Disgruntled neighbour's letter divides the internet

“When you read the undertones, you know the reason they’ve used that language is to cause guilt”

Look, we get it; nobody likes a crying baby.

Who probably hates a crying baby most in the middle of the night?

It’s parents!

So, when one new mum found a letter from a neighbour expressing frustration about the noise of her four-and-a-half-month-old son, she was in tears.

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“On behalf of your neighbours”

An anonymous local from Redcliffe in the Moreton Bay region of Queensland left a message for the young family on an A4 piece of paper.

“I was just checking my mailbox and saw a letter,” Tiffany told Yahoo News Australia. 

“I was pretty upset by it, like I was in tears.”

The letter started with, “I’m writing this on behalf of your neighbours and wanted to reach out to you regarding the noise level coming from your residence, particularly the crying of your baby.

“While we understand that babies cry and a newborn can be tough, we can clearly hear everything from the early hours of the morning, throughout the day and into the evening.

“The prolonged and frequent crying has disrupted your fellow neighbours. Some of us work from home and others are shift workers. We have tried closing our windows and doors and even have turned on appliances with the TV and radio and the crying is still being heard.”

The mystery writer ended the letter by saying they valued “being good neighbours and respecting each other’s space” and then requested that the parents close their doors and windows “while the baby is feeling unsettled.”

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Totally unreasonable

Tiffany and her partner John, who recently became parents and invested a lot to purchase their first family home last year, were completely taken aback when they received the note. 

Their three-bedroom house, built in the 1950s, stands near a busy main road “with a reputation for hoons”, making the news even more surprising. 

Tiffany mentioned that their house is just up the street from a service station and a police station. Across the road, there’s a high school and a particularly active ibis colony.

“I have a feeling it might be the upstairs neighbour in a unit complex behind because I have heard them slam their window a couple of times,” the mum told Yahoo. 

“Their windows overlook our backyard, but they’re set back quite a distance from the house.”

Tiffany described her baby as “pretty chill” and said they “settle quickly” without screaming throughout the night. She criticized the note as “unreasonable,” highlighting the difficulties of new parenthood as “challenging and isolating.”

“When you read the undertones, you know the reason they’ve used that language is to cause guilt,” the mum said.

“It’s to make them not feel as bad by making it sound like it’s from multiple people because I think deep down they know how unreasonable it is to complain about a baby crying in suburbia.”

She also mentioned that there are more effective ways to handle this type of disagreement.

“If they’d come and chat with us and said, ‘Hey, look, we work these hours, and these are the times that it’s really bothering us,’ we would have been open to a conversation. But I won’t be closing my windows, and we’re not going to lock our house up or muzzle our baby.”

RELATED: I kicked out my neighbour from my daughter’s party

Friendly or faux-pas? Source: Facebook

On the fence

After posting the note on Facebook, Tiffany’s post quickly gained traction, garnering over 160 comments and nearly 300 reactions.

Many were quick to share their support for Tiffany’s situation.

“As a new mum myself, this really hurt reading this,” wrote one mother. 

“As if we don’t have enough to worry about already.”

“Ew, they could have offered to help you out,” another shared. 

“That person obviously has never dealt with a newborn,” added another, many labeling the letter “rude and pathetic.”

However, not everyone thought this way.

“I see nothing abusive in the wording or attitude of this letter,” one person said, regarding the request to shut the doors and windows as “quite rational and carefully thought out.”

“I don’t see any harm in it,” wrote another. 

“It’s not an aggressive letter or anything abusive or threatening. Even says he wants to be good neighbours.”

No more ‘community’

It seems we’re more connected than we’ve ever been, but we’ve simultaneously lost our sense of community even faster. 

Whether you agree with the mum or the disgruntled letter writer, it’s a shame we’re beyond the point of checking in on a fellow neighbour over a cuppa.

Originally published as Disgruntled neighbour's letter divides the internet