As a parent of 6 kids ( ages 2 to 19), quiet does not equate to better adult. IMHO, we are talking about parental intolerance. Or, to be fair, conforming to the intolerance of those around. (I understand the problems of living in a flat or apartment)

All that quiet discipline stuff kicks in at pre-school, then school, where they do have to follow rigid rules, and face consequence if they don't. I have always allowed my kids to let off, as it were, at home. Obviously only to a point, but I give them a fairly long leash. I tend to think if they cant be themselves at home, then where can they? Of course if it gets too much, or seems distressing, then something is wrong and it needs discussion.

But, I fear the rigid. I don't want drones for kids. They learn enough about fitting in with others from the rest of life. At home, to a point, I let them be.

Telling your children to tone it down is not the same as telling them that Justin Bieber is an awful musician, or that MMORPGs are a pointless waste of time. You will not effect your child's personality by enforcing some noise violations.

If they want to yell while playing games, then they can play games outside.

From the single bit of data I have, your idea of repression seems to be anything less than complete anarchy... do you have children?

Not computer games they can't. And not in all seasons/kinds of weather, either.

I'm fairly certain that every mother ever has told her children to stop yelling in the house at least once.

And I'm fairly certain every parent (mother? what?) also sometimes allowed it. You know, politeness is kind of about a sentient counterpart, rather a fixed sound threshold in a panopticon.

From the single bit of data I have, your idea of repression seems to be anything less than complete anarchy

How so? If I think it's repressing if a child is under no circumstance allowed to yell out in joy or fright while playing? What does this have to do with anarchy? That's not anarchy, that's life.

Let me ask you: would you mind sitting next to a group of kids at the movie theater chatting away and carrying a running commentary throughout the film all out of sheer excitement?

I suspect you would; I know I would. Why? Because it's disrespectful. Telling a kid to quiet down while playing a PC game is usually done simply to teach them to respect the presence of others around them. Sure, there are controlling parents out there, and in those cases, you may call it repression, but most of the time it's as simple a lesson as teaching a kid to say please and thank you.

The topic is about the question how to blank the screen when a certain loudness threshold is reached. Which means "is even anyone else in the house" or other such factors do not enter into it. Which in turn means this isn't teaching politeness, this is like teaching a dog; no disrespect to dogs intended, but I mean that they usually just learn what to do, not why (which is fine in the case of a dog, unacceptable for a kid).

Maybe it just seems like being dramatic to you because I'm actually paying attention to the finer details here, and you don't. I complain about this specific case, and you defend it because there's sometimes a reason to tell a kid to not yell etc... which is funny, but not quite the rebuttal you imagine it to be.

Telling a kid to quiet down while playing a PC game is simply to teach them to respect the presence of others around them.

I completely agree; what in anything I wrote makes you think I don't? And what about the topic makes you think what is being done here?

Though I would add that I wouldn't want to be the person who doesn't sometimes also get joy out of the loud expression of joy from others. Depends on what you're doing etc.,.. so respect also means letting the kids holler sometimes. Respect doesn't just go one way, and if you haven't made children to become happy humans, what have you made them for?

But don't get sidetracked, remember: The parent in question does NOT tell their kids "I want you to be more quiet, so I made this script", they outright lie (and proudly report that it's working, too), and even seek to automate it just to put a hard cap on the loudness levels of their kids.

And that's okay because it's effective, gets the desired result, case closed...? Well pah, I disagree, just like I also frown upon telling kids they should be nice so Santa gives them presents; not because I am against being nice, but because I'm against the layer of indirection and dishonesty.

This is the second time I responded to a strawman, and I find that telling in and of itself. I have nothing against something the parent in question isn't even doing, I have something against what they actually are doing. Is that so hard to understand? You don't turn kids into "good adults" by not taking them seriously and telling them the computer is annoyed by loud noise... What. The. Fuck. That this topic is not _full_ of ridicule, just like the comments on the linked site, is just sad.

On the bright side of things: maybe this scenario will drive the children to "fix" the computer. Maybe they'll learn new things that they never would've learned if not for their father's "repression". Maybe they'll realize that parents are sometimes full of shit, and shouldn't be trusted implicitly.