Back in October we had a minor issue with our neighbors downstairs. One particular night we were having a hard time getting Lucy to sleep, partly due to the fact that the downstairs neighbors front door was being slammed shut about every 60 seconds for about 15 minutes. The door is right below Lucy's bed and our entire apartment shakes whenever that door is slammed shut. So I went down and asked the lady of the house if the could stop slamming the door for a while as we were having a hard time getting our daughter to sleep. She looked at me, mumbled something that sounded like "sure, whatever" and went inside. Turns out it was her recently-turned-2 year old son doing the slamming (I had no idea, just knew the door was being slammed). Anyway, it stopped for the night.
So the next evening, the man of the house from downstairs (also the maintenance man for the complex we live at...) comes upstairs and knocks on my door. He informs me his wife has a migraine and that my daughter has been jumping up and down all day and could she please stop. Well, I politely informed him that my daughter had been home for all of 5 minutes, she had been away with her grandparents ALL day. My parents were still at my house, like they had literally just got there. I speculated out loud that perhaps there were pipes or something in between that had made noise all day because it was quiet up here.
Then he let it out... "well it's really that she's been up every morning at 5:30 since we moved in and she runs back and forth. I understand having kids, we have little ones too..." blah blah blah. I just stood there in shock. I knew it was only because I had gone down the night before, but the fact that he was coming to my door telling me blatant lies pissed me off! In fact, I've thought about it every day for three months now. I'm so angry about it! They moved in sometime between May 24th and June 1st. I know these dates because we went to Kauai having an empty apartment downstairs and came home to new neighbors. Anyway, it's was a complete lie that she was up at 5:30. In fact, before October 4th (and this "encounter" was about 3 weeks after that) there was no way she was ever up before 7am. I know this because she was in a crib up until the 4th when her big girl bed was delivered. She never climbed out and she stayed in there quietly playing until I got up at 7. On the days I went to work I woke her up at 6:30 and carried her to the car, she never ran around. She was up at 5:30 for a few weeks after getting her new bed, but then quickly went back to getting up at 7 (sometimes 6:30 but never 5:30). Anyway... it just pisses me off that he would come up and lie to my face.
I don't think it would have bugged me as much if he hadn't said he "knew" it was all my 2 YO daughter. Seriously? I piss you off and you blame it all on my kid? Well, since I don't have the desire to stir anything else up with them let me list all my complaints for them:
- The day I met the father and son, it was because the son had come up to my balcony and kicked over my two new potted plants I had set out just a few days before. He knocked one over and kicked the other off the balcony. The dad just yelled at him to come down and shouted up to me "sorry!". No offer to clean up, no making the kid apologize.
- They let their son, who turned 2 last July, run around and do what he wants. He runs into the streets, across the alleys, up the stairs to my balcony to my front door- yelling, screaming, and being plain annoying, for hours on end. Seriously! The mom just yells at him from inside the house "DYLAN! DYLAN!". Until he either comes back or the dad comes home and makes the kid go inside. A few weeks ago he was playing on our stairs and got his head stuck in the rails. From the yelling and crying I estimate he was stuck for about 10 minutes... the mom had just been yelling at him to come down the entire time. Finally his dad got his head out and he hasn't been upstairs since. (If I had noticed earlier I would have gone out there but the other upstairs neighbor noticed at the same time, she was closer and went to his rescue).
- They blast their music LOUD, until my windows are shaking. They've done this for months, they are the loudest people! Even at 2am!
- They grill on their barbecue. In the alley. Probably because he's on staff here but whatever. If it's a fire hazard for us to even keep our grill on the property it should be the same for them!!!
- When there is an extra loud noise from up here (usually when Lucy trips in the kitchen) they bang on the wall/ceiling! Like, for real? What are they, 12? Ugh.
- They take no responsibility for their actions or their kids actions.
- Finally, the mom has a terrible mouth when talking to her kids. I know this is not something I can control, but when she's shouting to her son "Hey @$$hole, get back here!" for all to hear I can't help but have an opinion. Who yells that at their 2 year old? She is always yelling obscenities at her kids (2yo boy and 10 month little girl).
Ok that's my vent for now. I can't wait for November, I hope we can move then!! I'm starting to look now... we just pay such cheap rent here and other than the neighbors I like the place. It'll be hard to find another place for this price.
