Calling the police to check on a crying baby

[summermumma2021]

Just had to call the police to check on a new neighbours baby. What would
you have done in this situation?
New neighbours live down our road around 100m away from us and could hear loud very distressed crying for over half an hour.

It sounded like a newborn or young baby crying and so I assumed they’d settle or some attempt to comfort them would be made but the crying stayed at the same level for ther period time. I could also hear raised voices and car doors slamming and I asked my husband if he’d heard it too (he was downstairs) and he said yeah he was worried as well.

Anyway 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.

i have no idea who the new neighbours are as it’s quite far from our bit of the road but for it to be that loud from this distance didn’t seem right. I have also had three colicky babies so I do know babies can cry for periods of time but as I said it sounded like no attempt to help them was being made.

Anyway police treating it as a priority case and checking things out. Just wanted to share really as worried.

We didn't hear the baby's cries but given it was only half an hour and you don't actually know the baby how could you know? And how could you tell whether the baby was being comforted from that distance? Slamming a car door and raised voices don't objectively sound like a big deal either. If you are so sure you did the right thing why are you asking strangers on the internet?

I'd have done the same, OP. Little red flags.

That sort of the

That’s sort of the point of AIBU isn’t it? Obviously usually lighthearted unlike this.

I think I posted really for reassurance and to see if anyone else has experienced the same and to see really what to do.

Same. The first SLAM is a good reminder!
We can give ourselves a break. We’re not used to throwing all doors and windows open really!

I think people just like to be contrary. I wouldn't be surprised if the same ones were on the thread about that poor wee boy Preston saying "how come no one reported his distress".

I think reading your post one could think you’re being a little dramatic and could have called around. However, having had a baby myself I understand gut instinct and mothers intuition around crying now. I believe you did the right thing. Hoping it’s a colicky baby and first time parents having a fight over how to solve this. It happens.

If people didn't post stuff like this asking for advice then the "internet" would be like the serengeti desert and would never have taken off.

What was the outcome to this?

Absolutely. I bet, if the OP had come on saying she didn't phone the police as she disagreed with her DH that there was any concern and he was being a 'drama llama', some of the same posters would be slating the OP for not looking out for children.

Exactly!

Hark at these posters pontificating what they would have done. Give over, you're the ones that dither about opening your front door when someone unannounced rings your doorbell.

This. It wasn't just a baby crying. It was also raised voices, doors slamming, etc. Also, OP has had 3 colicky babies. Good call x

You said the baby and its parents live in a row of 4 houses, OP, but you don’t know the people who live down there. How are you so sure that the raised voices and car door slamming was all coming from the same house where the baby was crying?

Have you heard the phrase “better to be safe than sorry”?

Yeah, hence why I’d have sent DH down to asses the situation before jumping in with both feet.

I don't think I know anybody who would phone the police for half an hour of a baby crying, tbh. DD1 (later diagnosed with SN) didn't sleep at all for the first 12 weeks at night, unless she was being smacked on the back. It was horrendous. She would start screaming at 10pm and finally flake out at 6am. The only way to stop her crying was to pat her back so hard it felt like we'd hurt her. She would then crumple against us and rest, until we stopped, when she'd start screaming again. The police would have been very busy if people phoned every time they heard her cry.

Human babies and feline babies are very, very different, @LemonCakeX
@summermumma2021 you did the right thing, so please don’t beat yourself up about it.
We should all live by ”Better safe than sorry.”
Deep breaths, summer - deep breaths.

Especially with doors slamming…because this is the issue here. If a baby is upset for normal reasons, why would there be door slamming 🤷‍♀️

It's crazy, isn't it? And they way everyone is slapping themselves on the back saying they would have done the same. And all this 'better safe than sorry' rubbish about a baby crying for 30 minutes! And OP so proud of herself. I hope the police told her off for wasting their time.

It really was! It was the way people were posting with such confidence that the badges were obviously fake and were bad AI copies. And that there being no trace when googling whether there is a very typical British name at Bedfordshire police means the person does not exist.

I was both shocked and amused at the nonsense!

Yes.

You did the right thing OP.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who think people should ‘mind their own business’ and when people do ‘mind their own business’ you get headlines about children and comments like ‘where were social services, where were the police, where were the neighbours’.

Another thing that people forget is that if the police go round and find a tired mum etc a phone call or referral from them to the GP or Health Visitor or whoever saying that the family is maybe not coping can result in help being given. Everyone needs help (not just when they have a newborn but at other times too) and not everyone has a nice auntie or dad or friends to give them that help. People’s ‘village’ can include the police, HV, social services, GP etc.

Absolutely ridiculous comment of course I wasn’t being malicious but to be fair this is exactly what Mumsnet seems to be like (eye roll).

Right so….if it was a “waste of police time” then the call handler would’ve made that decision for me and not dispatched anyone to it/ ordered the priority accordingly.

Im not “so proud of myself” as you claim but I am proud of having a backbone and actually doing something which the tone of your posts suggests you would never do.