[Lorna Grumpy] The Saga of the Running Children.

(Do you know how difficult it is to find a picture of kids running indoors??)

 

The unit down the hall from me has two children (with a third on the way.)  Their kids run down the hallway to the elevator and mash the buttons. They then mash the buttons in the elevator. They sound like a herd of buffalo when they go down the hall.

 

I thought I was just being too quiet so I wasn't masking the noise of their noise very well. So, I moved my bedroom around so my head was beside the outside wall, I put a fan between me and the door to the hall, and typically have music playing non-stop. I switched which way I lay on the couch so my head is at the outside wall, I have a fan between me and the door and I have music between me and them, although the TV isn't. I still can hear them pounding up and down the hall. The vibration is as bad as the noise. I can hear them when I have my headset on and am streaming hockey.

 

I have fibromyalgia. I sleep when I can as I can. Often that involves being woken up by the kids as they run down the hall. The barking dogs out back don't wake me, the power tools of home reno don't wake me, the vacuuming of the hall doesn't wake me, but the kids do. I'm also an introvert so I loath confrontation. I put off, for as long as I possibly could, saying or doing anything. The final straw was when I was on Skype with a friend and I got a 'What was that??' and I said 'the Kids from down the hall running to the elevator.' I've written at least four letters of complaint, the head of Strata talked to them on more than one occassion. The Mom said she'd take the stairs, the Dad didn't seem to care one ioata. Now, her taking the stairs doesn't seem a practical answer to me, but whatever. I'd have thought the better measure would be to teach the kids not to run in the hallway. Head of Strata said he's not here when it happens, I'm gonna have to talk to them myself. (He put it way nicer and diplomatically, but that's what it boiled down to. The harshness is me, not him.)

 

So, fine, today, when the kidlets when pounding down the hall, I went and found clothing, and opened my door to ask them to ask their kids to not run down the hall and I got told "They're kids, they're run. How do you ask them not to run?" Which sounded like a get out of parenting excuse. I realize that kids have energy, they need to burn energy, but do kids in school not manage to learn "Don't run in the halls"? I didn't have to be taught that in school since I already knew it! And I started school at the age of four! Maybe I'm overestimating the abilities of a 3 - 4 year old? Isn't there a certain behaviour for certain places rule book? Don't you teach kids these things?

 

So I ask, how would you / did you, teach your children not to run indoors?