I live in an apartment with my husband and our two kids. Who are 9 week s and four years old. We love in an apartment not by choice but because of my husbands job, we were transferred here a little over a year ago and he is going to be transfered again in six months to a year so until we stop moving around we are not going to buy a house.
Any who, we live on the bottom floor (because of the kids) and a guy that works with my husband and our kids go to the same private school with all of ten kids in the class just moved in above us a week ago. My husband works three different shifts that rotate every month. Although him and this man are not at the same station they are in the same sector so we do see eachother often.
Since they have moved in it has been non stop noise, she is one of those moms who doesnt like her daughter outside often so she says many times she would just rather her run and jump around inside their apartment. Because of this my four year old wont nap now and my hubs is about to switch to midnights where he works from 10pm to 9am and therefore sleeps from 11am to 5pm and with all this noise he wont be getting much sleep.
I have already mentioned to the apartment manager about the level of the noise as we live in an apartment that caters to his line of work it is stated in our rental agreements that the noise level needs to be kept to a minimum due to the shift changes. She said she was going to casualy mention it to them but the noise level has not changed.
I feel torn about the situation because we know them and have to see them all the time but then again I need my kids to be able to sleep and the pictures on my walls not to sway from side to side becuase the walls are shaking so bad. And now my hubs is going to need to be able to sleep. I know that there are some drawbacks to living in an apartment and this is one of them.
So do I just keep saying this to the apartment manager or should I say something to her directly?.....
Any suggestions?
Videotape with the audio and date stamp on. Then call the manager to come over while it is happening. Let the manager take it from there.
2 choices.
1) Ask apartment manager if there is an upper apartment available for you guys to switch to due to the noise. This will let the manager know you are serious and hubby requires quiet. Maybe they will be motivated and talk with the neighbors more directly?
2) Be polite, go upstairs when the kids are being loud and ask nicely for them to keep it down. They know the score concerning working hours and such and SHOULD be respectful and apologize and try to keep it down. If they (she) gives you attitude or tells you the kids have a right to play...you might have a problem.
Whatever you do, stay nice and try not to alienate your neighbors/schoolmates/co-workers :)
Go upstairs and knock on the door and say this to them next time it happens: "Hey, can I ask you a HUGE favor?? I know its really hard but could you please try to keep the noise level down -my daughter and husband are trying to nap. These floors are paper thin and it makes it really tough. " Go up every time it happens. Start out being really nice about it. Then get a little more serious. The thing is-you aren't going to see these guys after 6 months so you don't need to be best friends with them right?
And if they don't cut it out-find out when they need it to be quiet and then put your TV or radio in front of the vent and turn up the volume.
Go through the apartment manager...it can turn ugly too easily. I had a situation where the people who lived above me loosened the lug nuts on my van and caused a lot of damage because she was mad at me ( could not prove it was her, but she made several comments that alluded to her having been responsible) There is such a thing as a reasonable amount of noise. I had to have the apartment manager come and sit in my home several times to show her how bad it was. I heard jumping and running until well after midnight most nights and would have pictures fall off the wall from the excessive thumping, and this was Just noise from kids, not loud music or a tv or anything....it nearly drove me crazy. It did turn out well, eventually when nothing improved the apartment manager moved them to a lower level apartment and the crazy thing is we ended up becoming friends! Good luck...
Have your husband talk to this woman's husband. Since they both work in the same industry, both have rotating shifts and both sleep at weird hours, then the husband should understand that your husband needs his sleep too. He would be able to better communicate with his wife why should be more considerate and keep their kids quiet. If you talk to the wife yourself, she may get defensive and create more noise.
Good luck - it's always hard to confront people. :)
The tough part is I am assuming that they also have a 4 year old? Now matter how hard you try to keep them quite they are just loud at that age, until about 25, lol. My parents live below us and my son who is pretty mellow, still makes a racket. I never even realized how loud it was until one day I was down there doing laundry and thought Elephants must have been running around. If you could some how get one of the parents to come in your apartment and overhear how much noise is transmitted, they may be more conscious of the problem. Good Luck.
This is a hard one. On the one hand, if you are going to live in a down stairs apartment you have to expect an increased level of noise, it is just the nature of the beast, on the other hand you have a right to complain if the level is excessive, which it sounds like it is. You have to decide if you want quiet or peace. As for your husband, there is an easy fix, ear plugs. My husband also has to work mids sometimes, and there is just no way that kids are going to be quiet enough to allow for day time sleep, any kids, mine, yours, or hers. He will have to put in ear plugs, because even if she does get things down to normal sound levels, it will still not be totally quiet.
I know when I lived in a apt it was noisy!! And kids do tend to run all over when they are inside. I don't think you can do much about the noise her child makes as some kids are just more rambunctious than other and there is no real way for them to monitor when they are being loud as they are not in your apt. I think the only real solution is just to adjust, which I know is hard but doable or to move. I posted awhile back about my neighbors who just got a trampoline and their kids were jumping until like 9:30pm and they were just screaming and laughing soooooooooooo loud. I have little ones and it was just hard on me. But everyone adjusted and all is well now. I know your four year old is not napping but could that be a combination of the noise and the age. My three year old won't take dependable naps and instead of fighting it I just rejoice in the fact he goes to bed a little earlier and just knocks out!! So maybe let go of the actual nap and send the 4YO to the room with a couple books and some music for a quiet time, he/she might even nap here and there but your days of a napping child were winding down anyway. Also, with my baby, he is used to more noise because I have a three year old, so I think the baby will not be bothered at all as he/she will be used to it. We live near a small airport and my kids sleep through airplanes flying overhead and they are quite loud!! So once the noise becomes a part of life, you really do adjust. In small quarters there will be noise, especially on the first floor. Normal activity overhead come out like an earthquake when you are under it! For the baby if you have a mobile in his crib that plays music you could just play that when he goes to sleep and he will always associate that with sleep or even get a white noise machine to help. A white noise machine might also help your husband. But I think bc your husband will be on a schedule of daytime sleep he will be very tired and end up doing ok. Hang in there, hopefully you don't have to move and can make some adjustments that will work for your family. Take care:)
Can the manager move you to a different apartment location?
