A sleep-deprived Florida man has said how he ended up confronting his next-door neighbor about her screaming newborn baby.
Noise is a common complaint among neighbors. In a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Homes.com, noise ranked in the top three most common causes of arguments between neighbors.
Noise has certainly been at the center of the issues that Ngendakuriyo Alex has been having with the family living next door.
In a post shared to TikTok under the handle @legeciii, Alex detailed how his sleep is being disrupted on a nightly basis by his neighbor's newborn child.
Alex told Newsweek this has been going on since the beginning of October and he is running low on energy and patience. "I'm trying to get good sleep, but I can't seem to," he said. "I'm usually a deep sleeper and have tried noise-canceling headphones, but then I can't hear my alarm go off."
"My alarm goes off at 5AM," Alex wrote in his post. "This baby cries until 2, 3AM most nights. I am exhausted. I am ill. I am childless by choice and do not need this."
He continued: "I understand the mother is tired. But you know what? This was not my choice. I'm experiencing the consequences of her choice and I am no longer understanding of it."
Alex said he decided to take his story to TikTok to see if others could help or offer advice. "As far as my mental health goes. I am super sleep-deprived," he added. "What made me share my experience was to see if I could get other people's point of view."
Alex posted his complaint alongside a question: "If your neighbor has a baby and it cries all night, and its room is directly next to yours divided by a wall, is it okay to ask them to move the baby to another room?"
The response from those commenting on TikTok appeared to side firmly with the new mom. "If you're struggling with it as a neighbor, imagine her struggle as the mother," one user wrote.
"You're allowed to feel like this but this is an unreasonable thing to ask. You need to move where you sleep," another posted. "This is a part of apartment living."
A third commented: "I promise you that mom wishes the same and probably SOBS every night knowing the baby is keeping her neighbors up but truly there is nothing you can do. Best bet is to buy some earplugs to sleep with!"
A fourth added: "If they have an extra room to move the baby, I assume you too have an extra room. So you could change rooms."
Alex said he is not surprised at the response and respects that everyone's point of view is different. That hasn't stopped him from approaching the parents with his complaint, though.
"I've expressed to my neighbors what has been going on," Alex said. "I honestly respect the mother for understanding, and I can only imagine what she's also going through."
That confrontation appears to have been productive, too. Alex added: "Having had the talk with her, she said she will do her best to find anything to calm the baby before I get home from work."
Whether that has the desired results remains to be seen.
English (US) ·