A request to parents

[Catlady711]

I am unfortunate enough to be surrounded by 4 houses of screaming, tresspassing kids like those, (that moved in after I was already here). I can TOTALLY empathize with your day and wanting peace when you got home. My neighbors are so bad that when the kids finally get too loud even to them, they scream obsenities out their windows back at the children to shut up. Then we wonder where they learned to scream in the first place.

I solved the tresspassing (which included digging holes in my back yard, ripping a shrub of mine in half with their bare hands, shooting my songbirds, and shooting the veggies in my garden with BB guns) by calling the cops repeatedly for tresspassing and destruction of propery, and often including video or pictures of them doing it (since the parents would often say 'my kid couldnt have done that). While the parents think I'm 'mean' and 'picking on their children' for not letting their kids use my yard like their own personal playground, I no longer have much problem with the tresspassing.

That said I felt the need to comment on a couple things in particular.

What ya gonna do? Kids will scream in pools and that is life, they have short memories, five minutes later it continues to eye splitting levels. Show me a kid that doens't scream in a pool and I will be shocked.

I was raised not to scream unless I was hurt or someone was trying to take me. My mom always emphasized that if I were to scream all the time she'd never know when I was actually in trouble. I also spent alot of time at my grandparents trailer at the lake. I was explicity told that there was to be NO screaming near the water unless I was drowning or in trouble otherwise people would never know the difference. Not that I never talked loud or was in a fit of laughter with my friends, but I was raise that you NEVER scream unless you are hurt, or in trouble. Failure to follow that rule resulted in one warning only, if it was repeated then I had to go in for the remainder of the day and be quiet.

Perhaps we parents of youngsters should shut them up in the house and give them each a video game to keep them quiet and docile (and fat). Put up a fence and earplugs if you don't want to hear children play.
*rant over*

go for walk somewhere quiet instead maybe?

Rather than shut the kids up with a video game, why not take the time to actually play and interact with them and teach them the difference between 'outdoor voices' and screaming? Why should one be forced to wear earplugs in one's own house because parents haven't taught their children the difference between 'outdoor voices' and 'screaming'? Why should a person be forced the expense of putting up a fence because parents haven't taught their children that tresspassing is not only rude but ILLEGAL? Why should a person have to go somewhere other than their own home to have quiet time? Why can't the kids go to a local playground if they want to be loud, that's what those are for?

I'm always amazed when I go by a park how FEW children are actually there, and even fewer parents with them.

Hummm, interesting thread. I have a 3.5 year old, and I have taught her to be loud outside only. When we are inside and around other people, in stores, in a restaurant, at the mall, etc. she is not allowed to scream, screech, or be excessively loud. And she knows that when she has freedom outside she can be as loud as she likes. That is what the great outdoors is for.

I would hope that you either don't have any close neighbors, or that your child's version of being loud outside doesn't include screaming. Otherwise in giving your child her 'freedom', you are taking away the freedom of your close neighbors to have quiet in their own home. And if your child typically screams outdoors, how is anyone to know when she is actually hurt or in trouble?

The sounds of happy children playing and the sound of kids screaming are two different things.

AMEN!!

[carole]

I think when this generation gets older they will feel much the same, it just goes with age, your tolerance levels are not as high as when young,i think it is just considerate to teach your children to not be too loud, my kids always enjoyed playing, laughing, but i would not let them go over board, as i would consider others, i have a real elderly neighbour, so i thought about her when the kids were little, why can everyone not do that? it is not that hard, and it does not mean kids cannot be kids.

There is a time and place for everything .

[Cookiebaker]

I would hope that you either don't have any close neighbors, or that your child's version of being loud outside doesn't include screaming. Otherwise in giving your child her 'freedom', you are taking away the freedom of your close neighbors to have quiet in their own home. And if your child typically screams outdoors, how is anyone to know when she is actually hurt or in trouble?

I refuse to feel guilty about allowing my daughter to be loud in the great outdoors. I don't believe in the mentality that children should be seen and not heard. I believe in training children to be loud when and where its appropriate, and likewise to be quiet where its appropriate. Children are not much different than some pets in they have lots of energy that needs to get burned off or they go stir-crazy. The great outdoors is exactly where that energy should be burned off!!!! Fresh air, under the great blue sky, in the green grass. If you take that away from children, then what is left???? And for the record, my daughter does not go outside before 9 am, and is inside after 7 pm.

There is a BIG difference between happy-shouting and hurt-screaming....a BIG one. There is no mistaking one from another.

Face it, its part of living in society that we get along with other people, and they get along with us. We have a neighbor who goes to work at 4 am, when they tie their big German Shepherd out....said dog barks from 4 am until sunup every single day.

We have neighbors on our left who 3-4 times a summer throw loud parties, all night long on the river. This includes loud(!) music and fireworks at 11 pm, 2 am, 3 am etc. These neighbors also are in the habit of 1-2 times per month filling our house up with smoke when they decide to burn some super stinky trash.

Do we complain? No. We grin and bear it because we know that we also likely have just as annoying habits to them as they do to us.

One reason that I love Jesus so much.....He wasn't ever annoyed with children, He welcomed them with open arms and said, "Let the little children come to me", even though they were dirty, loud, and in the way.

[Karen]

There is a BIG difference between happy-shouting and hurt-screaming....a BIG one. There is no mistaking one from another.

I beg to differ on that one, you never heard my neighbor child when she was younger. She never was kidnapped or threatened, thankfully, but you would not have known it from her screams! I don't know how many times I went out to check, to see her playing, not in trouble.

[Randi]

Why should one be forced to wear earplugs in one's own house. Why should a person have to go somewhere other than their own home to have quiet time? Giving your child her 'freedom', you are taking away the freedom of your close neighbors to have quiet in their own home.

I so agree with this! There's been days it was so noisy here that I couldn't read, couldn't concentrate on work I had to do on the computer, and not even be able to hear what they said on TV. That really is annoying! So I can certainly sympathise with some of you.