If you have kids, and your neighbors were having a problem like this, what would you want them to do?

Kill. Me.

What do you hope to accomplish by raising the issue with the child's parents? Would your intent be to make them aware of the problem? Believe me, they are aware that there is a problem. Sometimes kids are screamers. This is the price we must occasionally pay for ensuring the survival of our species.

It could be a disorder, a kind of autism or schizophrenia. Growing up my neighbor Mikey had a severe autistic condition and would be fairly vocal until he settled down around 13 - when I guess the training finally sunk in.

If you fear for the child's safety, neglect, or similar then yes, you should call children's services or the police.

I wouldn't confront the parents ever, but if you know them even on a tiny level, you could politely ask if their child is ok as you hear him pretty regularly. I'd be polite about it, sounds more like a condition from what you're describing instead of abuse. In which case the parents are likely feeling high anxiety levels all the time from the kind of attention such children demand (even regular parenting is stressful).

If its a condition and seriously bothers you, I hate to say it but the only way to avoid it is to move. This isn't like a dog where you can have the city step in for noise polution or the link.

How old is this child? Pretty young, I assume. The kid won't scream forever (unless it's a disorder like eatdonuts laid out, in which case he might). I think it's fair to ask, politely, if the kid is OK, since you hear him screeching so often. Maybe even express some sympathy for the parents- surely it's 1000 times worse in their house. That could get them on your side.

My kid is 1.5, and does not scream. My guess is that there is something wrong, but I'm sure the parents are well aware of it. TPS has it.

Yup. What TPS and eatdonuts said. My brother used to scream (and do other interesting things) in shopping malls, that made everyone very uncomfortable. Compassion goes a long way, here.

Best of luck.

The real issue here is that it's been going on for almost 2 years now, and it's only getting worse rather than better. My guess is the kid is around 3 or 4 now. Their other kid screams constantly to, but she isn't nearly as loud or for as long.

It is making our lives unbearable, making it impossible for my husband to work, and making it hard for me to get more than 3hrs of sleep. To be honest, my compassion is wearing thin. We have to make a living, and this morning I was so angry and sleep deprived I almost called the cops to say they WERE beating the kid so I could get some sleep (a less sleep-addled head prevailed, of course).

Sigh, I just don't know how to handle this gracefully. Moving is out of the question for at least another year.

We had truly obnoxious neighbors for about 10 years. It still makes my stomach hurt to think about them, and that was almost 10 years ago. The problem went away when we moved to another city. YMMV

Have you tried talking to them at all? You really should. If the worst that could happen is for them to be mad at you, well so what? You're already mad at them.

If I were living next to screaming people, I'd go and ask 'hey, things okay? Heard TinySoAndSo making some pretty big noises last night, sounds upset about something.'

And possibly drug yourself with Tylenol PM to get to bed or something. Or learn to sleep like a log.

Maybe you could plug your bedroom windows, so at least you could muffle the noise a little more to help you sleep? (Probably combined with a white noise machine, fan, etc. for maximum effectiveness.) My boyfriend made noise plugs for our bedroom windows to muffle morning traffic noise (and some nighttime neighbor noise) out of dense, noise-muffling foam cut to fit our windows and backed with plywood. The room looks like we decorated in Early American Crackhouse when the shades are up (and we can't keep the windows open at night), but the semi-soundproofing has been wonderful.

Sorry you're going through this. Being noise-sensitive, my own compassion often meets its Waterloo when confronted with ongoing noises like this.

We can hear the kid screaming while we watch tv, while we eat dinner, while my husband works (he works from home, he's a programmer), through headphones, through closed windows, in the shower. In every room of the house you can hear this kid.

Go through that passage and replace every instance of "kid screaming" or "kid" with "stereo."

Would you feel OK confronting the neighbor then?

Most cities have some kind of ordinance stating, in so many words, that you are entitled to "quiet enjoyment of the premises." Yes, this is a more delicate situation because there's a child involved. But this is still ruining your life. You can't enjoy your own house because of the noise.

The room looks like we decorated in Early American Crackhouse

OMG, we have the same decorating style!

You have my deepest sympathies. Years back, I called the police after hearing my neighbors' 5 month old scream for two hours unattended. I cannot imagine having to put up with that for 2 years. Even if there is a mental problem, it can't be healthy for a child to scream for that long and that often.

Several years ago I was in a restaurant next to a happily squealing toddler. I looked at him, made an exaggerated pained face, put my hands over my ears and said "when you scream, it hurts my ears" and he stopped.

Some kids scream. My son had been known to throw temper tantrums that make it sound like we're killing him. There were times when he was 3 or 4 where I wasn't sure we were both going to live through the screaming fits. (For the record, we don't spank, we don't use physical punishment at all, unless you count standing in a corner, or being sent to the "time out chair", so there was never a physical origin for the screaming...he was just being a little tyrant of a brat. I almost reconsidered the whole spanking standpoint, because for a while I thought "Ya know what, I'll give you something to cry about....but I didn't, because I realized that being a bully wasn't going to help anything either. Also, angry is never a good time to punish children or animals.)

For the longest time, I was convinced that there was something wrong with me, or him, or both..I really thought he might be autistic, or suffering some sort of strange food allergy or something...but after consulting a child psychologist, we realized that it was a pure power play on his part. He knew that the screaming would ramp me up, and eventually he would get what he wanted, just so I could shut him up and not want to kill myself. I had to be trained to be very calm, and remove attention from him when he acted that way, and within about 6 months, once he realized that temper-tantrum screaming would mean immediate isolation and retraction of any and all attention; he stopped.

I tell you this, just as anecdotal evidence that even the best meaning of parents can sometimes not have any idea how to deal with a willful child that uses the tools they have at hand to get what they want. At that age, the biggest tool the kid has is his ability to make his parents insane. I'm willing to bet that the parents are making the mistake we made, which was to give in, and give him whatever the hell he wants if it buys us some peace and quiet.

None of that makes it any easier on you, unfortunately.

Contact child services...they have counseling services, usually free of charge, that may help the parents develop better coping mechanisms. The screening that child services does will uncover if there are psychological or physical needs that are not being met for the child, and can recommend treatment/therapist/etc. I know people have all heard horrible stories about CPS...but they have some really dedicated people who really do want to keep families together and functional. This is a situation that MUST be handled by someone with experience and tools.

What I would not recommend is being perceived as attacking the parents. Trust me when I tell you that they are at their wits end, and non-stop screaming has got them more frazzled than it has you. It's so very difficult to live with a kid who does this, especially if you are accidentally reinforcing the behavior because you don't know any better. (Seriously, I had a psych minor and I was still reinforcing the behavior because dear god I just needed some quiet. It was a horrible period.)

I'm so sorry that you are in this situation, I cannot imagine how cranky I would be were I in your shoes. Please, contact your local Child Protection Services department, and get their assistance in helping this family.