Dreading the school holidays with neighbours screaming children

I am amazed how many people suffer like I do and it makes me even more sad to know that others suffer. Thank you so much everyone for all the advice and comments. I have tried so many different things to try and cope, even the most strongest anti depressants. I would sale my house and leave right now, but unfortunately I have a few demands in my life. I have to look after my 85 year old mother once a week who lives in London and I am closer to her where I live to commute on the trains. My husbands job needs him to live in this area to be able to continue it. I have tried absolutely everything from earphones, to shutting myself in one room with all windows and doors closed. If they were nice parents, I would be more than happy to take all the children and go to a park and sit there with them so that they can play and I would do it everyday. I go out for walks, but I still have to come home to all this. All the parents are also about 25 years younger than me and are all on benefits. I have noticed that they bring up their children very differently with no manners and also they call it free spirited upbringing, basically no boundaries and do whatever they want. All I can do is pray that I can cope until I find a solution and leave.

Kiri, I can totally empathise as I'm in the same situation! In between the screaming / fighting etc, there's football which in the past has meant damage to cars / homes etc and it can go on until 10.00 pm.
What makes it worse for me is that I work from home

I can't move - financial reasons and despite many, many complaints to the council from myself and others locally over the years nothing has been done. The complaints have been in relation to the parents of these children...they all in live in privately rented accommodation and the landlord won't act.

Thank you so much for your comment and sympathy, greatly appreciated.

Oh dear Kiri please speak to someone if you are feeling so desperate. Obviously not the parents from what you have said.

I love to hear children playing but screaming is another matter and can really get to you.
We live in a quiet cul de sac but when our children were young they usually played in our back garden often with friends.

We did have neighbours a few houses away who had 3 teenage boys. They always used the bottom of our drive as a goal with the ball often hitting our car. The repetitive thudding was awful.
They were really abusive if my husband spoke to them and would swear and shout. Their dad was quite strict and would apologise and ground them but it continued.
After one altercation we woke to find our beautiful Willow tree sawn down in our front garden. It was so unpleasant and eventually they moved away.
I do hope you get some peace.

When I moved to my present house in, six years ago there were several children who played out in the street. However there was never screaming, fighting etc, just good natured playing, some on skates or with a football, scooters or bikes. If they ever got too noisy, their parents soon put a stop to their games. They are now all grown and extremely polite and confident young people. Unfortunately it now seems to be the norm to open the doors and chuck the children out.

Can you move? I would loathe that too. Apart from headphones or going out yourself, I can't really suggest anything.
Please don't let it depress you so much that you become desperate.

Get yourself some noise cancelling headphones, and see if that helps. I can sympathise, as we have neighbours two doors down whose children are 'home schooled', but in practice, that just means she lets them run riot all day long and one child in particular just screams the place down. I've learned to block it out, but in your situation, I'd give headphones a try. You can get ones which are worn like a headband too, if you're not keen on conventional ones.

I would hate it too! in fact, I would be praying for rain every day of the school holidays if my neighbourhood was like that. Fortunately it isn't, our problem is speeding vehicles and we live in a culture de sac.

Would you feel inclined to approach one of the parents and suggest a pic nic to the park ( just that parent and their children and you ) , that way you could possibly build up a relationship with the adult and be an extra supervisor - 3/4 kids isn't easy on your own - to get the kids into an open, safe play area. This might be something that they haven't even considered.

Guilty as charged. When ours were junior school age they ‘played out’ in our cul de sac for hours with their many friends. All kids from the two roads - one led into the other - no through traffic - so relatively safe. This would be the late 80’s. All of them as adults now, in their mid 40’s saying how wonderful their childhoods were. Carefree, no phones, iPads, PlayStations. Just ‘tennis’ (always once Wimbledon sparked an interest ‘where are the tennis balls mum?’), roller boots, ‘kerby’, cycling, hula hoops, hopscotch, ‘races’. About 20 children - I kid you not - of various ages and temperaments.

Our poor, more elderly ‘retired’ neighbours. 😱

Gosh, I'd hate it, too, and I'm sorry you're struggling with it. Obviously things might improve as the children get older and outgrow playing in the street, but that's a long time to wait. There are plenty of holiday activities available for children but they might be expensive or unattractive to these youngsters.

Are there any things you can do to reduce the impact of the noise? I'm thinking of things like staying in the back of the house (make yourself comfortable there, though), using your garden early in the morning at this time of year, playing your favourite music (earbuds?), having an occasional day out for respite etc.

I know none of those things make the noise go away but a strategy for coping might make the situation a little less stressful.

I'd hate that too. The noise is different to happy kids playing outside. The kids are screaming as it's likely that's all they hear indoors so to them screaming it's normal.

Life is hard enough with anxiety and depression, you don't need this stress of noisy kids.