Fireworks on the 4th of July are an American tradition, but would you be upset if neighbors were setting off fireworks on the 5th of July?

In this story, one dad was in this situation, and he was upset because the fireworks woke up his young children, who were trying to sleep.

He doesn’t want to be the cranky old guy ruining the fun, but he also wants his kids to sleep through the night.

Did he handle the situation well or not?

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for asking our neighbors to stop lighting off fireworks at 9:15 on July 5th in our neighborhood thats filled w/ young sleeping kids?

Our neighborhood is starting to “turn”—older folks moving out, young families moving in.

We’ve got 2 kids, neighbors across the way have 4, next door 2, a few houses down 2… all under 8.

If you’re a parent, you get the nightly war that is bedtime. July 4th? Totally expected chaos.

We’re all in our 30s, so we remember the fun. We don’t care (probably even miss it), but kids change things.

One family sets off a lot of fireworks.

Family two houses down—right in the middle of kid-central—starts lighting fireworks.

Not sparklers or firecrackers. Full-on sky explosions. Not constant, but sprinkled in.

We live where these kinds of fireworks are illegal unless you drive 2 hours across the border.

When the first one hit, I assumed it was a leftover from the 4th. Then another hit.

OP wasn’t the only neighbor who was upset.

I stepped out. My neighbor did too. He said three of his kids woke up. Both our boys were sick and had just settled down.

We stood and watched.

They shot off smaller stuff—fine. We didn’t say anything.

Then another loud one hit. We said, “Screw it, let’s say something.”

They confronted the neighbors.

We walked down. Looked like older kids, maybe friends. One kid was walking to light another.

We said: “We don’t want to be the awful neighbors, but there’s a block full of kids trying to sleep and you’ve woken them up. Yesterday was fine, but it’s the 5th. We can’t be doing this.”

Silence. One kid waves from a garage chair. Another gives a subtle “Okay.”

I ask, “Are we good?”

They weren’t “good.”

No answer. We turn to leave. Cool, point made… right?

Then they light one off even bigger than before.

It felt… disrespectful? Rude?

We didn’t call the cops. We tried to talk first.

They’re still not done.

We walked back down, more serious now: “Are we serious right now? Even bigger after we asked?”

More silence. Another silent wave.

A woman appears—maybe the mom.

“We just want to do one more fountain and then we’re done.”

They gave in.

We chuckle. “A fountain? What does that even mean?”

Then a man appears with said fountain and says the same: “Just one more, and that’s it.”

We already felt like the bad guys. Didn’t want a real confrontation. Cops over this felt like a waste. So we said “Fine.”

We walked away and watched. It was sparks… but with some low cracks and pops.

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OP hated to be the bad guy.

I’m 34 and dreaded being the cranky old guy annoyed by fireworks… but this bugged me. If they’d just apologized, or said, “We’re sorry, can we finish this last one?”—I’d have respected that.

But lighting off a bigger one after we asked, then saying “just one more” felt like a slap.

Didn’t want to be a buzzkill… but part of me feels like a jerk, and part of me’s proud I channeled my inner dad. No cops. No fights. Everyone went inside after.

So… AITA?

He was a good dad in that moment. He was trying to make sure his kids could sleep.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This person thinks the older kids deserve to have fun.

Another person knows fireworks are never just on the 4th of July.

This person wouldn’t be upset at fireworks at that time.

Nobody seems to think he should’ve complained.

You pretty much have to wait until at least 9 pm to set off fireworks so that it’s dark outside in the summer. I’m sure that 9:15 is not considered quiet hours, so really, the dad can assert his opinion, but the neighbors wouldn’t have to listen.

He handled it well, but if they had refused to stop, they wouldn’t have been doing anything wrong either.

Maybe he needs to get a white noise machine for his kids’ room so that they don’t wake up so easily.