My neighbours refuse to pause construction when I have a newborn

"This is a massive overreaction; the entitlement is crazy. The world doesn't give a crap if you have a baby."

After two years of meticulous planning for a renovation of their home, a couple didn't expect any pushback from their neighbours. But just a few weeks out from starting, they came across a major hurdle.

“We texted our neighbours this weekend to let them know construction would start at the end of the month for approximately four months,” the woman wrote to the AITA forum. 

She says she and her husband aren’t extremely close with their neighbours but “always been pleasant.”

Everyone was fine with the message until they got a knock on their door from their male neighbour, whom they share a wall with.

Want to join the family? Sign up to our Kidspot newsletter for more stories like this. 

Image: Pexels

RELATED: Fast fashion giant under fire: ‘I looked like a potato’

"She's never cried more"

“He expressed disappointment in the timing because his girlfriend is pregnant and due next week. We were never told of her pregnancy until December and that she was due sometime in March,” she explained.

“We told him how sorry we were for the timing but obviously it wasn't intentional. 10 minutes after he left we received a text asking if we were available to talk the next day about possible solutions and if we could delay the rebuild by three-four months. We agreed to meet and told him delaying was not possible because we already have another place lined up for us to live in, contractor agreement, etc.” the woman continued.

Needless to say, the meeting didn’t go down well.

“The girlfriend cried the entire time and said she has not cried as much as she has in the past 24 hours as she has in the past two years. She’s worried about how this will affect the baby because she's stressed now.

“She couldn't believe that we just sent them a text message only a month in advance and that we should have come talk to them in person as this was the first she was hearing about this. Did we even put ourselves in their shoes?” 

The woman continued, “They are concerned with how this affects their own sleep because the baby will be up at night they need to sleep during the day and they won’t be able to with construction. They just kept repeating that it can’t happen.”

The OP said they “feel for them” as new parents and tried to offer a compromise. 

“We told them we would get them a build schedule so they could see what days would be noisiest and they want us to ask the contractor if there can be quiet hours from 12-3 pm. I don’t think that is realistic and don’t know what else we could do to amend the situation.”

RELATED: My partner said I ‘smelled down there’ when I was in labour

"This is a massive over-reaction"

So, is the poster in the wrong? Should she and her husband be more accommodating?

The forum doesn’t think so. 

“It's a baby. It's going to make noise all on its own. It can now make as much noise as it likes without disturbing you next door and without its parents being worried about it doing so. This is a massive overreaction from your neighbours. I would suggest you stop being quite so accommodating and concentrate instead on your own plans and carrying them forward,” the top comment with 7.8k likes read. 

“100% agree,” added someone else. “Tell them to buy a great white noise machine, and don't think anything further of it. I have a one-year-old. If they want to sleep, they will sleep through anything. If they don't want to, a tissue dropping will wake them up.”

And then a fellow mum entered the chat, and didn’t mince her words: “Lol NTA. I’ve had two children and the entitlement is crazy. And pregnancy hormones are real but this woman sounds ridiculous. Plus a baby newborn actually sleeps through all kinds of noise. It would disturb them more in a few months down the line. 

“They’ll get used to the noise quickly too and unless they are offering to pay for the pushing back of schedule, contractors, your accommodation and some extra for the inconvenience, they have a rude awakening happening that the world does not revolve around them. 

“Good that they learn early that also outside no one gives a crap if you have a baby. People yell in the streets, construction is happening everywhere and cars are loud. Sucks for them but they’ll deal.”

Originally published as My neighbours refuse to pause construction when I have a newborn