What am I overhearing?

[JoySaidThat]

I live in an apartment with my DH & DD - below us lives a couple with their DS who is around 2 years old.

Every couple has their arguments, however the lady below seems to scream every other day & her screaming is almost always followed by the cries and screams of her DS.

Naturally living in an apartment noise will travel, it's not the noise I am concerned about, it's the fact that the screams of the child seem to always come after that of the mother & are really distressing. The sounds of the mothers words are muffled so I can never really tell what she's saying, meaning the cries of her DS are taken out of context - maybe he's really naughty and she gets frustrated? Is this an excuse? Is she a tired mother or an abusive mother?

We always say hi when we see each other in the hallway & I have slipped in questions about how she's doing & ask after her child, the only thing she's ever said is that she enjoys him best when he's sleeping - which is common mum banter right?

Tonight her screams were so loud I could hear them over the TV & the sons crying was so upsetting that I literally cried. Is it irresponsible to ignore this and mind my own business? I don't want to pry into people's private business, but I don't want any harm to come to an innocent child - what would you do?

I would probably call SS in the morning and pray the child will be OK until then.

At best she needs some support. Try not to think of the worst.

But, yes, do try and tell someone.

If it gets worse call the police and ask/suggest they investigate as a disturbance?

My child crys when I brush her teeth, brush her hair, sometimes when I dress her, she screams when she doesn't get what she wants or if I take something off her hat she shouldn't have.

My child's scream is a blood curdling murder type scream that would wake the dead. Sometime so shout at her if I become really flustered or frustrated. This doesn't make me a bad mum as I am loving, attentive, me and dd do loads of fun days out/ activities/ baking/swimming etc. We co sleep and we have a great bond.

His doesn't make this women abusive, you have no basis for calling ss over some shouting. Why don't you speak you your neighbour suggest the walls are thin and approach this a different way before you potentially make a situation much worse for her and her child if all is innocent such as the stress and worry of someone reporting you to ss uncalled for.

Put an anonymous note through the door and say your worried about the shouting and or child's welfare and give her at least the chance to address it herself.

Eva I disagree.

If it's nothing then it's nothing to worry about is it? Someone has to live beside child abusers and while it's probably 95% that OPs neighbor isn't one, I'd rather speak up than have to live with myself if it turned out to be the case and something awful happened.

I'd report it. You never know, she sounds like she's struggling and perhaps help would be good. We all lose our rag from time to time, I'm a single parent and know how hard that can be. I wouldn't class screaming every day (from the parents) normal by any stretch of the imagination.