Neighbor Threatening To Call Cops Over Crying Baby Next Door Slammed


A post about a man who threatened to call the police over his neighbor’s crying baby has received a storm of criticism on Reddit, where it got 7,700 upvotes at the time of this writing.

In a viral post shared on the Am I The A****** (AITA) subforum, user Crafty-Ocelot9612 said their neighbors Annie and Bill, a couple in their 30s, recently had a baby who came home last month after spending three months in a hospital.

“My wife is friendly with Annie, we can’t have children, so whenever we have a neighbor with a baby my wife makes friends with them,” the user said.

According to the poster, the “baby is always crying and it’s frustrating, especially when mum needs peace and quiet to recover from surgery.”

The user said his mother is staying at their house as she is “no longer able to live independently.”

Couple holding crying baby.
A stock image of a couple looking over a crying baby. A post about a man telling his neighbors, whose baby has been “always crying” after spending 3 months in hospital, “to be more considerate” has gone viral on Reddit.
iStock/Getty Images Plus

In a survey of 2,000 American adults conducted market research firm OnePoll in September 2017 for Homes.com, the real estate company, noise was reported to be the top reason to argue with a neighbor.

The survey found that nearly twice as many city dwellers as suburban and rural residents (18.2 percent vs. 9.2 percent and 8.4 percent respectively) complain about “being woken up before 2 a.m. because of noise coming from their neighbor’s homes.”

One in four have had a “long-running feud” with a person living next door to them, while 36 percent were found to have had issues that escalated to “full-blown arguments,” the survey said.

The user in the latest Reddit post said: “The baby screams several times a day, it’s awful listening to the poor thing cry for so long. It does feel like they aren’t dealing with the baby as quickly as they should be.”

He said he “reached a breaking point” at the weekend because his mother was in tears when he got home from work, alleging that the baby had “been screaming all day long.”

The poster confronted Annie and when she came to the door, she apologized and explained she’d been trying to calm the baby down, “but the new medication was making him constipated and he was straining to poo” and that Bill had gone to pick up an emergency prescription for their baby.

The user said he “snapped,” as he allegedly “could see through the frosted glass that Annie was sat on the bottom of the stairs not even trying to calm the baby down.”

He told her that “they need to be more considerate of others and if she didn’t quiet the baby then I would log a noise complaint with the police.”

The poster said his wife has been giving him the “silent treatment,” for “making life difficult for a young couple with a sick baby.” However, “at the same time, the baby is always crying and I think they need to be more considerate of their neighbors.”

Man at apartment door, talking to couple.
A stock image of a man standing in the doorway while speaking to a couple standing inside a home.
iStock/Getty Images Plus

How To Address Noise Issues With Neighbors

A Little Empathy Goes a Long Way

Jennifer Kelman, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and a family therapist for JustAnswer, told Newsweek: “Babies cry because that is the only way they can communicate. But just because they are crying doesn’t mean a parent is able to quell that cry or whatever is going on for that baby at that time.

“Imagine how overwhelmed the parents feel with having a baby that was just in the hospital and possibly in pain and is unable to communicate with words,” she said.

She added that just because the neighbor was sitting on the stairs when the poster knocked on the door “does not indicate that she wasn’t doing anything to help the baby.”

The LCSW said: “A little empathy could go a long way … this is a stage and the baby will grow out of it as it gets older so it’s a temporary situation.”

She suggested finding some ways to soundproof the home, whether it be using fans, sound machines or light music, so that the baby’s crying can be dulled a little bit.

Stay in Your Lane and Don’t Interfere

Kelman noted it was “rude” for the poster to “get so involved” in another family’s life, making comments and judgments about what they are, or aren’t, doing.

The LCSW said: “Yes, it may be frustrating and yes everyone might be exhausted as well,” however, “this is a matter of staying in your lane … as it is not your place to go and knock on the door and make suggestions … even more so because you don’t have children of your own and have no idea just how difficult those moments can be.”

Lack of Empathy ‘Outrageous’

Several Redditors criticized the original poster and were more understanding of the baby’s mother.

In a comment that got 38,800 upvotes, cajun_hippie said: “Your lack of empathy and inability to sympathize are outrageous. Real babies aren’t like dogs or dolls. I would hate to see how you would’ve treated your wife or your own child.”

In a comment that got 3,700 upvotes, nololthx wrote: “I’m a pediatric nurse and after a 12 hour shift, I sometimes require a few minutes of silence in my car in the dark before going into my house. I cannot imagine what it must be like to not be able to walk away and then to be shamed by some AH [a******] for taking a moment to calm yourself down.”

Huntsvegas97 wrote: “I don’t get why he’s so insensitive to the issue. He has to know the baby has health issues, since it didn’t come home for the first three months and there are home healthcare people there regularly. I can only imagine how mentally taxing it already is to see your child sick so early in their life, and then on top of that they’re inconsolable. It’s insane to think the mother isn’t trying. She was probably sitting on the stairs to try and avoid having a complete mental breakdown.”

Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment.

Do you have a similar dilemma? Let us know via [email protected]. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.



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