Category Archives: late

Can I Discipline My Neighbor’s Children?

9 p.m. is not that late. I know this. But I also know that when you are trying to get small children to sleep, and you will be up at around 5:30 the next morning to get these children ready and then go to work, 9 p.m. might as well be midnight.
Children play, run around, scream, shriek, etc. I know this. But I don’t know why our neighbors allow their small children to do this in their back yard at 9 p.m. on a regular basis. These children are screaming at the top of their lungs as if they were playing poolside on a Saturday afternoon. It is Tuesday night on a small cul-de-sac where we are not the only people who have to be at work the next day (I am currently on maternity leave, so I don’t technically qualify as one of these people, but maternity leave is not forever, and our new neighbors are wearing out their welcome, along with my nerves).
My husband has gone over and spoken with them about it, but that was a temporary solution. They are not violating any noise ordinance laws, just the laws of common decency. Is it okay to continuously go over there to ask them to monitor their children’s noise levels? And why aren’t these small children in bed by now?

What would you do?