Living in an apartment building comes with some necessary compromises. Having neighbors above, below, and on either side of you means sometimes things are going to get noisy, which can get pretty annoying pretty quickly. This is compounded when your neighbors have kids, as kids are notoriously loud and kind of obnoxious. One apartment dweller felt so frustrated that the neighbor’s children were being rowdy in the common area, he actually told them to shut up, and now the parents want an apology. Who’s in the right here?
- The yeller shared their story on Reddit. Taking to the AITA sub, user maybeicul8r revealed that while his apartment building has generally been pretty quiet and low-key for the eight years he’s lived there, that’s changed in recent months when a family with small kids under the age of five who regularly scream and cry in the mornings before school and after school into the evening before they go to bed.
- One day, OP had had enough. After one too many days of listening to the kids yelling, OP decided he’d had enough and, when one of the children was yelling in the building’s hallway, he opened the door, told them calmly (according to OP anyway) to “shut up” before closing the door again. It’s unclear whether or not this had the desired effect, but it didn’t go over too well.
- The kids’ parents knocked on OP’s door later that day. The parents demanded that OP apologize to the kids, which OP refused to do. OP pointed out that it’s not normal or okay to let your kids scream in common areas of an apartment building, but the parents basically insisted that kids will be kids and that it happens. The parents seemed to insinuate that OP didn’t understand what it’s like to have kids since he has none himself. The situation wasn’t really resolved.
- The response was pretty mixed. Many people believe that OP wasn’t in the wrong at all for telling the kids to sternly be quiet. After all, common areas are not personal play areas and don’t belong to the children or their parents, so it’s up to the parents to discipline them. On the other hand, OP should have talked to the parents first (which he admitted was his initial plan before the situation “boiled over” and he told the kids to shut up) to try and resolve things.
- What’s the right answer here? At the end of the day, when you live in an apartment building, you’re essentially sharing a living space with other people. If you want peace and quiet and no noise, you’re living in the wrong place. At the same time, people should be considerate of the fact that there are other people to think about and discipline themselves and their children with that in mind. There’s no easy answer here!
