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Let Kids Be Loud

afterbabel.com

121–130 of 195 posts

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#121

For years our neighborhood had an ice cream truck or two turn up a few days a week during summer, which we used to enjoy. This year, not a single one. I saw one of the trucks at a school fete and asked about it. The guy said one person had complained about the noise so the local council banned them after 7pm! With most of their sales falling between 6-9pm, they decided it wasn't worth it for one hour and moved on to…

It's amazing how much power one person can have if we let them. I would organize people to talk to the people who made the ban and let them know you are unhappy. People pay so little attention to local politics that even an issue like this can result in someone being elected or not being reelected.

I’ve grown up in a Hollywood Hillbilly-esque family, one that made it but kept to the original values. That is to say the e’ve “made it” and live in a highly regarded vacation destination area. Except I grew up learning to stand up to bullies, ne’er-do-wells, and miscreants, if that meant coming to fisticuffs, so be it.

From a young age I learned a fascinating lesson, socially speaking, is that some non trivial percent of the population does not at all mind the proverbial “Karen” causing a ruckus for the community. However, the second you stand up and tell them you don’t agree, somehow, you are the one held responsible as the troublemaker.

It’s not the initial ruckus causer that matters, it’s the conflict causer that does. Too many don’t care about change in any way, they care about “the peace.”

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#122
post #2

I live next door to a summer camp. The kind that has kids from the nearby city come for 2 weeks, sleep in bunks, play outside all day, hike, etc. A few months ago we had a carpenter doing some work on the house, and he was asking me about the camp and living so near to it. Eventually he asked "Are they loud when they play? That must be so annoying. I'd hate that." I replied "Nah, it's healthy and fun, and it doesn't…

Yeah, I hate lawnmowers. I live next to a church/religious school and an apartment building both with a large yard. I don't mind the daily church bells at 6/12/7 but the constant lawn mowing is the worst.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#123
post #115
post #14

We seem less tolerant of kids these days, and more tolerant of dogs.

The other day an unleashed dog ran into my yard from the adjacent park and the woman escorting it informed me that I should build a fence!

Yeah I like dogs, but growing up we treated them as a home and backyard pet only, having them run around in neighborhood or bringing to stores or restaurants(!) would have been unthinkable. I really don't get it.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#124
post #61

I was just writing two days ago about how ADHD is overdiagnosed and our system is just set up to try to coerce kids to be convenient for the system: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44490274 There I put forward some proposals at the end

I have under-diagnosed ADHD because my father was a Fox News disciple, science-hating, arrogant bigot who believed ADHD was a "conspiracy" of anti-male leftists.

I don't know about your particular situation, but I'm speaking systemically, and about large trends and socio-economic realities that affect people.

But having said that, I'd be very interested to hear what you think the consequences of the under-diagnosis were, realistically.

As far as anti-science, I think people on the left and right of the political spectrum are anti-science, at least to the same degree that term is thrown around.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#125
post #120
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and if OP had said that, perhaps we'd be having a different conversation. Or none at all? EDIT: Ah, maybe you're responding to my remark of it having "nothing to do"? If so, yeah, that's hyperbole. There are similarities if you want to look for them. But I don't think they're meaningful connections for the point of the story and OP's reaction, in my opinion.

The point of the story is that someone tried to strike up a conversation with OP and he responded by effectively saying "your job is loud and obnoxious", and it's presented as if it's a win. It doesn't really seem like one to me.

The comment was not aimed at the carpenter. Nothing he was doing was loud, and nothing I've experienced with carpenters gives me the impression that they are loud or obnoxious. He was doing a great job. If he took what I said as a dig at his profession, that was his connection, not mine.

My take away, after the fact, was that he may have been someone who enjoyed landscaping his own yard and owned several tools that I listed. Nothing to do with his career and services, and nothing that's a reflection of our interaction.

The story wasn't meant to be a win or a competition. It was a reflection on how some people associate some loud sounds, such as motors, as being perfectly fine and other loud sounds, like children at play, being a nuisance.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#126

For years our neighborhood had an ice cream truck or two turn up a few days a week during summer, which we used to enjoy. This year, not a single one. I saw one of the trucks at a school fete and asked about it. The guy said one person had complained about the noise so the local council banned them after 7pm! With most of their sales falling between 6-9pm, they decided it wasn't worth it for one hour and moved on to…

Funny, we have the opposite problem. Ice cream trucks in my area have become way too aggressive. I would give anything to ban them from our neighborhood, as they come through within the first hour after school getting out, causing daily arguments in houses with children. Sometimes more than once a day.

Look, even if I wanted to give my kids ice cream every day after school, I am at home and would just get it from the freezer. Even if I say yes to ice cream today, it’s another exhausting round of “why can’t we get ice cream” tomorrow.

At the park yesterday, two trucks were making the rounds. Meaning every 15 minutes, there was an argument. I overheard multiple exhausted parents saying things like “because I already got you ice cream!”

> church bells, kids playing football, carol singers, or ice cream trucks

One of these things is not like the other. Some people like carol singers. Who likes Turkey In The Straw blared through a cheap speaker on loop?

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#127
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure about this being a new thing. I also think we've gone too far with the anti-karen whiplash and think everything before that was trendy was perfect. When I was a kid that got up to no good or was just being annoyingly loud, I would hear about it. There's always been an acceptable loud, like kids running around and playfully being loud at a park or playground. Going to the same playground with a loud stere…

Certainly, there were plenty of "dude, really?" moments when kids would go over on limits. It is hard not to think we haven't pushed the limits down to zero, though. Granted, using smoking as an example is hilarious to me. I confess near zero sympathy for that going away. If anything, I'm pretty sure I'm more dumbfounded that people still smoke in any real numbers.

Former/recovering smoker. I hear this sentiment a lot (“Why would anyone ever smoke? It’s just dumbfounding”). I can tell you the reason people smoke is because it feels fucking great. It’s a terrible, terrible habit and the number of smokers of any drug should be zero, but I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it wasn’t relaxing and enjoyable.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#128
post #117
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Babies on airplanes get a pass because iykyk I think broadly if you’re doing something you just need to do, then a kid being a kid (particularly babies) is fine. Even if it’s annoying, that’s just life. Beyond that you need to pick your place - I’m happy taking my young kids to dinner where there’s other kids and noise, I’d not take them to a quiet tasting menu place. Having said that, someone with an upset baby is…

I generally understand dealing with an upset kid in public is hard and I sympathize. But I once had a red-eye flight where the kid was screaming for its daddy, who we later determined was on the flight just in a different row. We saw no indication the mother was actually trying to soothe the child, nor did she go get the father. We were not happy to start a vacation with such little sleep...

I avoid red eyes. They just aren't worth it.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#129
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely is. Gettin an ice cream truck banned from your neighborhood because you heard it drive by is the epitome of Karen behavior.

Blasting sound out of your vehicle into a residential area for hours just because you want to sell something is selfish. So is defending the behavior and imposing it on everyone around you just because it's sometimes convenient for you to walk 10 meters for some ice cream once a month. Like TFA says, we have to decide as a society what kind of noise we think is worthwhile. The sound of kids playing seems essential fo…

You are focusing on the driver, but what about the patrons. Is one selfish person listening to sound for a minute enough to to prevent 10 kids from being happy? 100? 1000?

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#130
I have 2 young kids, but I also had my first when I was 38 so I have a lot of experience as an adult with no kids.

I’ve only ever been seriously annoyed by loud kids a handful of times in my entire life. Each time it was always travel sports teams at hotels.

And I’m the kind of person who gets really annoyed at loud sounds like leaf blowers, and loud car stereos.

Kids can be noisy, but I have never had dinner “ruined” by an uncontrolled kid. I’ve never had a movie ruined by loud kids (I have had movies nearly ruined by loud adults and older teenagers). I’ve never been seated near a baby crying on a plane that I couldn’t tune out—especially with headphones (that is until I flew with my own baby on a plane—can’t tune that out because you’re just desperate to get him to stop so you don’t annoy anyone else).

I think people are just being overly sensitive.

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