Woman wants to tell neighbors to 'control their crazy children.' AITA?
When this neighbor is furious with the children living nextdoor, they ask Reddit:
"WIBTA - if I told my neighbors to reign in their kids?"
Hi, (F) so I live in an apartment with 3 floors. We live on the second floor of it, so this obviously means we have upstairs neighbors. We’ve lived in this apartment since the middle of July, and I’ve realized the people in the apartment above us have kids.
I do realize that I can’t expect it to be silent all the time since we do live in a shared building, but I think they let their kids get away with too much. For one, their kids (or at least I would assume it’s their kids and not them) stomp around all the time.
I get that children kind of just do what they want when they want to, but I feel like it’s just respectful to teach them how to walk lightly around the apartment. I do it whenever I’m home because I have definitely learned how annoying the stomping is.
I will admit that at one point or another, when the stomping annoyed me so much, I would take our broom and tap it on the ceiling hoping it would get them to quit (spoiler: it never works). Their children also like to stand outside on the balcony and scream nonsense at the top of their lungs.
We keep our window open on nicer days, but I’ve had to close it on more than one occasion because they are beyond loud. The worst is when they have their tantrums on the balcony and the parents just let them have it without trying to stop it.
The last straw, however, is still happening right now. I was woken up at 6am to ridiculously loud stomping and I would assume jumping.
I got up to use the bathroom, and when I walked into the living room, I could hear children yelling. I’m tolerant to a point, but letting your kids stomp and jump around while yelling at 6am, doesn’t seem very courteous to me.
It’s currently 6:50 and they haven’t stopped yet, hence why I am awake. So my question is, WIBTA if I either asked them in person or wrote them a *kind letter asking them to keep their kids in check?
Let's see what readers thought.
okconfererence3949 writes:
NTA. It's the parents responsibility to make sure their kids are acting okay and especially making loud noises during the night/early in the morning is not generally considered okay. Just make sure you are nice with the way you phrase it and it should be fine.
dismallaistcue writes:
YTA. This is what happens when so many people pack the planet. And then live on densely populated areas. You are choosing where you live. You'll need to find a way to deal with the inconveniences....or move.
I do understand the noise levels would be frustrating... I couldn't handle it. Thing is, this is your problem to solve.
leathernote76 writes:
NTA. It's called being courteous. Also there are rules about quiet hours (at least everywhere I've lived). I'd definitely go up and ask nicely if the children could please be quiet, expressing your understanding, (you don't want to start a neighbor war) ask if they could ease up on the shouting and stomping.
Give it a bit for them to teach and for the kids to learn the new rules. If after a week, there's no change, go up and ask again but more firmly. If still no change, then go to management. Now, if the parents come at you with attitude instead of being apologetic the first time you go to them, go right to management!