Calling the police to check on a crying baby

So now it’s gone to the baby being inside and some adults being outside. Admit it, OP, you didn’t know who those adults were because you’ve already said the baby lives in a row of 4 houses. In one house could have been a baby who was fast asleep, then woken up by their neighbours who were having an argument which spilled out on to the street.

The poor mum of the baby could have been doing her level best trying to get a fractious baby, who was now tired, hot and pissed off back to sleep while at the same time cursing the neighbours for waking it up. Then the poor woman would have had to deal with the police, on top, because you put two and two together and came up with five.

I could almost understand you calling the police if you didn’t live on a new build estate, so you’d definitely know where the noise is coming from but you didn’t. And, like I’ve said before, despite you living in a very safe area neither you nor your husband could be bothered to go for a little stroll past those 4 houses to see what was going on.

Replies like this are so depressing. @FromtheMouthsofDecadence some babies cry. All. The. Time.

I’d love to know how you expect mums like @hoxtonbabe to deal with one of those and get life done. Your comment is ridiculous and clearly you’ve never had a baby that cries continuously, or you wouldn’t have made it.

There was a story in the news a while ago about a man who was travelling with his 6 year old daughter alone, and one of the hotel receptionists flagged it as possible child trafficking- he got arrested etc and obviously proved it was his daughter and everything was fine, but someone said to him after god you must have been raging, and he said no if a thousand situations like this get checked and it saves one 6 year old from that fate then it’s completely worth the other 999 men being put out. As a mother who has been through the absolute non stop screaming of a baby, I would still 100% take a welfare check if it meant in another 60 checks a baby who was in trouble got help. All that to say I think the OP was right

To all the idiots who think the OP was overreacting:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd6ex3dge8go

SAFEGUARDING IS EVERYBODY’S RESPONSIBILITY

Perhaps this child may have been saved if one her neighbours “overreacted” and called the police whilst she was being raped and murdered!!

You are a bad parent to leave your baby who is absolutely dependent on you crying for 20-30 minutes so you could have a shower or get things done. HTH.

I don't think this story is true

What is this new thing? I’ve only seen it on here fairly recently. If OP wanted to make up something exciting I’m sure she could have invented a will dispute concerning her granddad and the floozy he just took up with before he ‘mysteriously’ and ‘suddenly’ died, or affair, an old flame back from his travels in the Mongolian desert, and she now has to confront the fact her oldest child looks exactly like him, or the secret compartment in her husbands desk that the cleaner found which contains love letters to her husband dated last year but she doesn’t know who they’re from, or any number of stories guaranteed to spill over into a second thread, or even a third if she plays her cards right.

This tale of a baby crying, adults shouting and banging doors sounds horribly real and I have no doubt it happened. And I’m thankful for people like OP and the others who called the police.

Actually, I might use that Mongolian desert/oldest child story, so don’t be getting any ideas please.

Mumsnet poster - some random new people moved in 100 yards away, I could hear their bloody newborn crying for over half an hour in the middle of the night when I’ve got to be up early tomorrow.
I assumed they’d make some attempt to comfort the kid but the crying just went on and on grrr. I could also hear shouting and car doors slamming and it was disturbing my husband too.
It sounded like no one could be bothered to get the baby to pipe down. Now I’m going to be tired all bloody day tomorrow.

Mumsnetters reply - You beast! You just don’t give a shit about these poor babies, you’re just like those child abusers aren’t you? People like you just don’t care, I’m glad I don’t have horrible neighbours like you 😡.

Me - ahh good old Mumsnet. Sometimes you just can’t win on here.

Ringing the police is the way to get involved. Back in the good days that you refer to everyone kept their mouth shut that’s why child abuse was through the roof but no one said anything.

You are embarrassing yourself now with your desperate need to prove yourself to be superior.

Where I live I could easily hear a family at the top of the road (circa 100m away) because I live in a very quiet village.

At night an unconsolable baby would def be heard.
Last year a woman was shouting from her home in the small hours. She lives easily 200m away from me. I waited for a bit and then went round. Thankfully others had already arrived and she was being taken care of.

100 meters is half way down a road.... I find it highly unlikely by the time the sound got to you it would be loud in any sense of the word. The sky is not actually blue it appears blue to the human eye due to scattering. I don't think this story is true or your measurements are way off.

God why are some people so horrible? It's not recommended to interfere in domestic situations. Calling the police is the right thing to do.
There's plenty of judgement when something happens to a child and neighbours haven't report anything.
I called the police on my neighbours years ago, they argued every Friday without fail, both pissed and she had a boy about 3/4 years old. One night they were shouting, there was a loud bang and the kid screamed and then complete silence. I called the police, they came and luckily everything was ok but I was terrified he had hit the kid. They made sure to make our lives as miserable as possible after that and we moved but I wouldn't hesitate to report again.

You're the one being weird, no one knocks on strangers doors in the middle of the night offering them a hand

But it should be!!!!!

This is the point some of us are trying to make!

What a terrible, soft, unsupportive world we live in if people hear something unusual from 100m away, don't leave their home, and feel they have salved their conscience and discharged any sort of moral or civic duty they might have by making a lazy phone call to a police call centre who are, in this case, less able to make an informed judgment than you!

Well you’ve changed your story a little now, you clearly haven’t dealt with a level that some of us have, possibly including your neighbour. You said they wasn’t helping to calm the baby, you’re adding extras on here to try and justify why you called the police.

Maybe, no one called the police on me, because my neighbours are realistic and didn’t just assume I wasn’t helping my baby! That is what you based your whole original post about “in hoping it was nothing and the little one is fine but it just didn’t sit right and it sounded like no attempt to comfort them was being made at all”. You also said “raised voices and car doors slamming”, now it’s screaming at THE CHILD, eachother & doors slamming! honestly, I think you’re saying anything now to justify calling the police. I personally do not agree with you. You judged the parents and assumed they just left their baby to scream. Now many people are disagreeing with you, you’re trying to make the situation out to be much worse.

You 100% did the right thing.

I find it very hard to believe you heard a baby cry 100 meters away.

Watching England tonight I would have thought it would just send everyone to sleep!

That was a joke btw before I get piled on for not taking DV seriously.

Absolutely agree with this. If everyone called the police every time they heard a child crying they would do nothing but welfare checks. It’s about having some real evidence that something is wrong enough to warrant a call to the police.