Having a kid around entails some tip-toeing. Mostly it’s on the parents’ side, but the neighbors are kinda expected to not shove branches into the wheels of a moving bicycle by making noise and disturbing the kid’s numerous naps and sleepy times throughout the day.
But we live in a noisy world and hearing things is simply unavoidable, so expectations have to be curbed to some extent. But not for this family, who decided that the neighbor can try even harder at not making noise, despite them already going above and beyond about, leading to an Am I The A-Hole story.
More Info: Reddit
Having a kid does mean tip-toeing so as to not wake them up, but the kid will have to learn to live with noise sooner or later
Image source: John Schuster (not the actual photo)
Reddit user u/MelodicStrategy1569 not too long ago shared a story of how they and their neighbor had a bit of a conflict regarding the noise that Melodic had been generating and waking the neighbors’ baby.
The story goes that Melodic’s neighbors had their baby recently, and Melodic decided that they ought to change some of their habits to accommodate for this change—if anything, out of respect and care for the new family member next door.
So, they did things like stop playing their drums past 6PM and even went ahead and installed some acoustic insulation in their “rumpus room”. A very nice gesture, especially since it was all their initiative.
This one family chose "later" and started pestering their neighbor for making too much noise, and the neighbor retaliated with "get over it"
Image source: MelodicStrategy1569
But, some noise was unavoidable, especially when the garage is just 3 meters away from the neighbor’s bedroom, where the kid rests. The main noise factors are the garage door, which beeps 4 times within a span of 20 seconds, and, according to OP, the noise is minimal; and their car, which OP called an “enthusiast’s” car—quite likely a sports car that is louder than most (they also mention the muffler is aftermarket).
Anywho, OP did make an effort to minimize the noise, but that turned out to not be enough for the family next door, as one Saturday, OP got to playing their drums at about lunch time in the insulated rumpus room, which turns out to be on the opposite end, meaning that the baby couldn’t possibly awaken from the minimal vibrations that the noise generates. But that was enough for the neighbors to come hollering.
OP did try to accommodate for the situation by installing acoustic insulation at home and adjusting their noise habits
Image source: MelodicStrategy1569
The buildup leading to this also included one time the neighbor parked their car a tad bit too close to OP’s house, meaning that they couldn’t park their car in their garage, meaning that they wouldn’t be opening the garage door, meaning they wouldn’t be waking the kid up. The car got towed. And this was also after they had talked about how parking outside is not an option for OP because of recent car thefts.
So, back to Saturday, the neighbor mom came over, saying she’d had enough of Melodic’s noise, and Melodic had had enough as well, leading to them saying “get over it”. The story soon appeared on r/AITA, asking folks who’s wrong here.
Alas, that didn't help as the mom still went ballistic on them one Saturday
Image source: MelodicStrategy1569
And the AITA community ruled that OP’s not the jerk in this situation. Most agreed that they have been very reasonable with minimizing noise, doing more than what an average person would in this situation.
Others kept criticizing the neighbor parents for not teaching their newborn to sleep in a noisy setting and being overly sensitive about any noise. Sure, some babies can be more sensitive to noise than others, but it goes a long way if the baby develops a tolerance for noise early on.
It didn't help the situation that the neighbor was a car enthusiast, but, oddly enough, the parents didn't have a problem with the car itself
Image source: Chris Tina Bruce (not the actual photo)
Folks online ruled that OP was not a jerk, and in fact they went above and beyond in this situation
There was also a mom of an 8-month-old who ventured to guess that it’s not really the noise—if it’s already minimal and even dampened more by the neighboring walls—it might be the headlights that are actually causing a problem, so black-out curtains ought to do the trick. Oh, and a noise machine does wonders.
The post soon went viral, gaining nearly 16,000 upvotes and a handful of Reddit awards as of this article. You can take a look at the post and all of the responses in context here, and read other Am I The A-Hole stories we’ve covered here.
But before you do that, why not let us know your thoughts on who’s the jerk here in the comment section below!