The screams of children at play have become less common in the digital age but the Llloyd family’s insistence that their four children spend time in the backyard of their Willow Park home has drawn the ire of their neighbours.
Karen Lloyd says her four youngest children, ranging in age from six to 13, spend a considerable amoun of time outdoors when the weather cooperates.
“This is healthy,” explains Lloyd. “It should be normal. We should have children outside playing. In the summer months, you have to have that outside time. It’s the only Vitamin D we get."
The Lloyd backyard is often filled with the sounds of their children, their children’s friends and evening barbecues with family friends. The family has lived in the home for nearly five years and it was three summers ago that neighbours began to voice their concerns with the backyard noise.
“They just said it was too noisy, too much screaming and yelling,” recalls Lloyd. “That’s a first. We’ve lived in four different areas in the city and lived next to elderly people or retired couples in all those instances and never had a complaint.”
“We actually had people say they liked the children’s noise.”
Not all Willow Park residents cherish the sound of summer’s return to the Lloyd’s backyard.
“One of our neighbours started to yell at the kids and scared them to death,” said Lloyd of a confrontation that occurred two summers ago. “They were very angry.”
Lloyd’s 13-year-old daughter Sarah recalls the incident.
“When our neighbour yelled at us that was very scary,” said Sarah. “When they yelled at us we couldn’t be outside for like a whole month. It sucked.”
Sarah says she was confused by the man's anger.
“Mom always says it’s an outside voice, so why can’t we use our outside voice outside?” asked Sarah. “It doesn’t really make sense.”
A different neighbour, Lynn Hawker, says the noise from the Lloyd’s home has left her unable to enjoy time in her own backyard.
“She has a couple of little kids, I get it,” admits Hawker. “My complaint is they aren’t just playing over there every day, all the time, it’s that they’re screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs.”
Hawker says she cannot talk on the phone or have a conversation with visitors when the Lloyd children are outside.
“You’re not in a school playground here. You’re in a community with neighbours.”
Karen Lloyd says she’s been respectful of her neighbours’ concerns and turned to the City of Calgary Bylaw Services for clarification on the rules. She says she was told “The City of Calgary bylaws were never intended to restrict the noise of children” and “The quiet hours are between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. otherwise its noise that’s acceptable to the city.”
Armed with the bylaw information, Lloyd sent a note and a gift to her neighbours.
“I conveyed that message as nicely as I could,” said Lloyd. “I delivered the note with what the bylaw officer had said and a plate of cookies. The cookies were returned and the note was scribbled on saying ‘you’re not respecting other people and your children need to be quieter’.”
Lloyd hopes her family’s issue will empower other families who have been reluctant to have their children play outside because of a 'cranky neighbour'.
“This is not about me and my neighbours,” said Lloyd. “This is about the families in the city of Calgary. So many of the families are finding it difficult to have people respect the rights of their children to play outside.”
With files from CTV's Ina Sidhu
