Noisy children.

My neighbours have their son,partner and 2 small children living with them ( temporarily I hope ).
The whole family is noisy they never speak only shout.
It irritates the life out of me.
When the weather gets hot my uncouth neighbour and sons love to bare their chests, they will even go off in the car bare chested, tend the front garden etc.
They are actually nice people and reasonably intelligent but I wish they would move.

I'm on full agreement annsixty. I was brought up to be mindful of the neighbours, but respect seems to be a thing of the past. And, as for sreaming being 'what children do' - rubbish! It's what children do if their parents haven't taught them that screaming doesn't get them what they want.

How far away is the bottom of your garden? I would think a fence and a hedge would deaden the sound somewhat? Children will make a noise. I live next to a school and on a modern housing estate i would be surprised if there weren’t families making a noise.

You have my sympathies. In my 30s, I lived opposite a huge brick retaining wall, in a cul de sac. Every boy in the neighbourhood (apart from my son!) came to kick balls against it, even in the dark. Drove me mad and I had to move. Noise cancelling headphones are very good.

My daughter and family have the same problem with neighbours to the side of them. The shouting and screaming from the whole family can be relentless. I would allow that hedge to grow high and thick to help muffle the sound. As others have said, put headphones on to listen to music or audiobooks. Hopefully as lockdown eases, people will be able to go out more and you can enjoy some peace.

i too have new neighbours that are very noisy with one girl about 6 years now , they constantly have garden parties even during lockdown , they had another one yesterday 3 / 4 / 2021 it started approx 1.pm and was still going at 9.30 when i gave up and went to bed to watch t/v lots of children screaming, that doesnt really bother me , but the awful loud music , and the constant thud of the deep bass makes it very uncomfortable , if you say anything your an old fuddy duddy , i dont know what to do for the best , i am 75 and my neighbour is approaching 90 , i feel sorry for her also , the neighbours that are the problem / he is an estate agent and she is a solicitor , it means we cant sit in our gardens in the summer as they have parties nearly every weekend

annsixty I had the same for the whole of last year. Three children out from 9 every morning until it became dark. Screaming and shouting and kicking football. They have a huge garden and I think the parents told them to go as far away from their house as they could. Sadly, this means we can hear them all the time. Many afternoons I gave up and came indoors. The two lovely sunny days last week they were back.

Lilyflower

Your village sounds like mine!
I've bought noise cancelling headphones so I can sit outside in my garden and block out all the noise

Personally I have every sympathy with this situation.
Like many other's, I have no problems at all with children playing and the noise that comes from it but over the past two years, in my street it's becoming intolerable.
As an example, yesterday, the football came out around 08.15 and the thudding carried on until lunchtime...the ball hitting walls, fences and vehicles. This occurs virtually every single evening too.
Siblings of our local footballer, scream and shout constantly.
Their parents do the same, every conversation is held by shouting and if on a phone, for reasons known only to themselves, the phone is on loudspeaker!
Approaches have been made to the local council and Police about the level of noise and occurences of what is actually antisocial behaviour and nothing has been done.
There's no consideration for other's whatsoever and sadly this seems to be a reflection of our times.
I actually live 5 minutes from a large park and a little further from some open spaces...a great place for youngsters to let off steam and as far as I'm aware, there's no reason the parents couldn't take the children there.
Two of my neighbours work shifts including nights and one of them actually sleeps at a relatives house in order to get some sleep.

I feel your pain,l couldn't sit in my garden at all last summer, dogs barking,kids screaming,ball constantly being kicked over my fence.the thing is these are all neighbours grandkids,left to run riot while grandparents are inside with their doors shut!l too have lived here all my married life,with kids and grandkids of my own,but I've never heard anything like the constant noise these days.

You have my sympathy. I live in the house I had my children in and I raised them to think of the neighbours when playing in the garden. I have neighbours with children where the children a pretty good and not very noisy but one door down a new family moved in and the racket is horrendous, screaming children and shouting parents. The parents have zero control over them and try to ‘reason’ with them, then shout when that doesn’t work. Ghastly! I hate to think what it is like for their direct neighbours.

I had to move house due to the noisy children who lived next door. A boy and girl aged around 7 and four. The girl screamed endlessly. I presume the boy was constantly teasing or bullying her. When she screamed their two large dogs would then start barking like mad. It was constant in the summer. I couldn't sit out in my garden, it was unbearable. The mother never intervened. I think she must have had ear phones in. When I moved I realised it was the right thing to do for peace and my sanity.

Ann, i have every sympathy. We had the neighbours from hell, very unapproachable. But the worse thing was, the one lad skateboarded from noon til night, and believe me, that noise is totally grating. I asked if he could maybe stop at around 7 at night, as we are trying to relax then, especially in the summer, and mother agreed to tell him to stop. You can guess, not a chance. Its just an unfortunate situation, but the children do grow up and change their habits, but in the meantime you have to put up with it. As someone suggested, i would go out and play classical music to wind them up. Or wear head phones yourself and listen to something you like. Sorry there is no easy solution, i really feel for you.

Summer is like bedlam in my lovely, quiet rural village:-

-drills, electric planers and other DIY equipment
-lawn mowers, high pressure washers, strimmers and like gardening power tools
-shrieking children
-radios played loudly
-dogs barking
-barbecue shenanigans.

I am fairly easy about most of it as I cut my lawn, had children playing out once and clean my patio annually. I've been lucky to live near quiet dogs kept in check by their owners.

The thing I really cannot stand is the selfishness of music played out of doors. It is never acceptable. We could all put our favourite music on the radio but refrain for the general good.

Really, all I want to hear is the gorgeous birdsong but life isn't like that.

Depending on where you are with technology, why not invest in a set noise cancelling headphones. Better still get the ones that plug into your phone/tablet and listen to music. You shouldnt have to, but it would certainly help with the noise. Audio books are good too.

Play some loud classical music to drown them out ? then if they complain you can tell them why !

As we have 5 sons I am glad we lived in a detached house with no neighbours too near!

Hi if it’s your fence children are using as a goal post then yes you can complain. I’m also disabled and I can’t find anything more nice than the sound of kids playing outside having fun after the year we’ve all gone though. When my neighbors grandkids visit one of them screams constantly so I understand what you mean drives me up the wall. So I neither go for a walk or stick in my air plugs and listen to music. But guess my grandkids do same to them but I don’t notice it because I’m having fun. If you live in a house for 45yrs maybe it’s time to downsize and move into an area with bungalows other wise kids will grow and get more noisy and do it more to wind you up. Because that’s what kids do they play and have fun. Or you could get to know them better.

I'm sorry but I would much rather hear children playing over a lot of other noises you could have. Loud music not of my tastes or adults arguing-both of which we have had in the past. We also have children nearby & my neighbour yells over the fence telling them to be quiet. I had a real go at her last year about it. They are nice well behaved children & yes they do shout a bit but so did my boys-so did I at that age. I love hearing them having fun & if I want a quiet read in the garden I use earplugs.
The irony is that my neighbour is very deaf & when her friends come round they sit just the other side of our hedge & shout at each other for hours! Do I moan about that? Well so far not to her face anyway!
Live & let live.

I would ask them to stop the fence banging as fences are expensive to replace! Don't envy you though in having to address them.

We have four gardens abutting the side of ours and about ten years ago a family with two young children moved into the house nearest to ours. Their garden is very small, the end of it being about ten yards from our back door. The youngest child, a girl of about two, was a screamer - she could scream non stop for at least two hours. On summer Sunday afternoons we had to go out or go mad. This went on for several years. I didn't say anything because someone mentioned they thought there was something wrong with the child. Eventually she stopped. We now have two little girls in the fourth garden along who play out whenever the weather is nice. Yes, the little one gives the odd scream when she is over excited or she can't get her own way, but this is nothing exceptional and I love to hear them playing and miss them when they're not there. The little one can tantrum for England and this just makes me laugh. I really sympathise - little girls seem to go through this screaming phase and it can go right through you.

Annsixty, I feel for you. I ended up and moved house because of my neighbours and the noise. It does get to you when it's continuous that you are just waiting on it starting, it can cause bad anxiety. Kids have to play, of course they do, but the ball kicking isn't right at all.

My daughter has three healthy, exuberant boys. The elderly lady one side complains that my daughter must give them too much sugar. The elderly lady the other side says she loves to hear them as she worked with disabled children who sadly couldn’t run around enjoying themselves.
To my shame I was a mother who always told my children not to screech and shriek whilst having fun outside, and turned them into scared little children. I definitely wouldn’t have allowed repeated kicking of a football or whacking of a tennis ball against my fence or a neighbour’s.

I would certainly ask them to stop bouncing the ball up the fence - that would drive me mad. I don’t think there’s very much more you can do about the other noise, as it sounds like normal exuberant children let out after being couped up for the winter. You never know, it may die down as the summer goes on. Not sure if it’s covered by noise abatement laws, but you could make enquiries if it really is over and above what could be considered as normal.

Annsixty I sympathise. That screaming child would drive me bonkers too. I’m happy to hear children laughing and playing and even crying if there’s a reason but constant screaming Arrrrgh! I’d play classical music very loud and when they complain say you’re drowning out the screaming ? I am joking but this sort of thing brings out the worst in us.
I had a lovely family next to me for a few years. Two young boys, an excitable dog and enthusiastic footballing dad. The constant bang bang of ball against fence drove me potty, and the balls sailing over the fence and battering my flower beds even more so, and which I regularly had to toss back over the fence. I never fell out with them though but when the barrage made the fence post weak and wobbly I did ask them to replace it, which they did with good grace.
After they moved and I was trimming shrubs in the border next to the fence I found three punctured footballs and a bedraggled teddy. He went into the washing machine and now sits on my bed, a reminder of a lovely if noisy family.