Noise Annoys, Rugrat Edition
The most frequent noise complaint real estate lawyer Stuart Saft hears nowadays concerns kids. “Fifteen years ago or so, it used to be that the noise complaints were all about loud stereo and TV equipment,” Saft is quoted as saying in a Times story about the pitter patter of tiny feet driving neighbors crazy. “Now…

The most frequent noise complaint real estate lawyer Stuart Saft hears nowadays concerns kids. “Fifteen years ago or so, it used to be that the noise complaints were all about loud stereo and TV equipment,” Saft is quoted as saying in a Times story about the pitter patter of tiny feet driving neighbors crazy. “Now it’s kid noise more than anything else, and I think it demonstrates the changing demographic of the city. You have more kids living in the apartment buildings, and parents who feel their children have the right to be children.” The story focuses on people like a Slope couple with two kids who try to keep their children from running around before 8 a.m. because their downstairs neighbor finds the tots’ noise “exhausting. Even my boyfriend doesn’t ever want to come over — it’s so horrible.” Another Slope mom says she “probably tried a little too hard” to keep her kids quiet and not upset neighbors when, at the end of the day, “They were not doing anything outrageous. They were just doing normal kid things. But small children, especially toddlers, have this clumsy flatfooted walk. It’s impossible to control.” The article says noise carries in a lot of prewar construction, especially in smaller buildings, and when apartments are renovated or combined, the end result is often the loss of some insulation. Some co-op boards install sound meters in apartments to determine if neighbors’ complaints are warranted, though the most frequent solution appears to also the most time-trusted when it comes to New Yorkers and their tight quarters: Compromise. “We do indeed walk on eggshells, and I find myself on tiptoes if I have high heels on, even when I’m not home,” says another Brooklyn parent.“I’m a trained monkey. But my 19-month-old is not.”
The Noise Children Make [NY Times]
Photo by Joey Harrison.
1.24pm (last paragraph)
Very funny! Keep them coming!
1:21 pm
lol! Very funny! Though I think it might go right over peoples head. Nevertheless, you might be a closet racist. Your point could have been made without the black reference. Then, the readers (us) could have mentally pictured an abusive parent from our own memories.
Whatever, it’s still funny.
I’ve lived in Park Slope for about 17 years, and I can categorically say that the people who report constantly, or even frequently, seeing kids running around and screaming in restaurants, parents ramming pedestrians with strollers, etc., are full of sh_t. I’ll see an egregious incident like this every once in a long while. Far more often I see people do their best to be respectful of others.
People either are (1) blowing up isolated incidents to advance their agenda, (2) exaggerating milder incidents either on purpose or because they’re hypersensitive to them or (3) making sh_t up.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the kid whose California parents let him fart in people’s faces as self-expression falls under category (3).
No, some of us were just raised by non-divorcing parents who didn’t try to achieve a life-style beyond their means. Yes, that dates me – I’m ten years older than you. I worked hard to get into a good college (my attendance at which, I do agree with you, was probably to my detriment in many ways.)
I think the people complaining about disobedient middle (and upper) class kids being loud and ill behaved are right on. The problem is definetly the parents, they let their kids get away with anything.
If only these parents would take a lesson from the poorer black moms we all get to see at places Target etc…. When your kid acts up you have to yell and curse at them in a very loud voice, if that doesnt work call them names like “idiot” and “asshole” and finally when you get really frustrated it is time to beat the crap out of the little devil right there in public…
this firm parenting has clearly molded hard working, productive, well-behaved and articulate youth and should be a lesson to all.
I’m not 12:57, but I also see kids do this in restaurants and stores, and parents often do say nothing. They want to put their attention on something else, shopping, eating etc., and not on teaching their children at the same time.
I’m not one of the anti-kid people – I hate all this anti-stroller talk that I both read and hear. But I see this behavior (both from kids I know and kids I don’t), and am appalled at their parents.
I do see others confront parents and tell them to teach these children (and I have made remarks to friends myself) – I find that the parents (or sometimes grandparents or sitter) react badly to being told that the child needs to be reined in a bit so as not to bother others or destroy property.
12:36 – Will see where the conversation goes before we ask the parents to do that. That’s a great idea except we can hear the 3-year-old when she’s all over the apartment. I am not sure how the 3-year-old will feel about it though. The apartment we moved into was vacant for over a year – the parents did ask to give them a heads-up if it got too loud. We want to approach it “graciously” and we also feel, no matter how politely we ask, it’s a sensitive topic. Thanks!
How old are you people????
I am 39 and when I was kid, we were total jerk-offs – and our parents were either too busy trying to maintain their post-Vietnam, counter-culture image, or a decent lifestyle during the wonderful 70’s or getting divorced to have any real control over us.
The vast majority of kids I see today are far better then we ever were – they have planned activities, are forced to work harder in school and are otherwise very focused on achievement and getting into a good college (probably to their detriment) to be able to be as loud, obnoxious or as difficult as we were.
Either you people are all 65+ or have a very distorted memory of the “good old days”
I think Brooklyn officially held inner-city hellhole status until about 1994-95. That’s about the time the nice ladies and gents in bed and breakfasts and antique stores in Maine, Vermont, and Pennsylvania would look with astonishment at our checks and say “you actually live in Brooklyn?”
Some would actually volunteer that “they would not be caught dead there” etc etc.
That changed about ten years ago. Just sayin.
Now the more informed people out in the country actually think Brooklyn is sort of neat.