they “score a goal” off the kerb in the street too.

when one family gets too big they move and another moves in. nightmare.

id have been killed if i did that to my parents/neighbours.

ive asked various parents if it could please stop. and it does. for a while. but they aren't interested in taking the kids (they chose to spawn) up to the park for a proper kick about so they just get left to amuse themselves in the garden. great.

I think you’d need to be prepared for the very real possibility that his parents will list all the times your child has cried, screamed, squawked, whinged, banged or crashed since they’ve been born and that they’ll give you a full rundown of how it has disturbed their peace and enjoyment. And God help you from now on every time you or your child makes a peep playing next summer. It will be commented on.

Another month or so and it’ll be too dark for him to be playing in the garden, but if it bothers you that much, have a look on Freecycle for a kid’s goal post set, some dribbling cones or one of those target things where they have to try and get the ball through the holes. Pop your head over the fence and tell him you thought he might like it, then ask if there’s any way he could avoid hitting the house because it vibrates. He’ll probably be far more amenable with a bit of good old fashioned bribery than if you start asking for total compliance.

It's just life, kids are allowed to play out. You can't expect to control his use of the garden to the degree you're suggesting.

My neighbour's boy does the same with the additional bonus of his ball ending up in my garden near daily. We just laugh about it. It's not harming anyone and he needs to run off his energy.
I am much more concerned about his weekend late night computer use which sounds like there is "The Exorcist" re-enactment happening next door... or indeed about an adult somewhere on the street thinking we might all enjoy a spot of trance music at half eleven on a work night.

Thank you that's reassuring. I do get that it's life, and of course I don't want the kid not to be in her own garden, but it's very aggressive and highly repetitive so it means I cannot go outside and enjoy my garden or open the windows. So that feels unfair.

Thank you yes it is extremely intrusive as it's as though it is right in our garden. And some noises just grate more than others!

You can go out in the garden. Been through this. Played my own music over the top to drown it out (no other neighbours). The parents soon hauled it back to an acceptable period of time. The playing isn't the problem, it's the duration of it. Hours is not reasonable.