Living in an apartment with energetic toddlers, advice pls!

esther7

Sat, Mar 12 2022, 11:20 pm

Looking for all and any advice on how to handle living in an apartment, with toddlers who love to play, jump, run and bang toys around. How do you make sure not to disturb the neighbors, what do you do when your kids are up at 6am, especially over the weekends, what do you do when your 3 year old is having a tantrum and banging his feet on the floor really hard?
I feel like so much of my patience and energy is wasted by making sure the kids aren't banging and jumping too much, that I have much less patience to deal with the other, normal kid behaviors.
Just to add... We're not even in an apartment building with downstairs neighbors. We are in a side by side duplex... When we moved, we were especially looking for a place that's on the ground floor so that we don't have this issue. But apparently the way the house is designed, the neighbors seem to hear and feel every jump and bang. Which makes it all the more frustrating.
Would love to hear from those with experience. Either advice, or just perspective to help me through this. It's been a really tough shabbos Can't Believe It

amother

Copper

Sat, Mar 12 2022, 11:24 pm

You can let your kids be kids. During the day it's totally fine if they run and jump that's life. You can attempt to keep them quiet until 7 am but honestly you are not required to. You have the right to live and you do not have to spend the day preventing them from just being toddlers.

amother

Melon

Sat, Mar 12 2022, 11:26 pm

If no one lives under you, I'd just let my kids be. Part of living with neighbors is hearing noise from other apartments. I wouldn't drive myself nuts to keep kids quiet if no one lives downstairs.

esther7

Sun, Mar 13 2022, 3:41 am

amother [ NeonGreen ] wrote:

Are your neighbors driving you crazy?

Is that why you are going so crazy?

They're not driving us crazy, but it comes up from time to time, they ask us to keep the running/jumping down. The neighbors are not Jewish, a young-middle aged couple, with no kids so no concept of what it's like to be living with kids. The husband works from home so is at home most of the day. If things get too loud, he'll sometimes bang on the wall. I guess I also feel bad, cos I know it probably is really annoying for them, and I also don't want to make a chilul Hashem and give them a bad impression of yidden.
We put down a padded rug in the hallway, which is the part of the house that's attached to theirs. But still doesn't help the rest of the house.