Soundproofing neighbours.

[Deleted User]

Mojisola said:

GDB2222 said:

The kids are behaving themselves. It’s what kids do in a garden. I feel very, very sorry for people who don’t get a feeling of joy from the children enjoying themselves. 

It's a matter of degree - if someone is listening to music in their garden at a lowish volume, that's fine; if they are loudly blasting their choice of music out, it isn't.

We took the same view with our children - if they were chasing around with a bit of shouting or loud laughter, they could carry on playing; if the shouting got too loud or too continuous or shrieking started, they had the choice of dropping the noise level or going inside.

This ^^

For starters, I didn't say I was against kids playing outside. Like Mojisola says, as long as they're being relatively well behaved then thats fine. Nobody can expect 100% silence unless they live remotely in the middle of nowhere. 

Its the misbehaviour, the shouting, the shrieking, screaming etc for hours on end that I really think parents need to be more mindful of this. Too many parents are of the attitude that "kids will be kids" and consequently lets their kids run riot in the gardens with no consideration or respect for their neighbours. Then if someone dares complain they get treated like some wicked witch 

benson1980 said:

Deleted_User said:

benson1980 said:

Deleted_User said:

It amazes me how many parents throw their kids out into the garden to run riot all day without a thought for the surrounding properties who have to put up with their children's blood curdling screams all day. It's just lazy parenting at its best. 

I can sympathise. I love the summer and we have a nice big garden that most of the time we can't enjoy because of the sound of screaming and shouting from next door. The issue also is that they are not well behaved kids, so not only do we have the kids screaming all the time but the adults shouting at the kids. 

To my knowledge there is little you can do to soundproof a garden. Just be thankful that you live detached from them. 

Do you have children? We naively thought when we produced a sibling for our first born that they would play delightfully with each other for the majority of the time. I recalled from my childhood only very sporadic disagreements with my brother that were always resolved cordially. My parents have a different view, and now that I am experiencing first hand, I realise how naive we were. Kids run around, scream, and fight with their siblings. I feel sorry for our neighbours. We try and keep it in check, but only so much you can do, whilst trying to retain your own sanity...and I want them to enjoy our garden in their own special way.

Well quite simply, if your children can't behave then don't let them play in the garden. They will soon get the message and unless want to be stuck indoors then they'll start behaving. Either that or take them to a bloody park where they can scream and shot all they want. Your neighbours should not have to suffer. 

It’s funny how the best parenting ‘experts’ never have children themselves. Kids make noise and we’re quite busy people. It’s why we bought a house with a big garden. I do feel sorry for our neighbours sometimes but not enough to stop my children playing in ours. We just try and keep it in check but I think some people’s expectations of perfect peace and tranquility are a little unreasonable. Our neighbours are spot on, and very understanding, luckily 

So to summarise, you bought a house with a big garden so you can throw the kids out there to look after themselves because you're too busy to look after them and you'll "try" to keep their behaviour in check but if they're too loud then its tough tits on your neighbours, because kids will be kids after all 

benson1980

In a way yes. So they can keep themselves entertained at suitable junctures, and our eldest loves being outdoors, and nature etc. Unfortunately no parent with the best will in the world can supervise intrusively 100% of the time and immediately nip issues in the bud. Nerves get a bit frayed. Kids do make a bit of noise generally and like playing in the garden. If they aren’t screaming/killing each other, happy days. Most parents (including us) try their best but don’t have Mary poppins on hand. You’ll understand if you ever have kids. 

GDB2222

The birds in my garden are making quite a racket. They have been since quite an unsociable hour. Why is that noise acceptable, but the noise of our own young unacceptable?

Davesnave

To return to the original question of the thread, there is really nothing practical you can do to reduce noise at relatively close quarters and in a short time span. There are sound reducing barrier fences as used by motorways, but they're expensive and you're legally restricted to 2m height.

At a distance, sound may be suppressed over a period of years. I was sceptical when investigating this due to the racket formerly made by a neighbour's dogs 200m distant, but I gave planting dense laurels and trees behind his property a whirl and unwittingly prompted the neighbour to do similarly. His 'garden' was previously a concrete sound box, but when I cut one of our hedges, opening up a view of his back door, the neighbour immediately planted leylandii around his perimeter, so 8 years on, we have lots of foliage where there was none. I don't know if neighbour has done anything else, like insulating the kennel where his two sad dogs exist rather than live, but we hardly hear them now

Davesnave

GDB2222 said:

The birds in my garden are making quite a racket. They have been since quite an unsociable hour. Why is that noise acceptable, but the noise of our own young unacceptable?

Different people find some sounds hard to cope with. A baby crying or dogs barking are sounds which we are meant to react to, so few people find them easy to ignore. Other sounds, like school playground yelling or, in the countryside, very powerful tractors, chain sawing, etc get varied responses.

My wife was woken by the sound of someone using a two-stroke brush cutter this morning. I heard it, but until she mentioned it, I'd simply tuned it out as part of the usual background noises we experience. Dawn chorus likewise; quite loud here!

[Deleted User]

GDB2222 said:

The birds in my garden are making quite a racket. They have been since quite an unsociable hour. Why is that noise acceptable, but the noise of our own young unacceptable?

Completely different context. You can't control wild birds. Plus, most people would find bird song relaxing

Davesnave

Deleted_User said:

GDB2222 said:

The birds in my garden are making quite a racket. They have been since quite an unsociable hour. Why is that noise acceptable, but the noise of our own young unacceptable?

Completely different context. You can't control wild birds. Plus, most people would find bird song relaxing

  As you admitted earlier, people can't usually control their neighbours' children any more than bird song or droning farm machinery. Whether they ought to have an ability to control them isn't within the scope of this forum. People have different ideas about child and pet behaviour, as any trip into the relevant niches of MSE will show. Exactly the same disagreements occur whenever people ask whether others would buy a house near a school. 

The best approach is possibly to avoid sensitisation, which others have mentioned.

I can't remember our kids being terribly noisy, but then, we had girls!

RelievedSheff

Davesnave said:

Deleted_User said:

GDB2222 said:

The birds in my garden are making quite a racket. They have been since quite an unsociable hour. Why is that noise acceptable, but the noise of our own young unacceptable?

Completely different context. You can't control wild birds. Plus, most people would find bird song relaxing

  As you admitted earlier, people can't usually control their neighbours' children any more than bird song or droning farm machinery. Whether they ought to have an ability to control them isn't within the scope of this forum. People have different ideas about child and pet behaviour, as any trip into the relevant niches of MSE will show. Exactly the same disagreements occur whenever people ask whether others would buy a house near a school. 

The best approach is possibly to avoid sensitisation, which others have mentioned.

I can't remember our kids being terribly noisy, but then, we had girls!

I suspect they were noisy then. You just didn't notice it.

The ear piercing screech that small girls emit is particularly grating.

[Deleted User]

Davesnave said:

Deleted_User said:

GDB2222 said:

The birds in my garden are making quite a racket. They have been since quite an unsociable hour. Why is that noise acceptable, but the noise of our own young unacceptable?

Completely different context. You can't control wild birds. Plus, most people would find bird song relaxing

  As you admitted earlier, people can't usually control their neighbours' children any more than bird song or droning farm machinery. Whether they ought to have an ability to control them isn't within the scope of this forum. People have different ideas about child and pet behaviour, as any trip into the relevant niches of MSE will show. Exactly the same disagreements occur whenever people ask whether others would buy a house near a school. 

The best approach is possibly to avoid sensitisation, which others have mentioned.

I can't remember our kids being terribly noisy, but then, we had girls!

Nobody can control their neighbours' children, but people can and should control their own children. That was my original point but this thread seems to have gone beyond that now. 

benson1980

Deleted_User said:

Davesnave said:

Deleted_User said:

GDB2222 said:

The birds in my garden are making quite a racket. They have been since quite an unsociable hour. Why is that noise acceptable, but the noise of our own young unacceptable?

Completely different context. You can't control wild birds. Plus, most people would find bird song relaxing

  As you admitted earlier, people can't usually control their neighbours' children any more than bird song or droning farm machinery. Whether they ought to have an ability to control them isn't within the scope of this forum. People have different ideas about child and pet behaviour, as any trip into the relevant niches of MSE will show. Exactly the same disagreements occur whenever people ask whether others would buy a house near a school. 

The best approach is possibly to avoid sensitisation, which others have mentioned.

I can't remember our kids being terribly noisy, but then, we had girls!

Nobody can control their neighbours' children, but people can and should control their own children. That was my original point but this thread seems to have gone beyond that now. 

I think it's what you mean by controlling i.e. keeping quiet. The OP wasn't actually complaining that the kids next door were doing anything wrong. Just that it grates, which I understand. But genuinely, unless they are crying loudly/fighting and being left to it without any adult intervention, they are as entitled as anyone to enjoy the garden. You can't really 'train' young children not to make any noise, or take them on excursions every day to the park and saunter back home when they are tired and put them straight to bed. You took this topic onto this basically being a parenting issue, and it came across as rather ill informed at best, especially when you have zero experience of parenting yourself.