Mum slammed for letting child play in back garden at 'unacceptable' time
Poppy Bilderbeck
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A mum has faced backlash on Mumsnet after she questioned what time is 'acceptable' to let her child out to play in the garden.
Kids - no matter how much you love and dote on them - can sometimes be hard to control, so you can't blame this Mumsnet mum for deciding the best solution when her child was 'on one' was simply to chuck them out the back door.
However, while many may relate to their toddler turning into a 'tiny terrorist,' the mum has been slammed by some for suggesting she let her child outside in the garden to play first thing in the morning and accused of letting them out much 'too early'.
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The mum - who goes by 'Theresamagicalplace' - wrote on Mumsnet: "The tiny terrorist is on one this morning and I said to my partner it's fine we can get him out in garden in 20 mins or so to burn off the excess energy.
"He looked at me like I had two heads and told me anything before 10 or 10.30 on a weekend was unacceptable and would make us those neighbours.
"For context we have 2 attached neighbours both with babies or young children themselves and ours is only a toddler so plays relatively quietly (obviously not silently though). So aibu, am I accidentally the neighbour from hell?"
Her ultimate question? "[Is] 8:30am [...] an acceptable time for a child to play in the garden?"
Other mums flooded to the post to weigh in on what time they deem 'too early' for a child to be let loose in the garden.
One said: "I would say 9.30am. Anything before nine is definitely too early."
"Sending him outside to burn off excess energy does not sound like he will be playing quietly," another wrote.
A third, rather aggressive user, wrote: "If you were my neighbour I'd be sticking pins into a miniature sized doll of you."
However, others stuck up for the mum, sharing their own experiences with small children.
"How on earth do you keep a toddler entertained at home until 10:30? I don't think 8:30 is too early at all," one said.
A second wrote: "I would say nine is ok for a weekend. Like pp said 10.30 is practically lunch time when toddlers are up at the crack of dawn. I think before 9am is unsociable for people to start doing noisy DIY or gardening on a weekend but toddler noise is nowhere near as loud."
A final justified: "Well as my ( lovely) student neighbours party until 4:00am in the summer I'd be delighted just to hear the sound of a child playing at 8.30am. Builders start here at 7:00am in the week and by 8:00am weekends."