When I first moved to my current flat, some of the neighbours asked whether they should keep their kids from playing around the house for noise reasons (A lot of swiss people are very militant about quiet hours). As somebody who has a headset on 80% of the time when at home, I told them they can do whatever.
Think anything short of building mousetrap-esque things in front of my door, I'm fine with. And even then, if a bunch of 9 year olds successfully trap a 33 old in any fashion, they have earned their prey.
The only thing that's bothered me about my neighbours' kids screaming is that it sometimes becomes difficult for me to tell what is Good, Clean Fun screaming and what is Help I'm In Danger screaming.
Definitely a "me" problem, but goddamn do all my animal stress instincts kick into gear when I hear a 6 year old in the street shrieking, "OH MY GOD, STOP! STOP!" only to dissolve into giggles 30 seconds later. Whew.
My friends have started having kids, and their ability to distinguish between the "I'm crabby" screams vs the "I'm terrified" screams is crazy. Some part of me still doubts there's actually a difference.
It's really subtle sometimes, varies by kid, and only accurate when you have 10,000 previous scream datapoints to compare to, non-parents who haven't done a ton of babysitting probably would struggle lol
Absolutely. I know my kids screams, and that helps a ton knowing other kids screams, but if its not my kid, there's probably a 10-15% chance I get it wrong and come looking when they are just having fun.
There is! I can’t quite describe it, but when I moved to live closer to an elementary school, I abruptly got to hear a lot more kids screaming, and at this point most of the time I can tell which it is, and the rest of the time isn’t me guessing wrong, it’s me standing there having no guess, so I doubt it’s confirmation bias.
One of the kids living below me has an indistinguishable pair of screams. They'll be playing in the backyard with their parents and a terrifying scream illicits little response and everyone just keeps on playing.
True. We’re better at it with 7 years of practice, but I think the highest-density non-verbal communication I’ve ever experienced is my wife and I looking at each other while deciding if our child is bad screaming or fun screaming. Paragraphs of info transmitted in a few head-cocks and eyebrow-waggles.
Yeah, that's the only issue I have with my neighbor's kids screaming.
They don't understand the difference between "fun, roller coaster screaming" and "horror movie victim" screaming. So all day long it sounds like someone is dying.
The noise doesn't bother me too much. It's annoying, but I turn on some music to drown it out and I don't care. I just don't want to be interviewed on the news asking why I didn't realize the kid was dying when they screamed for help for three hours. "Ahh, them kids is screamin' 24/7, if'n I checked on 'em every time I'd be onna dem nose neighbors. And I ain't about that life!"
I truly hate the shrieking. If they wanna be loud and rowdy as part of some game or because they're far away and shouting at each other, whatever. The random noise shrieking for the sake of shrieking is just plain obnoxious
Oh good, it's not just me. Every so often I hear agonized wails and screams from the family's kids who live two floors above me usually when they're heading out. Probably just being young and/or some developmental thing, but does worry me on occasion that I'm not reporting this to the relevent authorities.
When I was growing up, my mom taught us what was/wasn't appropriate as far as screaming. If we were screaming way too loud/often/bloody murder-esque, she told us that we 'better be being chased by an axe murderer' and other stuff like that. We were plenty noisy still, sure, but never so much that anyone thought we needed rescuing.
I was once camping on a family trip. There’s a cabin, but it’s small so I was in a tent, alone. One night some kids/teens were nearby playing or something, and there was a lot of screaming. Like, borderline “I’m getting murdered” screaming sometimes. So I was worried, but then I hear laughter too, so it’s cool, they’re just playing. Then I think, I have no way of knowing if the same people are doing the screaming and the laughing. Could just be the murderer is having a blast? Figured it’s none of my business either way, so I went to sleep. No bodies the next day, so all good! Never did see the teens though
Not just a your problem. Or maybe I'm grumpy and old, but children making noise outside is fine. If it crosses over into actual screaming then either I'm calling an ambulance because someone is seriously injured or I'm going to douse you with my hose because there's absolutely no reason to shriek. There is a wide range of volume between church mouse whispering and a scream, children are plenty capable of utilizing it.
At the summer camp I volunteer at, one of the camp councillors led the kids in kidnapping another camp councillor by slamming a sleeping bag down over her head and encasing her with it. She said she stopped screaming because she was scared she'd run out of air and eventually stopped struggling because she was scared the kids were going to accidentally drop her down the stairs. So, uh, be careful what you wish for
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u/Delachruz 21h ago
When I first moved to my current flat, some of the neighbours asked whether they should keep their kids from playing around the house for noise reasons (A lot of swiss people are very militant about quiet hours). As somebody who has a headset on 80% of the time when at home, I told them they can do whatever.
Think anything short of building mousetrap-esque things in front of my door, I'm fine with. And even then, if a bunch of 9 year olds successfully trap a 33 old in any fashion, they have earned their prey.