Sometimes, though, you'd be surprised at how receptive people are when you just straight up confront them. My neighbor's kids scream at each other at the top of their lungs. Quite often it's a "DADDDYYYY!!!" because one did something to the other. When I hear these piercing screams I think something happened and I either look over the fence or, if inside, I run out to make sure that "DADDDYYY!!!" isn't laying there with his head split open from slipping on the concrete.
After a while, it got very annoying so I talked to my neighbor and his wife and told them how I felt about the screams. I explained why it bothers me - because I do honestly fear that something happened to him or one of the kids) and even mentioned that on top of that it is a bit annoying (they scream a LOT!)
They apologized and right in front of me asked their kids if they heard what I said and told them to start thinking about other people (their kids are young, too). They took it very well and I was glad I told them.
So one day their son was in the yard and screamed, so I looked over the fence and I hollered at him, "GABRIEL! Are you BLEEDING???" He said, "no". "Then stop that screaming like that!".
I later told his dad that I yelled at him and he said that Gabriel had told him. I asked what he said: "He said, 'Michael yelled at me today' and I asked him why. When he told me, I said, well....what did Michael tell you? So be quieter from now on".
They are good people, but I was actually glad that they supported me instead of telling me the age old, "kids will be kids" crap you usually get.
