advice request: neighbor child cries and cries

[springfieldva]

When we lived in an apartment the neighbor above us would get home with her toddler late in the evening (9 or 10pm) and the kid would run nonstop across the uncarpeted wood floors, dropping and dragging toys. When he pitched a fit, his mom would put him out on the balcony to scream and cry until he settled down. In the meantime, my (then) boyfriend and I were trying to relax, watch t.v. and unwind from a long day at work. Hard to do when a 2 year old demon is stomping and screaming right over your head.

Long story short, one night it got particularly bad and I went upstairs to talk to the mom (knocking on the ceiling had no effect). I expected to meet a real (w)itch but the lady who answered the door was nice. She was surprised that the noise that her son was making was so annoying to us, to her he didn't seem that loud. Her husband was home at the time and I asked her to come downstairs with me and listen for herself. She came into our apartment and she was appalled by all the noise her son was making. She apologized and after that things did get better. Although we did wind up moving, in part, because of that family.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by springfieldva

When we lived in an apartment the neighbor above us would get home with her toddler late in the evening (9 or 10pm) and the kid would run nonstop across the uncarpeted wood floors, dropping and dragging toys. When he pitched a fit, his mom would put him out on the balcony to scream and cry until he settled down. In the meantime, my (then) boyfriend and I were trying to relax, watch t.v. and unwind from a long day at work. Hard to do when a 2 year old demon is stomping and screaming right over your head.

Long story short, one night it got particularly bad and I went upstairs to talk to the mom (knocking on the ceiling had no effect). I expected to meet a real (w)itch but the lady who answered the door was nice. She was surprised that the noise that her son was making was so annoying to us, to her he didn't seem that loud. Her husband was home at the time and I asked her to come downstairs with me and listen for herself. She came into our apartment and she was appalled by all the noise her son was making. She apologized and after that things did get better. Although we did wind up moving, in part, because of that family.

Yes, I found that the upstairs people don't always know how much noise they make, either. We had a family with a little boy, 3 or 4, move in upstairs. It often sounded like someone was constantly throwing a bowling ball across the floor, back and forth, back and forth. We could not hear our own TV in the living room.

My husband went upstairs to knock on their door one day when it was happening, and he immediately saw the problem. There was the little boy sitting on a Big Wheel, one of those plastic tricycles. He was riding it back and forth across the wooden floor.

The father was nice, and my husband said "Come downstairs with me for a minute and yell up to your son to start riding his bike on the floor." When the father heard what it sounded like downstairs, his eyes popped. He apologized and said he had no idea it made so much noise. We told him it was fine if the kid did it during the day when we weren't home, but we'd appreciate it if he found something else to do in the evenings.

[msRB311]

This is an old thread but I could absolutely see calling the police or services on what you have described. Hell people call the police on dogs barking. A crying baby is concerning especially if it sounds like they're being hit. One thing that came to mind is maybe the mom is doing sleep training/ferber method in trying to get the kid to go to sleep...but it shouldnt be disturbing the neighborhood and certainly no yelling of shut up or hitting should be involved.

Sad world. I'm sure this would be hard to prove if CPS or cops did come by as well. But at least getting them involved would be something