Slight rant about apartment living.

Sweet72947

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#1
Yes I know I seem to post a lot of these lately. This one is not about my roommates though. :p

If you had kids, say 7-9 years old, and you lived in an apartment (not on the first floor!), would you let your kids be as loud as humanly possible, or would you attempt to keep them quiet? Would it be possible to keep kids to a dull roar in this setting? I ask because the neighbors upstairs can sometimes be VERY LOUD. We've asked them nicely to keep it down before because my roommate sleeps during the day, and it worked a little, but sometimes I sit here and wonder just what the heck they are doing up there! Tonight it sounds like elephants thumping around up there!

We are looking at renting a townhouse when our lease is up in June because they are raising the rent. They have also sent out letters threatening to raise pet rent because stupid people aren't picking up after their dogs. We always pick up after Miles, but they can't tell who is picking up and who isn't, so they will punish everybody. I think it will be nice to live in a townhouse, we won't have to listen to people stomping about over our heads anymore! :D
 

Fran101

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#2
When I was a kid we always were taught to "walk softly" in the house and keep the noise level down... common decency IMO not just for our neighbors but for the sanity and mental health of the parents themselves!

Kids need a place to burn off steam and scream their heads off? that's what parks are for. or chucky cheese or zoos. or whatever.
 

Sweet72947

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#3
There is a playground right across the street. But for some reason the kids prefer running back and forth across the floor instead (I do understand that you can't take kids to the playground at 9:00 at night though). Just a few minutes ago the couch shook.
 

HayleyMarie

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#4
Tyler used to have this issue when he was living in an apartment, and he was a shift worker so a lot of the time he was sleeping during the day. You would hear the kids running back and forth stomping like Elephants, but you also heard the mother constantly screaming and yelling at them.

When that would happen we would just take the broom or a hockey stick and start pounding on the ceiling, that usually did the trick, until next time lol
 

Doberluv

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#5
Oh ugggg! I'd hate that. I think a townhouse would be so much better. Then all you'd have to worry about is the sound from beside you. Hopefully, you can get an end unit so you only have one shared wall. Still...it beats the heck out of that over-head crashing around. Good luck. I hope you find a remedy for this awful situation.
 
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#6
While it sucks, I admit I think it is not really possible to keep 7-9 year old kids quiet all the time in their own home. I mean, we do dancing, tickling fights, etc. that all probably make noise and thats not including just normal noise.

Then again, I have never lived in an apt.

I have been in some though were things that were really pretty normal activities sounded really loud below.
 

Locke

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#7
I live in a townhouse, and we share walls with a family that have three daughters: 8 years old, 5 years old, and 3 years old. They are SOOOO loud! They run up and down the stairs and it sounds like someone is running and jumping INSIDE our house. I know it's impossible to keep three young kids quiet all the time, but the level of noise is intense!
 

jess2416

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#8
IMO when you live in an apartment building with multiple floors, you generally know what your getting into, no matter how quiet a person is the people on the apartment below are going to hear everything... yes there are times when people can be more courteous, but you really can't expect people to tiptoe around and not "live" just because you hear everything they do..
 

Zizzy35

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#9
I live in a house. My neighbors kids are animals, they yell all day long outside. My husband sleeps during the day. This is the only thing I dread about the summer.

These kids use bad language and they are about 7. They come up to the fence and tease the dog. Last year they threw chloring tablets over the fence for the dog to eat.
 
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#10
I don't have children, but I spent a large portion of my childhood in apartments. I was a naturally quiet child, but my mom always made sure I didn't make too much noise. We were always on the ground floor, too, so there wasn't any worry of walking/running and having people downstairs hear it.

However, most of our neighbors were not as considerate - there were children running and screeching at all hours. I don't know if I'd ever be able to go back to apartment life. It's bad enough hearing the neighbor kids through the walls of my HOUSE.
 

Sweet72947

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#11
IMO when you live in an apartment building with multiple floors, you generally know what your getting into, no matter how quiet a person is the people on the apartment below are going to hear everything... yes there are times when people can be more courteous, but you really can't expect people to tiptoe around and not "live" just because you hear everything they do..
We don't expect this. And I don't think we hear everything they do. The mom is a SAHM and sometimes I will hear her walk across the floor, or do things in the kitchen, and you can hear when people vacuum above you, but its not loud. These are normal sounds, and they don't bother me or anyone else. Actually, it is pretty quiet up until about 4:30pm, which is, I assume, when the kids get home from school. Then you can hear them run across the floor, and sometimes it sounds like they jump off of furniture. And sometimes you'll just be sitting there tuning out the regular noise, and suddenly right over your head there is a giant THUMP. Always makes me jump out of my skin! This noise will continue until about 9:30, I assume that's when the kids go to bed.
 
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#12
See but for me, that is normal kid activity. I just know when I go to a hotel with the kids it is so freaking stressful trying to keep them relatively quiet and calm. NO way it would happen at home.
 

Baxter'smybaby

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#13
See but for me, that is normal kid activity. I just know when I go to a hotel with the kids it is so freaking stressful trying to keep them relatively quiet and calm. NO way it would happen at home.
I agree with this--if this apt. is their home--they can't be expected to run out to the park every time the child/ren want to romp. As a parent, I definitely would try to keep it to a low roar--but kids are kids--and to expect them to be quiet is not reasonable. Living in an apt--you are going to hear things, and you are also going to cause noise of your own.
 

Sweet72947

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#14
I doubt my roommates and I make that much noise. :p One roommate is asleep all day, one roommate is at work all day, and when I get home at 12:30 I take a shower, put on my pjs and look for jobs on the internet. I suppose we do make noise when we use the Wii fit, as some of those games require running in motion. And everyone hears everyone else's smoke alarms go off from time to time because they are super sensitive and will go off when cooking, even if you just have the oven open too long. We've figured out ways around that though, we cook with the vent fan on high, try not let things sizzle, and open and close the oven as quickly as possible to minimize the amount of heat escaping. We've gotten it to the point where the alarm only goes off every couple of weeks or so. :)

I've never lived under kids before, so I don't know if this noise is par for the course or if it really is an abnormal noise level - it is difficult to describe it over the Internet. I've been around my friend's kids, and yeah the four year old and six year old like to run around and be loud, but the 9 year old sits on the couch and plays his DS, or watches sports with his dad. Oh well, I guess it could be worse. At least our neighbors are friendly. :)
 

Fran101

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#15
Our condo has quiet hours. We don't hear much anyway (dogs barking, babies crying, kids talking, people stomping, vacuum.. we can't hear any of it unless we are in a hallway walking by their door) we have thick walls and really the only sounds like penetrate are REAL SCREAMING (the kind of screaming people do in horror movies)

but IMO yes, quiet hours need to be respected, kids or no.
I am sympathetic to babies crying.. but I'm sorry, between the hours of 9 PM-7 AM you need to shut your kids up if I can hear them SCREECHING LIKE BANSHEES through walls that are designed to muffle sounds.
People are trying to sleep and you signed up to live in this environment and follow the rules.

There is NO REASON your kids needs to be YELLING/SINGING FRIKIN DORA THE EXPLORER TUNES AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS at midnight (yes. this has happened before and management did go up and tell them to quiet down)

We got a really nice letter from our next door neighbor saying that she just had a baby and apologizing for the late night crying that would be going on. and I think that was really nice and totally ignored the baby noise and everything else.. a little courtesy goes a LONG WAY when it comes to what people will deal with.

But the attitude of "my kids can do no harm! We don't have to follow any rules kid will be kids and I AM SUPREME RULER AND HOLIER THAN THOU BECAUSE I AM A PARENT!" needs to stop.

Nobody is expecting kids to be silent... but if you bought an apartment. you agree to follow the rules.. and that means quiet hours.
 

Lilavati

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#16
Unfortunately, a lot of apartments are so poorly built that quiet is impossible. But yes, people need to train their kids to behave like reasonably civilized beings, at least when other people are trying to sleep. But it would be hard to do all the time.
 

Baxter'smybaby

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#17
Unfortunately, a lot of apartments are so poorly built that quiet is impossible. But yes, people need to train their kids to behave like reasonably civilized beings, at least when other people are trying to sleep. But it would be hard to do all the time.
sweet said the roommate was trying to sleep during the day. I think that makes it tough to keep a kid quiet during the day. Evening --sure. You also have to think about the structure--some places the walls are so thin you can hear anything. I suspect that Fran, you live in a more upscale place--not all apts. have rules for quiet hours.
Either way--parents do need to teach their children manners, etc. But to think they won't make noise--or romp around is unrealistic, IMO.
 

jess2416

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#18
not all apt complexs have quiet hours lol I know mine sure doesnt.... BUT as I said earlier when you move into an apartment you KNOW you are going to be in close proximity to other people and you have to expect to hear other people to live their lives... I do however think that people need to be more courteous, but depending on the apartment no matter how quiet you try to be, to the apartment below its going to sound a LOT louder even if it is just "normal" sounds.... In my building there are just 4 apartments and we are all single working adults and I do live in a bottem floor apartment and can hear EVERYTHING, but I knew that going in so it wasnt a surprise.. even so it all depends on the location, normal play CAN sound like bouncing off the walls in apartments lol
 
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#19
Yeah romping around at midnight and being loud is totally different from during the day AND from crying. Sorry, unfortunately some kids cry a lot and there is really nothing you can do. If a toddler has night terrors for instance, or babies with colic, on and on. Sure, you can be courteous and apologize, but in those situations there is no way to "shut them up"

ETA: hmm, this may come across harsher then I intended. I didnt mean for it to be snarky. My point is though its often easy to think they should do "this" when it just doesnt work. Some children really cant control their crying (and no young baby can) or even their tantrums.
 
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sprintime

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#20
Maybe the world is changing but we lived in an apt for the first two yrs we were married and our neighbours on the next floor had kids that we hardly ever heard .Even in our own house I didn't allow any loud yelling or banging around. They could laugh and play but in decent tones , heck I didn't even let them go nuts and screech like animals outside, you hate to disturb your next door neighbours. On the whole street their was only one family who let their kids scream and yell out of control and they were not well liked in our neighbourhood.
I make exceptions for sick children , they can cry all day and all I feel is sympathy, little kids shouldn't have to be in pain....lol.
 

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