As any parent of a toddler will know, getting them to sleep at night isn't always an easy task. But two sets of neighbouring parents are at loggerheads over their kids' sleeping patterns, as one child refuses to sleep and often "kicks the walls" in protest - which in turn wakes up the youngster next door.
The mum of the little boy who is woken up by the noise shared her story online, where she explained that her neighbours have a three-year-old son who "screams" at night and makes a "loud banging noise" for up to two hours as he refuses to go to sleep at his scheduled bedtime.
The noise "wakes up and distresses" the mum's two-year-old son who shares a wall with the other boy, and although the mum has asked her neighbours to move their son's bed or try and calm him down in some way, the noise disturbance has persisted for around two months.
In a post on Reddit, she said: "I live in a two-bedroom apartment with my husband. We have a 2-year-old son. Two months ago, we had new next-door neighbours move in. They're a couple with a 3-year-old son.
"Their son's bedroom is next to our son's bedroom, and we've had a noise problem. At random hours of the night, there's a loud banging noise in the neighbour's kid's room and we can hear him screaming. This goes on often from an hour to two hours at a time and this wakes up and distresses our son.
"I asked the neighbours about it and they explained that their son doesn't like going to bed and still sleeps in a crib. They said he often kicks the walls and screams before falling asleep.
"I asked them if they could please move his crib to the other side of the room because he and my son share a wall, and his kicking the wall wakes up my son and makes the wall vibrate. They said they can't move the crib because it's fixed to the wall but they'd 'sort it out'. No change.
"I talked to them about it again and said that this isn't acceptable and my son's sleep is being disturbed on a regular basis. They got really offended and said something along the lines of 'sorry our son's behavioural problems are affecting you' in a sarcastic way."
The mum has since become "frustrated" with the noise and has contacted the landlord of the building to ask if it would be possible for them to move to another flat where her son won't be sharing a wall with the noisy neighbours.
But the discussion hasn't gone down well with the other family, who have accused her of trying to get them "evicted" after the landlord spoke to them about the complaint.
She added: "I was really frustrated and contacted the landlord and asked about soundproofing or us moving to another apartment within the building. He said he'd see what he can do.
"The next day our neighbours were knocking on our door and started yelling at me and accusing me of trying to get them evicted. I said that's absolutely not our intention and that we just don't want to be disturbed every night.
"They said we'd understand when our son is older, and that they are doing the best they can. The mum started crying and then they left."
Commenters on the post sympathised with the woman's neighbours, but ultimately said the woman did the right thing by approaching the landlord after having already asked the neighbours themselves to act on her complaints.
One person said: "You handled this properly. You let them know there was a problem. They choose not to fix it, so you escalated."
While another added: "You tried discussing it with them. They did not want to fix the problem. So next stop is the landlord. That is how it goes."
And a third posted: "I'm sure it sucks to deal with putting a child to bed who really doesn't want to go, but there is no reason they can't take the time to move the crib. They just don't want to."
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