# screaming kids - really? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 25, 2011, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screaming-kids-really/597525 "2011-09-25T04:03:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screaming-kids-really/597525/201 "2011-10-10T23:37:53Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > For goodness sakes, no. > > My reply was to your assertion that I live in some magical and unique place where parents care and that your experience- parents who ignore their child’s bad behavior- is the norm. Despite my stating at least a couple times in this thread that in my experience, while there are parents who don’t care about how how they’re children act, most do. This idea that there is “the cult of child” with parents just rolling over to never reprimand their misbehaving children is just not my experience. Having kids I end up around lots of families and most are doing a fine job with occasional lapses. Some parents suck. Most actually do want to raise good, decent kids. I didn’t say that you live in some magical and unique place, I said that there are places where most parents are doing a good job and you should feel lucky to live there. If you have never noticed the cult of the child, you are either very lucky or you simply don’t see anything wrong with it. I haven’t said that parents who ignore bad behavior is the norm, I said it’s getting more common - it wasn’t me who came up with “cult of the child” after all. I really have trouble believing that it is only here on the left coast that people discuss the issues with the various unique and interesting child rearing and teaching theories that have come down the pike in the last 10-20 years. There are all kinds of reasons why you might not notice problems with parenting - if you work full time (I don’t), you live in a place that has weather (kids are outside pretty much all year here), if you live in a less densely populated area (I am in a very densely populated area), if you only interact with parents who believe in actually parenting, if your close neighbors don’t have many grade school age kids. Perceptions come from experience, and my perception right now is the people across the street are raising the same kids as the ones that kick the back of my seat, talk during movies, scream in stores, etc. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screaming-kids-really/597525/202 "2011-10-10T23:58:19Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > If you have never noticed the cult of the child Barbara Tuchman mentions the “Cult of Childhood” in one of her books. In the 13th and 14th centuries, they were treated as miniature adults. During the English Civil War between Stephen and Maude, Maude’s nephew commanded an army of Flemish mercenaries at the age of 13. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screaming-kids-really/597525/203 "2011-10-11T04:01:06Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > OK, just so I’m clear. It’s OK for her to follow me around and troll the heck out of me, but I can’t tell her she is being a jerk? No, you can’t. Retaliation is not an excuse on the SDMB. If you feel you are being harassed (that isn’t really “trolling” in the technical sense we use, but it could be jerkish behaviouor all the same) then please report the relevant posts. I didn’t see that as being line-crossing behaviour but another mod might see it differently. If you have more general questions about moderation please ask in ATMB. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screaming-kids-really/597525/204 "2011-10-11T04:04:33Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I live in a nice quiet suburban neighborhood and have only two neighbors I wish Human Combustion on. Motorcycle Guy on one side, who endlessly revs his bike and rides it up and down and up and down and up and down the street, gunning it as loud as he possibly can. Someday I am going to take a slingshot . . . > > And on the other side, more pertinent to this thread, is a family with three preteen girls, all set on perma-shriek. > > In both cases, there is realistically not a damn thing I can do, so I either drown them out with a white-noise machine or loud music, and I brood angrily and take another year off my life. > [@curlcoat](#): > > Actually, they haven’t complained and we’ve only had the one complaint from the retired guy down the block. But, really, I no desire to be friends with people who let their kids run amok like that. > > Ya know, I’ve been _really_ tempted to call 911 during one of the pool parties, because it does sound like someone is being killed and since the pool is in the backyard, I can’t actually see whether or not someone is being endangered… But, I really don’t want to do that to our police. > > I really don’t get why this level of noise is OK just because it’s kids. Everything else is complained about by someone, and it stops, but the kids? It just seems to get worse - well, it has since it’s moved from the back yard to the front. ☹ I remember a thread a few years back where another Doper was having to deal with motorcycle guy working on and revving his bike for hours at a time every weekend. Doper ultimately decided that was the ideal time to fire up the mosquito fogger in his yard. You might try getting with some of your equally annoyed neighbors and making it a team eddort. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screaming-kids-really/597525/205 "2011-10-11T04:12:10Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > No, you can’t. Retaliation is not an excuse on the SDMB. I wasn’t retaliating, I was just trying to get her to go away. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t say she was being a jerk in IMHO, so that was my bad. > [@](#): > > If you feel you are being harassed (that isn’t really “trolling” in the technical sense we use, but it could be jerkish behaviouor all the same) then please report the relevant posts. I did and got no response - it was, oh, about four-five days ago? Thursday at least. Anyway, if you don’t see what she’s been doing as jerkish behavior, I’ll go back to ignoring her. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screaming-kids-really/597525/206 "2011-10-11T04:24:11Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > I remember a thread a few years back where another Doper was having to deal with motorcycle guy working on and revving his bike for hours at a time every weekend. Doper ultimately decided that was the ideal time to fire up the mosquito fogger in his yard. > > You might try getting with some of your equally annoyed neighbors and making it a team eddort. I’m not sure what we could do? None of us owns a motorcycle (or a mosquito fogger!). I’d try parking the trailer in front of their house but we are trying to sell it so it’s on an RV dealers lot. I wonder what they would think if we parked the truck over there for a couple of weeks while, hmm, we had the driveway worked on? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screaming-kids-really/597525/207 "2011-10-11T04:28:30Z")
Two wrongs do not make a right. You are not willing to discuss and settle the matter between you and your neighbours, and you are not willing to move away from the conflict. Instead, you are seeking ways of continuing the conflict. To that degree, you are a master of your own fate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screaming-kids-really/597525.md?page=10)