Kate Hackett
I never had to take to Reddit to decide if I was a jerk, but I once had a mother come over to my door at about 1:00 in the afternoon while I had carpet cleaners here. It’s a fairly noisy household chore, but it has to be done and… you know, it was 1 pm.
This mom asked me if I could “do this later” because she was trying to get her kid to take a nap.
And listen.
I’m sure you’re exhausted and I’m sure this baby is driving you up a wall but … uh. No. My world doesn’t stop, and I am not going to tell people I paid to be here, to leave because your child is crying. I do not care.
I knew I wasn’t the jerk, but u/MelodicStrategy1569 wasn’t so sure.
Here’s their story:
My garage is about 3 metres away from my neighbour’s bedroom where their baby sleeps. I’ve got a roller door which beeps quietly four times within 20 seconds of me arriving home and pushing the button. It’s so quiet that at times I can’t hear it when sitting in the room adjacent to the garage when my partner comes home.
OP lives in close-ish quarters to someone with a baby. Their garage door seems to be the key offender here.
Since my neighbour had her baby, I’ve made an effort to be more considerate of noise. Despite already sound proofing my rumpus room, I’ve stopped playing my drums after 6pm. I’ve also declined hosting friends outside in my backyard due to noise. I think I’ve been more than considerate, but apparently not.
OP also points out that they have done their due diligence to be kind to the person with a new baby. Soundproofing, no drums, etc.
I get home from work at 11pm and put my car in the garage. A couple weeks ago my neighbour approached me and asked if I could wait until the morning to put my car away, but I declined as there have been break ins to cars on our street lately. My car is also one that is targeted by thieves a lot as parts are expensive, and it’s an enthusiasts car. I apologised but was firm when telling her that I will not, under any circumstances, leave my car out overnight.
OP gets home late and it seems that the baby wakes up as OP is putting his or her car away. The neighbor asked OP to leave the car out overnight, OP said no.
I also know that they sleep with their window open that faces my garage, but I thought it would be weird to bring it up and suggest they close the window. I’m also confused, as I have an after market exhaust on the car which is louder than the original but they have nothing to say about it.
OP is an asshole for having an after-market exhaust. Boom. Done. We can all stop reading.
A couple nights ago I came home to her husband’s car blocking my driveway just enough that I couldn’t get my car through. It was kind of useless because I pushed the button before I even reached my driveway, so it beeped anyway. They didn’t come out so I had their car towed and they haven’t done it since. Today (Saturday) I decided to play my drums around lunch time in my sound proofed rumpus room. You can only hear minimal vibration from the kick from the outside, but it’s at the rear of my property and quite far away from any neighbours but they still had something to say. The wife came over and basically said she had put up with my noise for long enough and that she was exhausted due to the kid never sleeping thanks to the noise I make.
The neighbors have become increasingly annoyed and resorted to some strange tactics to try to get OP to quiet down, like blocking OP’s driveway with their car (which.. OP towed? obviously?). When the neighbor complained again, OP snapped:
I was definitely still miffed about the driveway blocking situation from the other night and snapped a little, telling her that I’d been considerate enough and already made concessions in terms of noise. I said that while it’s within my right to play music up until 10pm in our council, I’ve cut myself off at 6pm in consideration of her and her kid. I said that from now on she’ll have to get over it because I was done catering to her and her family.
