AIBU to ask her not to put her washing machine on

[lovelystar]

I think I already know the answer to this so am fully expecting to be shot down here but my lack of sleep is making me a bit loopy!
Me and my partner have just moved into a block of flats and have considered ourselves very lucky in that we managed to get it in a good location and a good size for the price we are paying. Everything here is lovely HOWEVER the lady above us puts on her washing machine almost every day from about 8.30am until about 12pm. It makes the most irritating loud sqeauking sound which does not stop the whole time it is on and can also be heard from outside the block! For most not a problem, however my partner works nights so by the time he gets in and gets settled to sleep in the morning the washing machine is on again and part of us dies inside everytime we hear it start up :( I'm also 34 weeks pregnant with quite a high risk pregnancy so do not want to be causing drama in our block and causing stress to myself. What I'm asking is wibu to write her a note asking her nicely to not put the machine on until maybe a bit later in the day or should I just count myself lucky and leave it?? We've only just moved in and she's been here a long long time. Sorry for the ramble.

@lovelystar I think having gone without things, finally getting them is wonderful! I got a proper bed (as opposed to an air bed) when I was 7 months pregnant with DS1 and it was just the most amazing feeling!

@makingmiracles I'm most definitely going to leave it unless we end up being best of friends sometime down the line and I can make a joke out of it. Reading through this thread I count myself lucky really considering the neighbours I've had in the past and how luck we have been here

@pocketcoffee yes I think it's earplugs from now on! Once I get used to it I'm sure it'll be fine, I'll probably be a bit lost without the sound if it stops, and then maybe concerned for my neighbour that she was ok!

I'd approach in a very friendly way and offer to pay for a mat to go underneath it. There's nothing to lose.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking if she could get it fixed & place it on a rubber mat.

Congratulations on the impending arrival of your own little noise maker!

@pinky I'm not entirely sure how to answer that I think I'm just using the time as an excuse it's mainly just the repetative nature of the sound that drives me mad soon I'll probably be concerned when I don't here it l, I guess it gets me into a rhythm for the day...

Get silicon earplugs and a fan for white noise. YABU. Lots of people need to use their washing machine a lot. I have a son with special needs and he gets through a ton of laundry. 8.30am-12pm is in no way anti-social.

Isn't washing machine noise a type of white noise? It's pretty repetitive isn't it?

I know you're not going to now, but I wouldn't mention it. It's a small thing indeed.

Silicon ear plugs are really good ime!

Then it’s defijitely your problem to bear lovelystar. Sorry.

If it’s any consolation, I’m a little ways ahead of you on the pregnancy front and extremely irritable. You’ll probably feel very differently when the baby is here!

Earplugs!

Only thing you could do is buy her a new machine if it's really that big of a problem

I think that your partner needs to try and learn to sleep through it.
Not ideal and not everyone can do it.

My DH used to refuse to allow me to put the washing machine on at night as it kept him awake.
When DD1 was born, he was perfectly capable of sleeping through a crying baby in the same room so lost the argument about the machine that was downstairs on the opposite side of the house.
He now quite happily sleeps through even though the machine is now underneath the bedroom!

I think in a few months time your partner will have the noise of a young baby and constant washing from your machine to contend with. Downside of working shifts is there will be noise to contend with when he is trying to sleep. He cannot really expect everyone else to work round that. Maybe the lady washes her bed linen everyday and needs to get it dried by the evening. Earplugs should help but if this lady is nice in every other way I would not rock the boat. As everyone says living in flats does mean you need to live with other peoples noise so long as not totally unreasonable.

@theFSMisreal have already said that it's not a big deal anymore

@cornishclio he doesn't really expect anyone to do that that, he's only mentioned it in passing before, it's mainly me making a deal out of it. It's really not a big deal I was only having a moan as I think I'm going a bit mad atm!

I think you can get insulating mats to stand the machine on. Offer to buy her one and help her I stall it!

It would be unreasonable, especially given your baby will inevitably disturb others. My DH does shifts, it’s just tough if neighbours make normal noise in the day, I’m afraid.

This is the first one google found for me...

www.floormats.co.uk/washing-machine-mats?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImbiImO7F2AIVLrftCh2kQwbvEAQYASABEgJvyvD_BwE

The sound of our tumble dryer when it's finished and does the occasional ant crease tumble drives me loopy, it is bizarre how some sounds are more intolerable than others

I was thinking about the meaning of 12am/pm just the other day and concluded (wrongly) that midday must be 12am.

My logic was as follows: there are two cycles of hours from 1 to 12, "am" is used for the night/morning and "pm" for the afternoon/evening, "12" is clearly the end-point of a cycle, therefore, logically, "12am" should be the end of the night/morning cycle.

Three different opinions from Google:-

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language has a usage note on this topic: "By convention, 12 AM denotes midnight and 12 PM denotes noon. Because of the potential for confusion, it is advisable to use 12 noon and 12 midnight.

Another convention sometimes used is that, since 12 noon is by definition neither ante meridiem (before noon) nor post meridiem (after noon), then 12 a.m. refers to midnight at the start of the specified day (00:00) and 12 p.m. to midnight at the end of that day (24:00).

12am and 12pm are both incorrect. Neither should be used. You should really pay attention to the abbreviation. "a.m." means "ante meridiem" which means "before midday" and p.m. means "post meridiem", which means "after midday". ... The correct terms are 12 noon and 12 midnight, with times in between using am/pm.