Wednesday, July 16, 2008

• You know, if I let my dog outside to bark, the neighbors would complain loudly.  And rightly so.  The sound of a dog barking is annoying and disturbing.

  I wish our neighbors had dogs.  It would make things so much easier.

  Instead they have kids. 

  The sound of children laughing and squealing is one of the beautiful sounds of summer.  Our neighbors don't have kids who laugh and squeal.  They have kids who scream and whine and cry.  Endlessly.  And the parents don't do a damn thing.  They don't comfort the crying child.  They don't punish the whining child.  They let the kids scream at each other. 

  It's a beautiful day.  I went outside to work.  Just as I'm getting my things together, the toddler comes outside and begins to scream.  She continues to scream.  The mother says something to the toddler.  The toddler screams louder.  The other kids begin to scream. 

  So much for sitting outside on a beautiful day.  And yeah, I had my headphones on, but all I could hear was the screaming and screeching.  Try to write with that background noise. 

  I came inside and turned up the stereo so I couldn't hear the screams any more.

  It's horrible.  There have been many beautiful evenings when we've had to close up the house because the kids are outside wailing.  They wake me up between 7:30 and 8 like clockwork (who needs a rooster) because those kids greet the day by screaming at the top of their lungs. 

  As far as we can see, there is nothing abusive happening.  The kids will be outside playing, the adult will turn her attention to something else, and that sets the kid off.  But the adult does nothing.  That's the frustrating part.  The adult does nothing.  Maybe they think scream therapy will help the kid with attachment issues, but it sure doesn't do a whole lot for being neighborly. 

  Mostly our neighbors are all nice people, and you can deal with the once a year fireworks at midnight at one house or the guy who seems to start his lawnmower the moment we have company pull in our driveway (because he's otherwise a good neighbor).  But the non-stop screaming kids get to be a bit much.

  • 4:14 PM
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