Anonymous noise complaint about my baby playing

[StressedOutMama15]

Hello!

I’m a new mum to a gorgeous 10 month old, happy, baby. She has just started making excited squeal sounds when she plays or if she wants my attention if I’m cracking on with chores and she’s playing independently. I always respond to her and distract her with a different toy and when I’m out and about and she makes these screaming sounds I always apologise to everyone around.

This evening when my partner came home, he found a letter in the hallway (from an anonymously neighbour) complaining about the noise my baby makes when she’s playing and claiming they “cant take much more”. This is the first complaint from any neighbour we’ve had. Our neighbours are generally quite friendly so this shocked and upset me as you can imagine.

Our DD sleeps from around 8pm until 9am solid and we spend most days out with friends or at my mums. I’m very upset by this letter and I feel like I’m now walking on egg shells in my own home! I live in a small terraced house on a busy main road so there’s usually a lot of noise anyway, I didn’t realise her shrieks were that disruptive.

Am I being the a$$hole..? Any advice on how to limit a baby scream when she’s excited? I feel bad telling her to “shhh” when she’s just trying to talk and doesn’t know how else to!

MNHQ removed photograph of note at request of OP as it was potentially highly identifying

I think as hard as it is, no one would write a note if the noise wasn't intolerable to them. No one would write that note if they weren't routinely being bothered. Now you know they are routinely being bothered just try to do what you can to limit the noise.

I agree with a few posters on here about mums mimicking the noises loudly 'wooooo!' 'weeeeeeee!' can make an already loud noise much noisier.

Most people value peace, or at least knowing their neighbours are striving for quiet even if it's not always achieved. A crying baby with sounds of a parent soothing it for example - what more can you do? A shreiking baby with a mother shreiking back at it comes across as though you are unaware/don't care about making noise. So they have made you aware.

OP posted a photo of the letter but had it removed as it could be identifying.

Have a preprepared laminated sign for the camper door just in case she doesn't get the gist of what you're telling her.

DO NOT DISTURB

Not necessarily aimed at her then, and if she disturbs you anyway you can be rightfully annoyed and she definitely won't do it again!

Oh, got ya

Thanks was just going to say that but hadn't realised letter had been removed

There speaks someone who hasn’t had children . Babies cry loudly, children screech

If babies voices are so tiny I wonder how anyone wakes in the night to feed their child.

Check my ID , you shall see I have kids in some other posts on here

I don't respond to anonymous notes, if they have something to say they can come round and say it or put up and shut up.

I don't agree all do a ten year old next to me started and then others,when I hated it ,they had a party

I mean, it is an awful noise and I can see why it would be annoying but your kid is a baby so they are being quite unreasonable as there’s not a lot you can do about it.

As for baby squeels though,I think this could be a sign of over stimulation,maybe try more relaxing activities reading her a book,or playing nursery music disc ect before bed,this helped bring up our,local shops baby,daughter well.As,he seems quite an intelligent toddler

I have a 6 month old and he's been shrieking with excitement for about 2 months now. There is no way in hell I'd try and quieten him down, he is communicating in one of the only ways he knows how and he is developing as he should. If he cries due to unhappiness I attempt to stop that ASAP, as I'm sure most parents do. If they don't want to hear noises from children then they need to buy a detached house! X

@OneRealOpalHelper Baby squeals are developmentally completely normal and nothing to do with overstimulation. It's to express their joy and to practice using their little voices x

Absolutely this. This thread is bananas as is your neighbour. Continue to play with and interact with your baby in a normal way, ignore the note. If they can't cope with normal household noise during daytime hours they can move or soundproof their own house. This is simply not your problem.

Ok I ,do say though,they need help winding down some restimes,say if someone was cueing and tickling you a lot you'd need ,some help

Babies are aloud to squeal, cry, and generally make noise. Expecting someone to keep a baby or small child quiet is ridiculously entitled... it's not loud music or adults shouting, it's just normal noise you can expect if you live somewhere without good soundproofing.

If they can't cope with it they really need to invest in noise cancelling headphones or soundproof their house (preferably before your baby swaps the cute excited squeals for toddler tantrums).

Firstly this is not a baby
Secondly they aren’t trying to speak or laugh, they are screaming

Even StressedOutMama15 thinks it is too much when out and tries to distract or quieten her.

I am not saying that children should be quiet they can make as much noise as they like But screaming, which is high pitched and loud and makes you jump out of your skin is truly awful.

Maybe your children had quiet voices but imagine you are quietly reading or playing with your own children and suddenly you hear a high pitched scream close by. Your heart skips a beat, then all goes quiet , you are just relaxing and then that scream happens again.

People are confusing normal childrens noises and thinking the neighbour is wrong when the description was Screaming

It is strange that certain new generation born around COVID time I've noticed doing it, particularly

A new generation around covid time? Huh?

My six month old has just discovered his scream and has done it for three days straight. Just shrieking with joy for the hell of it. It’s awful tbh, but every time I distract him we get about ten minutes max before he remembers how fun it is to squeal like a deflating balloon, only louder. And every time he does it I think of this thread and wonder if I’m going to get a weird note from my neighbours 🤣