So tonight I’m sitting here in front of my computer, when all of a sudden I hear this loud female screaming outside my apartment. It sounded to me like some woman was getting the shit kicked out of her. Given that my immediate neighbor is a young single mother with a small child, and her son’s father is an asshole, I jumped up, yanked on some pants, put on my work shoes (they’re nice and heavy, in case I need to curbstomp somebody) and ran my ass downstairs, ready to tackle somebody.
Turns out the screaming was coming from the little 7-year-old girl who lives a few doors down (which makes me especially glad I put on some damned pants). She was playing “tag” with some friends. And she was shrieking like somebody being stabbed to death.
The granddaughter of the couple who own the house next to me has been shrieking since she could walk. She’s about 10 now. Fortunately she visits only during summer weekends, when all the windows are open.
It’s not just girls; young boys do it too. It’s called “whistle register”, which is above falsetto, and children can do it effortlessly. Adults can also do it with practice, e.g., Minnie Ripperton and Mariah Carey.
I was cured of this in one step by my mother.
She told me a story which out-grimmed the Grimms, finishing up with, “And nobody came to help her because the little girl screamed too many times before.”
Yeah, I know, my next door neighbor’s dog does that too. You should try calling in a complaint to animal control. They won’t do anything in my community, but in some communities, the animal control officers are all over disturbances like that. Give it a try.
I have several children and they all scream constantly and I’m not ashamed to say it drives me nuts but we live in a house not an apartment so the neighbors don’t hear it. This has had the effect of me not being able to watch scenes in movies or TV shows with screaming kids and crying babies, I get enough of that in real life I don’t need to hear it when I’m trying to relax, watching a movie after the kids are asleep.
I just got back from Thanksgiving at my sister’s. I opened up the SDMB and saw this thread and thought “did I post a thread?” My nieces could peel siding off a building. Holy Toledo. I love them to bits, but omigolly. Less screaming would be awesome.
Thankfully, my nieces either skipped that stage or went though it in my absence. That high-pitched shrieking is on my short, short list of things that make me feel stabby.*
*Not that I actually would get stabby, just so’s you know.
The shrieking of a 7 year old girl can indeed be unpleasant, but that’s young enough that they really don’t get it. They don’t get just how piercing their shrieks can be, and they don’t get that they’re actually shrieking if they’re not raising their voice with direct intention (ie yelling in anger at another kid, yelling for help, yelling to communicate with someone in another room/far away).
Sure there’s some conditioning that can be done through good parenting to get a 7 year old to use an “inside voice” and not shriek in the grocery store. When running around outside playing with other kids, however, inhibitions are low. Shrieks just come out.
Teenaged girls on the other hand, shrieks and screaming giggles can abound in improperly socialized teenaged girls. And they’re old enough that they should be properly socialized against such piercing shrieks.
7 too young to learn better? I think not. This is the easiest thing to stop, for parents. I live next to a public school and I often hear the teachers putting an end to shrieking, quite simply.
“If you cannot be quieter than this you’ll have to play inside, no one wants to listen to that. Are we clear? You won’t be told again!” They are still noisy and boisterous in the schoolyard, but they don’t shriek. Why should neighbours have to listen to that? Do they imagine the child can’t control it? What rot! Can you imagine an entire school yard of children engaging in this ? Windows would break, of course teachers put an end to it.
It seems to work just fine for even junior kindergarten kids. Do those same kids still shriek at home? Probably, why not? Their parents let them. I wonder, do those parents imagine this is tolerated at school or at other children’s homes?
**elbows **- you hit the shrieking nail on its head! If mommy and daddy don’t deal with it early and completely, the rest of us suffer.
I never had such problems with my daughter. My pug, on the other hand, has a high-pitched bark (reserved for passing school buses) that causes paint to peel. She will not be reasoned with! Stoopit dog…
