Dearest Neighbor,

Over the past month I've gone from feeling bad for having such a loud child, to hating you, to reading about how I'm supposed to love you and then trying to love you, back to hating you, then to thinking you are just plain ridiculous.

I know you think I'm one of those mothers who lets her child run amok all day long with very few restrictions. But I promise you, I am not.

Despite what you think (and what you accused me of tonight in our somewhat heated conversation), I do not "entice him to run around". I absolutely never chase him. EVER. When you hear me calling his name, it's usually to either to get him to stop running or to be quiet. I spend most of my days now pleading with him to be quiet. And sometimes that pleading turns into yelling. And time out. All because you say we are too loud.

And despite what you also accused me of, we do have a rug. And we have a play mat for him to play on.

Yes, he does run around most days. He also loves to dance when he hears music. I usually let him do it for about 1 minute and then force him to stop, which results in tantrums, which result in more noise.

Yes, he does drop and throw his toys sometimes. And I try to teach him not to do that. But he's 22 months old. That basically describes a 22 month old: really loud and not very good at listening, probably because they are so loud.

source

I was happy to hear that you got a set of ear plugs. It shows me that you are at least trying to do something to solve the problem and not just putting it all on me. But like I said a million times tonight, there's not much I can do. It's not my fault that you work at home. It's not my fault that our apartment isn't properly insulated.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to focus on my family. I'm going to focus on what is best for my child. I told you I'd try even harder to reduce the noise and I will. I warned you that there will still be noise. But your ridiculous claims and requests tonight have taught me 2 things:

I'm not a confrontational person, but I won't let you (or anyone else) walk all over me. (Thank you, NY for bringing that out in me.) And I made that clear tonight.

I'm going to make sure Blake knows he is loved. It never really occurred to me that other people might not be too fond of Blake. He's cute and sweet, and gives great hugs. And he deserves to be a 2 year old and do things a 2 year old likes to do. Whether you like it or not.

 Sincerely,
Your upstairs neighbor

P.S. I'm terribly sorry that we were sick last week. All of the coughing you said you heard must have been so annoying.