Noisy children

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They are playing on a bright summers evening. They are not selling drugs or driving stolen cars up and down the street. What happens during the winter when it's wet and dark? Do they still hang around making noise? My girlfriend does some night shifts. During the summer, kids play outside her house all day. She might complain about lack of sleep but never in a million years would she go out and tell them to stop if they were just playing. We need a bit of perspective here. So far, all I have heard is that they play basketball on the street and are cheeky. Hardly grounds for the riot squad.

I agree that is bad that the parents seem to be ignoring the OPs concerns but this is temporary. Ignore them and they will go away.
 
Sunny said:
They are playing on a bright summers evening. They are not selling drugs or driving stolen cars up and down the street. What happens during the winter when it's wet and dark? Do they still hang around making noise? My girlfriend does some night shifts. During the summer, kids play outside her house all day. She might complain about lack of sleep but never in a million years would she go out and tell them to stop if they were just playing. We need a bit of perspective here. So far, all I have heard is that they play basketball on the street and are cheeky. Hardly grounds for the riot squad.

I agree that is bad that the parents seem to be ignoring the OPs concerns but this is temporary. Ignore them and they will go away.
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Well, bully for her but that doesn't mean that someone going out and nicely asking children to move away from the house because your baby is trying to sleep/the racket from their skateboards are driving you mad are wrong. It's part of life and growing up. We were often told off by adults when we were kids, ordered to play somewhere else etc. We just did what we were told. If our parents had received a complaint about us we knew we would be in big trouble. That way we are all, I hope, considerate neighbours who don't blast out music, keep our front gardens in a state, let our kids annoy other people etc. We just learnt, from a young age, that you have to consider other people living around you.
 
Oh stop with the sanctimonious rubbish! So you never answered back to an adult? You never disobeyed? Never did anything you knew to be bold? Even after getting given out to, you never
mis-behaved again? If that is the case, then bully on you.
 
Sunny said:
They are playing on a bright summers evening. They are not selling drugs or driving stolen cars up and down the street. What happens during the winter when it's wet and dark? Do they still hang around making noise? My girlfriend does some night shifts. During the summer, kids play outside her house all day. She might complain about lack of sleep but never in a million years would she go out and tell them to stop if they were just playing. We need a bit of perspective here. So far, all I have heard is that they play basketball on the street and are cheeky. Hardly grounds for the riot squad.
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I dont think anyone suggested the riot squad.

When I was growing up, my 'right' to play outside was much much less important than the 'right' of any adult in the area who didnt want me playing there. It was non negotiable. Even if I was just sitting quietly, if an adult told me to get lost, my parents would back that adult - and not me. Because I wasnt allowed to annoy people.

I certainly would have been very very heavily punished if I had escalated annoyance in the manner described in this thread. And the giving of cheek to a neighbour would not have been tolerated.
 
Out of curiousity, does every patent here know where their teenage child is 24 hours a day?
 
Sunny said:
Oh stop with the sanctimonious rubbish! So you never answered back to an adult? You never disobeyed? Never did anything you knew to be bold? Even after getting given out to, you never
mis-behaved again? If that is the case, then bully on you.
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I dunno about you Sunny, but if I back cheeked an adult or disobeyed or otherwise acted the maggot, I got grounded. Or otherwise punished. I certainly didnt get told by my parents 'tell yer woman its not her road and you can do what you like'.
 
Sunny said:
Oh stop with the sanctimonious rubbish! So you never answered back to an adult? You never disobeyed? Never did anything you knew to be bold? Even after getting given out to, you never
mis-behaved again? If that is the case, then bully on you.
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I'm not being sanctimonious. Calm down! and stop being so reactive. I'm saying that we knew our parents wouldn't defend us if a neighbour complained about us (in fact we would get an earbashing) so we modified our behaviour accordingly and, as a result, did not grow up to think we could do what we liked because 'it's my road as much as yoru's'. I'm not blaming the kids, of course kids will try it on, I'm blaming silly parents who can't just say 'no' to their kids or 'tough, you just can't play there' or whatever but must always defend them and protect them from any complaints.

And I'm also pointing out that just because your girlfriend doesn't complain doesn't mean people who do are in the wrong. That's just the approach she takes, other people ask the kids to jog on.
 
truthseeker said:
I dont think anyone suggested the riot squad.

When I was growing up, my 'right' to play outside was much much less important than the 'right' of any adult in the area who didnt want me playing there. It was non negotiable. Even if I was just sitting quietly, if an adult told me to get lost, my parents would back that adult - and not me. Because I wasnt allowed to annoy people.

I certainly would have been very very heavily punished if I had escalated annoyance in the manner described in this thread. And the giving of cheek to a neighbour would not have been tolerated.
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I have already said that patents attitude is wrong but you would swear it never happened in the good old days....... I was there. It did.
 
Would bribery work?

It certainly did when we were kids. The promise of a new leather football ( showing my age now :) ) worked wonders with us and got us off the street and into a park.
 
truthseeker said:
I dunno about you Sunny, but if I back cheeked an adult or disobeyed or otherwise acted the maggot, I got grounded. Or otherwise punished. I certainly didnt get told by my parents 'tell yer woman its not her road and you can do what you like'.
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Same for me but we played on our street from early until late at night and people with young children didn't complain. It was a neighbourhood. Kids were expected to play.
 
Sunny said:
So far, all I have heard is that they play basketball on the street and are cheeky. Hardly grounds for the riot squad.
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I think, in fairness, that the OP doesn't mind children playing outside. However, the constant bump, bump, bump of a basketball would also drive me mad...especially when the kids can, but don't, play outside their own houses!
 
callybags said:
Would bribery work?

It certainly did when we were kids. The promise of a new leather football ( showing my age now :) ) worked wonders with us and got us off the street and into a park.
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You mean it happened back when you were young? Shock!!
 
Sunny said:
I have already said that patents attitude is wrong but you would swear it never happened in the good old days....... I was there. It did.
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It wasn't nearly as prevalent though. Once you knew your parents might get wind of the word that you were annoying a neighbour you stopped pretty damned quick. Nowadays it sometimes feels like the vast majority of parents will hear no wrong about their kids, will tell their kids they have 'rights' about this, that and the other (trivial stuff I mean) and are basically doing their kids no favours, because said kids grow up to think there are no consequences for their actions, no matter what they do.

There's a difference between a bit of divilment and downright rude and obnoxious behaviour, backed up by parents. The latter just makes annoyed neighbours go on the defensive, and situations escalate.
 
Sunny said:
Same for me but we played on our street from early until late at night and people with young children didn't complain. It was a neighbourhood. Kids were expected to play.
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Oh they complained in my neighbourhood alright. And when they did, my parents backed the neighbour NOT me.

There were a few places it was ok for us to play, a couple of green areas and then outside our own homes. But we were not allowed use a ball outside anyones house at all.

Actually, I went out and asked 2 young lads playing outside with a ball recently to mind the cars, they moved along no problem but when I looked at the cars that had been hit (mine included) there were some really nasty dents and paintwork damage. Now, Im not being sanctimonious here, but I would NEVER have been allowed to damage someones car that way.
 
Nobody has to accept damage to their property. Nobody has to accept anti social behaviour. But putting up mosquito machines in the middle of an estate as a solution to this problem is ridiculous. You are asking to be sued. There is a reason why plently of businesses and local authorities refuse to use them. The safety of them is not properly tested.

Remember the good old days when we called into neighbours if we had a problem. Now we text them and contact resident associations. That's the sad part of this story.
 
Sunny said:
Remember the good old days when we called into neighbours if we had a problem. Now we text them and contact resident associations. That's the sad part of this story.
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Only because texting wasnt around in the 'good old days'.

In my estate growing up The Res (residents association) were the source of fear for us kids!! They used to report to parents if they saw kids messing, kissing, smoking, acting the maggot in any capacity, and if the parents didnt step up to the plate, The Res would send a delegation of 10 adults to someones house to speak to them about the issue. My own mother was terrified of The Res.

I actually thought of another solution for the OP.

When the kids set up the basketball hoop, get into some really geeky sportswear and go out and join in the game, make sure you try to act all 'down with the kids' and use plenty of totally outdated slang, and todays slang in the wrong context.

Theyll hate that. They wont want to attract the attention of that weirdo who wants to join in the game so they will play elsewhere.
 
Sunny said:
Remember the good old days when we called into neighbours if we had a problem. Now we text them and contact resident associations. That's the sad part of this story.
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Remember the good old days when you could call into neighbours if you had a problem and they would treat you with respect and courtesy and apologise if their kids were causing you annoyance.

People who recall 'the good old days' need to see it from both sides. There's no point telling people to remember those days if parents no longer react in the same way. My parents' attitude was 'if you're annoying the neighbours then stop whatever you're doing that's annoying them, no arguments'.

Nowadays people are aware that if they call into a neighbour with a complaint they're likely to be met with, at best a dismissive 'oh chill out' attitude and, at worst, abuse, high indignation and insults. No wonder so many people hide behind letters and texts.
 
I was being sarcastic about recalling the good old days. People need to cop themselves when they say this never happened in their day or no kids of theirs would be involved in something like that.
 
8.39 and kids are screaming and laughing outside. Just thought I would mention it.
 
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