I am a widowed single dad of an 8 year old son and twin 4 year old girls. From the first day I moved into my 3 bedroom condo, the lady below me complained of noise. Not just the children, pretty much anything I did she complains about, but mainly the kids.

It's gotten so bad that the property management is actually suing me for breaking the condo's noise bylaw. I actually found out that here in Ontario Canada, it's against the Human Rights code to discriminate against parents, so check in your area if you are being harassed.

Trust me, no one wants my kids quieter than I do, but kids are noisy. If you want a place that's perfectly quiet, get a house.

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My daughters aren't particularly noisy, but aren't most kids in general? We used to have a family with 4 children across the street. I could hear 3 of them screeching while playing when I was inside my house with the television on.
I would hook on the streets before I lived in an apartment or condo. Kidding, but barely.
Anyone living in an apartment or condo should expect some noise. We teach our children to use "inside voices", but should we really ask them to be quiet when playing outside?
We went on vacation to a family oriented beach resort a couple of years ago. It was hard for me to choose between staying on the ground floor and dealing with noise above us or staying on the second floor and worrying about disturbing the people on the ground floor. We chose the second floor and only had to remind the girls a time or two to "step lightly". The other family who went with us chose the ground floor and were disturbed all week from sunrise until after midnight by the people above them.

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Solution for all suffering from kids being kids. The South. In the South people respect a parent trying to do right by their kids, and appreciate a parent who goes outside and sprays a kid with the hose, or plays monster chasing them around the yard. The think nothing of a kid screeching in the pool because they are playing lifeguard, and a group of 6 on bikes playing ghost rider and making vrooming noises. If someone has a baby squalling at all hours, we go over not to complain but to demand the baby be handed over immediately so Mama can go take a nap. Parenting is tough, and noisy kids is in the handbook. Comeon and join us in South Georgia, it's a good place to raise little ones. If you are unable to up and move, try this. Peridically ask your neighbors if your kids are too loud. Exlplain you have uber active little ones and are doing your best to keep them at a reasonable noise level, but are not always successful, them being kids and all......I have founf people are much more tolerant when you ask them, show you care i fthey are being disturbed, you reach out first. As a rule they will say, they're on the loud side sometimes but kids will be kids, some may suggest a time when they really need quiet, like those who sleep at funny hours or maybe work at home and have a certain time slotted for conference call. If you show consideration, they tend to be more tolerant.:) Hope this helps.:)

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Well, there are places and places, you know? If you moved into a adult community or a neighborhood that was obviously kid-free, and then became pregnant and had a kid, I'd guess you could expect to get disapproving looks and intolerant neighbors. But then, I wouldn't want to live in such a place with a child anyway, KWIM? It's no fun to be a kid when there are no other kids around!

But for the most part...eh. No biggie. We live in one of those suburban neighborhoods where our backyards all share fences, so there is really no keeping it down, even if your kids aren't being particularly loud. And oddly enough, every time I've had an issue with noise, it's never been the kids, it's been the adults!

I can easily deal with kids outside squealing and racing around and otherwise being kids. They're kids, after all. It's the dogs whose owners won't shut them up at 11 PM, and the teenager screaming up and down the street on his little 50cc motorbike at 10PM, and the neighbor who builds race cars revving his engines ALL AFTERNOON, and the MOTHER who thought it would be a good idea to park her car, open the trunk and pump her base so that it could be heard all over the neighborhood, that drive me nuts.

The only time I have an issue with kids making noise is when they are somewhere that they really should be quiet (museums, libraries, grown-up restaurants, etc). And that is not an issue with the kids, but the parents who brought them somewhere they really shouldn't be.

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