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My neighbour has a kid who shouts and cries continuously whole day and makes strange noises like barking, howling, bleating, and others. I really admire the energy of the girl, the endurance of her parents and grandparents, but it gives me headache, anger, frustration and has also increased my blood pressure. By the time of drafting this (10:36 PM), she was still crying!

They are quite friendly with us, so I can't just scold them. And my mom and dad loves that girl too. When I angrily whine that she's shouting, they would simply say that I don't know what's joy or that kids' sounds are divine and other B.S. Don't be mistaken. I love kids. I love my nephew. He is energetic and playful but doesn't cause this noise pollution.

How can I ask the neighbors to control their daughter's noise level?

Edit:

  • I am in the north eastern part of India.

  • I have been staying with my parents since February 2020.

  • So far I haven't talked to them, because it might be disrespectful. And also I don't want my parents to be ashamed in case I disrespectfully explode at them.

  • The kid is 3-4 years old.

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    Do you think that the child is making so much noise because she's being neglected? That might be a good reason for speaking to the neighbors.
    – DaveG
    Commented Sep 19, 2020 at 14:26
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    Children that age are trying out control: self control, controlling parents and so on. They are very noisy during this period, there may be little your neighbours can do about it.
    – Ivana
    Commented Sep 22, 2020 at 7:35

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The best angle to approach this is by being (or at least seeming to be, but actually being is so much better) helpful. After a particularly bad night approach your neighbour, tell them you heard the kid for a long time last night and ask if everything is OK. If they give any hint of not everything being ideal, ask if there is something you can do to help; in fact even if they say everything is going just fine, offer them to babysit the kid on a spare afternoon or so - this might give you the chance of understanding of what's going on. This might or might not help.

Unfortunately for everyone concerned there might be no good solution - what if the child has a developmental disability and will not grow out of this phase any time soon ? But at least then you know and can try and mitigate the noise from your end. From personal experience, I could offer that finding the ideal earplugs at this stage in your life might come in handy when it turns out your spouse which you might acquire at some point on your life snores in a decibel range that would probably be illegal at most places of work.

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