When my children pound around upstairs I feel like the house is going to fall down around my ears

[FaktiskErJegIkkeEnNerd]

I've tried telling them to walk gently but they ignore me. My son runs up the stairs two at a time, and my daughter is only 7 stone and 13 years old but I can hear her now in her bedroom and I worry that the house is not structurally sound enough for the weight of her crashing around in her room. The sound of them upstairs, it's like elephants dancing.

The house is a 1970s semi so maybe this is normal. I keep meaning to ask people but my friends live in either older or newer houses.

Mine is a 1990s semi and is the same. My dc are younger and any level of boisterousness has me cringing because it feels like the downstairs ceiling will fall down.

Will probably be ok houses are made to take lumping about, just keep an eye on the ceiling plaster remembers own ceiling plaster coming down near front door because kids kept jumping on the stairs

Thanks, it helps to know it's not just me. I literally tense up some times, thinking omg, stop it! and when I shout up to them they are obviously quite indignant. 'stop what?'

all children walk like elephants, regardless of weight. Carries on until they are about twenty. We all did it!

I am staggered at the footsteps of a small four year old!

suggest one stair at a time, but your house will be fine.

Tbh it wasn't much different in our last place - and that was a substantial Georgian moneypit house that you'd like to think was built 'properly'!

I think our issue was that the (timber) ceiling of the reception rooms was actually the floor of the bedrooms above - although there were beams in addition for support, of course.

Every sound from above was amplified though - even from the second floor where DH's office was located - and we found it much noisier (even without young DC charging round like a herd of heffalumps) than the Victorian houses with plaster ceilings we'd been used to.

Definitely think Victorian proper plaster ceilings cause less noise to travel through floors.

Don't think there's any danger of ceilings collapsing though OP!

Same here. Ours is a new build. Have found it much much better since I had thick underlay put into the bedrooms :)

I must look in to that. They have laminate floorboards and they probably don't help.

I'm glad none of you think that the ceiling collapsing is likely. Rationally I know it, but I do feel a bit tightly wound some evenings............. listening to the thud thud thud

My DC think I have psychic powers as I always know when they've been jumping on my bed, even when I've been out.

The sprinkling of orange brick dust on the downstairs window frame gives them away every time

Wow well if you're not worried!!