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Living in an apartment building means that you have lots of neighbors, so keeping the noise to a minimum is the polite thing to do.

What would you do if your daughter was having friends over and they were running around when your downstairs neighbor texted you asking you to keep them quiet?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, but he refused to tell the kids to try to keep it down because he thought the neighbor was rude.

Personally, while I understand that kids don’t need to be silent just because they live in an apartment, he can tell them to keep the volume to a minimum. Ignoring the neighbor’s request was just rude. Read through the full story here and see what you think.

AITA for ignoring my neighbor who thinks I’m being too loud?

I moved into my apartment 6 years ago when my daughter was 1.

I hope that the new tenants don’t cause him trouble.

I live on the second floor and the people who lived below me for the majority of my time here moved out about six months ago.

New tenants moved in, four 21 year olds who just got out of college and moved to my city. My landlord lives above me.

Kids make noise; there is no stopping that.

I have shared custody of my 7 year old daughter and she is only with me 50% of the time. She is in school full time and I would say during the week she is really only awake and moving about the apartment from 5:00pm to 8:00pm.

That being said, she does run around the house, play with toys, laugh, etc. This past weekend, she had 5 friends over for her birthday party.

I can see why the neighbors would be annoyed at this. But it’s not like it happens every day.

While I tried to keep the kids quiet, they were excited and rowdy and I couldn’t take them outside because it was too cold.

The guests were at my house from 4-7pm and then left and during that time, the landlord who lives above me texted me and asked that the kids “take it down a notch.”

Kids can be really loud when they are running around.

I was very apologetic and explained that it was a birthday party and it would be over soon. Then I told the kids to calm down and it seemed to work pretty well. I haven’t heard anything else from the landlord and I have never had any of the other people in the building complain.

Today my daughter had 2 friends over after school and they were running around again but only from 6pm to 7:30pm. And I received this text from the neighbor downstairs:

If he has never told them to keep it down, it is his own fault that they haven’t.

Hi, this is your downstairs neighbor, I asked the landlord for your number because I didn’t want to like bang on your door but I need you to know that the running around upstairs is really really loud down here. It seems to be happening a lot more often, so I needed to say something.

I was miffed as they tend to have people over late at night and also play music/video games pretty loudly. I have never complained because it’s not that bad and I live in a big city where I expect noise.

Sure, it is annoying, but kids are allowed to have fun in their own home.

So I responded saying, “I’m sorry it’s loud. My daughter just got home from school and will be in bed in 2 hours.”

This was the response: “ok I get it but just keep in mind she is running and jumping on our ceiling. This isn’t the first time and it’s not appropriate.”

Not even making an attempt to keep quiet is pretty rude.

I haven’t responded and I’m not sure if I will. But when the 3 kids were over I let them run around despite the text because I found it to be so obnoxious.

I don’t think she should tell me what is and isn’t appropriate for my daughter to do in our private home.

The issue with the landlord is entirely separate.

Until winter is over, we are stuck in this apartment and she is only here half of the time.

I am equally annoyed that the landlord gave her my number without permission.

AITA?

The downstairs neighbors seemed to be very polite, and he isn’t even making an attempt to have his kids be quieter. For that reason, I think he is in the wrong here.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

Kids don’t need to be running around inside.

Keeping the volume down is the respectful thing to do.

Occasional noisiness is fine, but this was several days in a row.

This commenter says the landlord was in the wrong, and I agree.

The neighbors aren’t being unreasonable.

Keeping the kids just a little bit quieter is the bare minimum he could have and should have done. His neighbors have a right to be able to enjoy some peace and quiet too.

That being said, kids can have fun inside as well and don’t need to be kept completely silent.