When a baby arrives, it brings a lot of happiness to a family. But along with that joy comes sleepless nights for the parents. Dealing with things like colic and teething means trying to calm the baby down constantly. This can be tough not just for the family, but also for the neighbors. Our main character, a man, got tired of hearing his neighbors’ baby crying at night. So, he tried to find a solution to help calm things down. But strangely, he ended up facing a lot of criticism from other people.
A man named Mark wrote a letter to our editorial and he needed a piece of advice.
Mark, who is 33 years old, started his letter by saying that he knows he might be judged and criticized by us and our readers. But he still wanted to share his story and get advice from people who might have been in similar situations.
He said, “I recently moved into my own apartment, which I’ve been saving up for my whole life. It was a really happy moment to have a small place of my own. I liked my neighbors on the same floor as me. All I wanted was peace and quiet, and at first, I had that because none of my neighbors were noisy.”
But then things changed when the couple next door, who are nice young parents, had their first baby. “Since then, my life has become a nightmare,” Mark added.
Mark’s relationship with his neighbors slowly became very tense.
The man keeps telling his story, saying, “Ever since my neighbors became parents, I’ve been having a really hard time. Their baby cries a lot at night, and it’s made my life a mess. I tried to be understanding and calm about it. I even bought a machine that makes soothing sounds, but it didn’t help much.”
Mark tried talking to the new parents, but they didn’t listen. He said, “I asked them to do something about the baby crying, but they just said, ‘Babies cry, it’s normal.’ They told me to deal with it. They didn’t care about my problems and didn’t want to help at all. I was really upset. I had to work at night, but I couldn’t because the baby was crying all the time. I couldn’t sleep either. I had to just sit there and listen to the baby crying for many hours.”
Mark found his own way to solve the problem.
The man said, “I read online that playing sounds of wolves and wild dogs howling can help calm babies, because babies have evolved to protect themselves from predators at night. So, I used my Bluetooth speakers to play that sound. It wasn’t very loud, like the relaxing sounds of dolphins you might hear at a spa. A lot of people fall asleep to those kinds of sounds.”
The strange trick worked right away. The man said, “I’m not sure if my experiment helped calm the baby, but after about 30 minutes, the crying stopped. My neighbors got worried and realized the noise was coming from my place. They asked me about it, and I told them the truth. They were annoyed by what I did.”
The situation took an unexpected turn soon after the man played the wildlife sounds.
Mark wrote, “It turned out that the baby stopped crying because the parents moved the baby to their room, which isn’t next to my wall. But their baby’s room is right next to my bedroom. The howling sounds scared the baby, making it cry even more. The parents were really worried about how it was affecting their baby.
They asked me to stop playing the sounds, and I said I would only if they moved the baby to a different room. Their current setup was making my life really hard. I promised to only play the sounds during the baby’s nap times if it broke any noise rules.
Now, everyone in the neighborhood is mad at me. People don’t even say hi to me anymore. I feel like everyone sees me as an enemy, like they’re boycotting me. I feel like my rights and freedom are being taken away because my neighbors won’t compromise. What should I do?”
