Neighbours complaining about toddler noise

[NadT]

Hello,

I'm looking for opinions and any advice please. We are a family of 3 living in a semi-detached house. We have a 2 and a half year old. Over the last few months, just as he turned 2, the neighbours started sending messages stating they could hear 'constant banging' particularly in the mornings. Without more specific information we assumed that they were referring to our toddler waking at 5.30, getting out of his bed and running around his room and jumping. For the record my husband and I hate this too! I was out at the time and so sent a reasonable message back apologising and explaining. My husband sent a friendly message to her husband also explaining. We had return comments such as "It's not on" and "we believe you can do something about it". We asked them for a face to face to discuss exactly what their grievances were and they ignored the message.

After that they blocked us and cut off communication. This week one of them posted a Facebook post on our private residents page complaining about inconsiderate neighbours and that they would be moving as a result of noise in a few years. We were highly embarrassed by this as other neighbours contacted us asking what was going on.

We felt this was unwarranted and so contacted them again asking for a face to face so we could find out exactly what it was that we are doing that is bothering them do much. We received responses full of abuse and our offer to meet was firmly rejected.

We are now uncomfortable and anxious in our own home. I find myself panicking and shouting at my poor toddler every time he makes some sort of noise. We have tried everything to get him to sleep in later in the mornings such as Gro clock, rewards, modifying naps and asking the health visitor for advice. Nothing works. He wakes early.

The banging is also probably coming from his tantrums which at the moment are epic! Again we deal with them but we can't stop them outright or predict when they are going to happen!

My confidence has been severely damaged by their comments towards me and my toddler. Heavily implying that my toddler is an inconvience because of his noise. Whilst I genuinely sympathise and appreciate the noise isn't fun I would like the opportunity to give them context and insight so that they can at least understand why it's happening. I'm also genuinely happy to try and change a few things but by refusing to meet us to discuss it I'm not sure how I can move forward without information about exactly what is bothering them. My husband struggles with depression and this has set him back too especially in his search for a job.

We live in Scotland so far away from our families and hence any support or option to go and stay with them for a bit. We aren't financially able to move house and don't want to leave anyway.

Advice gratefully appreciated. And shared experiences!

Well done for killing it. I lashed out at it with a magazine but it dropped out of sight so I never did know whether I'd killed it or not. If I'd known they supposedly came in pairs, I'd have been really freaked out.

But the biggest danger was the mosquitoes; I ended up with malaria!

Yikes! How long did it take to recover?

On another occasion the phone rang in the middle of the night and I ran barefooted to answer it without turning the lights on. On returning to my bedroom I realised there was a baby scorpion in my doorway and it was only by chance that my footfall avoided it.

And I didn't realise until living there that cockroaches can fly and chase you round a house - I ran in a big loop through various rooms before gaining enough ground to slam a door shut behind me Dr Who style . Heard a thud as cockroach hit the door... waited, opened door and no cockroach to be seen... I imagine it had taken itself off to plot its revenge.

Omg - this thread has taken a whole new road and I will be having nightmares tonight!!!! 😱 🕷 🦂 💀

MyrtleWilson It only took a couple of weeks, as they had the correct treatment for it. But I had the worst headache I ever had in my life, it was horrible. Thankfully, I'd been taking the prophylactics so that means I was safe from cerebral malaria, which is deadly. Tragically, the friend I was staying with developed cerebral malaria and died of it leaving a young wife and children. It's awful, I hope they develop a vaccine soon, or find another way to get rid of it.

I agree, cockroaches are awful, thankfully I haven't faced flying ones yet. I was working with a development team in Uganda, and we used to go to an outdoor latrine, where there were cockroaches. Especially when one idiot sprayed insecticide down it and out they came. More scary was the fact that there were cobras around there, too.

BabyShark Sorry about the change, but it's what happens when an OP vanishes without trace. Love your username! I'm sick of that children's song, my DDs sing it all the time.

The friend died 2 years later, not when I was there. It was really sad. I made such good friends during my trips out there.

@Lizzie48 that's very sad, makes you realise how important donations to eradicating malaria is.

for you.

Boobirdieblue thank you.

It was a long time ago, before I married and then adopted my DDs. But the discussion reminded me of my friend and the fact that many others, including millions of young children, die needlessly of this horrible disease. There needs to be a solution.