My MIL lives in a granny flat at the back of our house it’s all seperate . She’s had words with our neighbours whilst out wartering her garden over their child who screams in their pool . For a few years now every summer this kid doesn’t play normal it’s so loud and screaming and yelling. She was watering her garden and it was wetting them next door as the pool is basically on the fence line . So the neighbour popped her head over and asked to stop wetting them and my MIL went off at them asking to tell them to stop screaming ect but then she wet the neighbour with the hose and told her not to be such a bitch . Whilst I’m embarrassed it’s true the neighbours kids are so so loud . Is she in the wrong to ask them to be quiet ? Definitely in the wrong to wet them and swear at them ! It’s like she snapped she’d had enough she can’t hear her tv and has to shut her house up when their in their pool !
17 Replies
The kids may have a disability and at the end of the day they are kids and you were all kids too once. Let the kids be kids and if MIL can’t hack it then she needs to be absolutely perfect in every way and you guys too. She was wrong and should apologise. If no one has actually gone over to the neighbours and said hey is there a chance you can get your kids to stop screaming so loudly I can barely hear the tv in my granny flat the mum may have done something about it. You don’t just squirt your neighbour in the face and call her a bitch when they actually did the right thing and ask her to be more careful.
My old neighbour was deaf as hell and started just yelling at me one day because my dogs had been barking in the middle of the night. Turns out her gardening at stupid o’clock In the morning would set them off. Her cat which roamed at night would set them off and the “locals” stalking and casing out properties on the regular set them off to. She never heard me telling my dogs off, she never heard me opening my back door and she never heard the locals casing out the place but she could hear my dogs. But she never approached me ever. Just started yelling at me over the fence like some old crazy bitch.
Your mil is in the wrong. Kids should be able to make noise in their own backyard during the day. I highly doubt she was watering the Garden and just accidentally hosed them, that was a pretty aggressive thing to do.
I'm going to go against the grain here a little.
My kids are noisy, a certain level of noise is to be expected with children and yes they have a right to play in our own backyard but our neighbours also have the right to live in peace without listening to my kids scream and squeal. So if I hear squealing or screaming, they get one warning to keep it down. If it continues, they have to come inside until they can be more respectful and considerate. I mean, we have 2 elderly neighbours, a family with a newborn and a shift worker so I absolutely won't tolerate excessive and relentless noise from my kids.
Obviously your Mil didn't go about this remotely the right way but if the noise levels are outside the realms of normal and they're constant, her frustrations are totally valid.
I'd probably go over and apologise on her behalf, assure them that they'll not be on the receiving end of any more cranky outbursts but in the same token you'd all appreciate it if they could have a word with the kids and try and get them to take the noise down just a bit.
Totally agree with this one. Well said
Yep agree totally with this.
I really don’t think you can be upset with children playing in their backyard through the day.
She is in the wrong. Her behaviour is not justifiable.
Yes she's in the wrong. She got annoyed and went out and hosed the neighbours in the their own yard. She's insane. So wrong.
I've got loud kids too and neighbors houses are reasonably close. I never tell them off if it's "fun" squealing and laughing. But often, they taunt each other and its shitty screaming and carrying on (yay for me), so I usually go out and give them a warning, if they don't stop , they come inside.
I think your MIL was being cheeky by watering over the fence though. She was asking for trouble by doing that. Surely her garden isn't fence height. I used to have neighbors who'd literally water THE FENCE to piss my dog off so I feel like she was just doing it to get them back for having loud kids.
She's probably burnt all her bridges, of letting the neighbors politely know that she can hear so easily from her house when the kids are in their back yard. The best bet would have been to mention it nicely before anything like this happened.
If this kid was a yapping dog everyone would be like YES how terrible it is to be bothered by it. Your MIL is a bit of a fire cracker clearly who's been tipped over the edge.. she should apologise. But also your neighbours are inconsiderate members of your street community who should shut their kid up... tough crowd.
But they’ve never mentioned to the neighbour previously that it was a problem. Apparently it’s been going on for years and no one has said anything previously. That’s where the problem lies. No neighbourly connection going on at all.
Neighbourly connection 🙄
Where does basic consideration for other people come into play though?
I have neighbouring houses on each side and two behind me, I've never really even spoken to any of them in the 10 years I've lived here. I still don't allow my kids to scream, yell and make unnecessary noise because I have enough common sense to realise that that sort of thing might be irritating to other residents in our street. I certainly wouldn't roll with the assumption that constant screaming or noisyness isn't a problem just because no one has said anything.
That's ridiculous logic!
Sooty wouldn’t talk to your neighbours if something was happening that bothered you so much you couldn’t enjoy living in your own home? Such a silly way to live. If you don’t speak up and say something then it’s going to keep happening. How are they going to know you can’t hear the tv if you don’t say anything, how are they going to know if something bothers you and you haven’t spoken up but just one day start attacking them for something they don’t even know is a problem for you. When I was younger I knew all of my neighbours and beleive me if they had a problem with something I did they would talk to my mum about it and my mum would fix it. Not squirt me over the fence like some kind of juvenile. If you don’t say anything your the idiot just dealing with a shitty situation. We are constantly telling our kids they need to talk to us if something is wrong but can’t lead by example 🙄
I assume daylight time noise is ok. Same as I dont go out and whinge when neighbours mow, play music and use power tools.
I used to live next door to noisy kids. Every summer I’d have to listen to them in their pool which was right outside my window. Unfortunately they are kids playing so there is nothing I could do. I’d just have to shut my window until they went inside. I have smokers next door to me now. Give me noisy kids any day!!
Why not sound proof the granny flat? If it's one at the back or side fences and only has thin walls then she is going to hear everything. If it's not those kids today it will be another neighbours bbq tomorrow or something. If you own the house it's up to you to make it a bit soundproof, not put granny out there and expect all the neighbours to be quiet for her so she can watch TV. My neighbours had their Dad stay in a caravan in the backyard and he complained about every little noise that came from our house and other neighbours houses. There was nothing we could do, we were living respectfully of people around us but we shouldn't have to whisper and tip toe around all the time. I ended up dobbing them in to the council because he shouldn't have been living in a caravan on residential property so he had to move. Normally I'm not that petty but he was really annoying and his complaints were affecting our day to day lives. So just make sure you are doing your part to reduce outside noise before complaining about the neighbours. Cladding, big thick double curtains, thick vinyl backed pictures and solid doors can make a huge difference.
It's ok. One day the family will move out and you'll have young people who have pool parties and loud music til late at night. You'll call police and nothing much will happen. You mother will spray the party goers over the fence and they will pee over into yours. Good luck.
Sorry but if you want to live in tight suburbs you have to excpet children making noise having fun. I don't actually like loud people so love rural.