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How do I handle this one?

Our house is on a road that runs between a secondary school at the top and a fish and chip shop at the bottom. Every day we have hoards of school kids outside our front door and also along the road that runs up the back of our terrace at 8:30, 12:30 and 3:30. The 8:30 and 3:30 manifestations are fine - Peter is awake and downstairs during those times - but he now takes his nap from 11:30 or so so is asleep during the lunchtime migration. Today a bunch of boys were larking around on the road out back and woke him up (his room is at the back). He had been asleep for about an hour and it clearly wasn't enough as he woke up grumpy but he wouldn't go back to sleep. I am having enough problems with his sleeping at the moment that I really don't need outside elements making it more difficult, but I'm not sure how to tackle this. Do I pop out every time they yell in the street? Do I approach the school? Do I just pray that he will get used to the noise as term goes on? The school kids are pretty decent as a rule and I don't think I would get too much hassle if I did pop out to ask them to pipe down but there are a lot of them and I feel like such an interfering old busybody!

Any advice much appreciated!

Replies

  • Hiyah Hun,

    Does Peter need the room to be really quiet when he's sleeping? If he's ok with some back ground noise maybe you could try having the radio or tv on to drown out the kids.

    Max naps in his buggy in our porch and the postman used to disturb him-I now put the tv on in the living room and it doesn't startle him awake.

    I personally wouldn't go out and ask them to keep the noise down-they may then start purposely being noisy just to rile you and you'd be put there every day. I doubt the school would do much either .

    The only other thing I can think is maybe experimenting with putting him down a little later so he's in his deep sleep phase-I know max starts to stir after an hour as he goes into a lighter sleep but like Peter, he's a total grump if you wake him before he's naturally ready x
  • Do you have a fan you could put on for his nap time? I know it's wasteful, but unfortunately I don't think it's possible to get the school kids to always be quiet.
  • Thanks, ladies. It isn't noise in general, it is loud, sharp noises that wake him. Today's was a loud yell right outside the house! I usually have the radio on downstairs when he is asleep but I was working today and didn't turn it on, so that could work. I'll give it a go at any rate.

    P.bob, we are experimenting with him going down after an early lunch two days a week at the moment, but he is only sleeping for 45 minutes on the days we do that and it isn't enough. :\( Hopefully he will catch up on sleep tomorrow - after this week's efforts, he needs to!
  • I would defo go for the loud background noise i.e. tv or radio for him to fall asleep too and then he wont notice any background noise. I have always had to do this as we have 2 dogs so if anyone walks past the house they go nuts which would wake the kids up if it wasn't for the radio and tv drowning out any noise xx
  • hay hun, i know the feeling xx not only am i on the main school route so get the shouting and screaming and footballs being kicked about ( and at the side of my house ) but i also get the nutty drunks at the weekend coming home from god knows where!!
    im the 1st house on our court, semi detached and ppl can walk all the way round it and when it 1am and there are drunk ppl shouting and screaming its a ruddy nightmare, i hear them at the back of the house and it echo's through the other houses and then i get it round the front.
    tbh Anabel has got used to the noise and now sleeps through anything ( even the hoover woop lol )
    hugs and i hope it sorts its self out x as said b4 try a radio xxxx

    [Modified by: demelza2001 on September 23, 2010 09:42 PM]

  • Aaaargh I hear ya - this drives me up the wall too! ALL the schoolkids come past our house at naptime. I've even considered moving my little girl's cot to her brother's room, at the back of the house.

    What I do now, is play soft music in the background - her lullabye CD. And it seems to be working. If there's a loud shriek that wakes her, then she usually nods off again with the music.
  • What a pain! Sorry, no advice, but I'm not sure you can really do much. As has been said I wouldn't approach the kids personally in case they did it even more.

    Hope a solution presents itself soon, must be very annoying.
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