Most of us have had at least one particularly noisy neighbor, usually because of yelling in their apartment, walking too loudly, or just being obsessed with rearranging their furniture at weird hours.
But sometimes, the noise comes from something worse and much more inescapable, like home renovations, cringed the members of the "Am I the A**hole?" (AITA) subReddit.
Redditor Roxeyfoxey123 was nine months pregnant and severely sleep-deprived because her neighbors had been renovating their home, and whose noises were the loudest in her bedroom, for months.
When they dismissed her need for sleep, the Original Poster (OP) was ready to get others involved.
She asked the sub:
"Am I the a**hole for yelling at my neighbor for ruining my sleep during my pregnancy?"
The OP's neighbors did not care that she was nine months pregnant and incredibly sleep-deprived.
"I (29 Female) am currently nine months pregnant, and as anyone who has been pregnant knows, getting comfortable and actually sleeping is an uphill battle."
"The house next door used to belong to a sweet old lady who sadly passed away recently. Her niece and the niece's boyfriend inherited or bought the place, and they are planning to move in."
"However, they've been doing massive, top-to-bottom renovations for the last three months. Stripping the house of its walls and floors and completely starting over."
"Because they are doing all the construction themselves with the help of their friends and associates, it feels like it's dragging on forever."
"The biggest issue is that they start drilling, hammering, and making massive noise at exactly 7:00 AM on the dot every single weekday, and some days don't stop until 8:00 PM."
There was no one that the OP could complain to about the noise.
"In Ireland, there is no legal 'quiet hour' law here, but City Council guidelines allow noisy construction from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM on weekdays. So, technically, their weekday morning start time is allowed."
"However, the drilling is right against my bedroom wall, and it wakes me up instantly, shaking the room."
"Between the pregnancy insomnia, nausea, and general exhaustion, losing those early morning hours of sleep is absolutely breaking me when most nights I'm only actually managing to fall asleep around 2:00 or 3:00 AM."
"To make matters worse, they have also been keeping the heavy construction going through Sundays and bank holidays. According to DCC rules, noisy work is strictly not allowed on Sundays and public holidays. They’ve completely ignored this, meaning I get zero days of rest."
The OP lashed out at her neighbors after months of noise.
"Yesterday, after another weekend of noise and a terrible night of barely sleeping, the weekday drilling started at 7:01 AM."
"I snapped. I went over there in my pajamas and confronted the boyfriend. I told him that they have been doing this for months, it’s incredibly inconsiderate, and that as a pregnant woman, I desperately need sleep."
"I asked if they could at least push the heaviest drilling back to 8:30 or 9:00 AM and reminded him that they shouldn't even be working on Sundays."
"He was incredibly dismissive. He pointed out that on weekdays they are legally within the 7:00 AM guideline and said they have a strict schedule to finish the job. He completely brushed off the Sunday stuff and basically told me it’s not his problem."
"In my sleepless, emotional state, I ended up calling him a few unsavoury names and walked away."
The people in the OP's life were divided over how she responded.
"My partner thinks I was justified because of how long it's been going on and how exhausted I am."
"A friend told me I might be the a**hole here because they are just trying to get their home finished, and trying to restrict their hours stretches out the timeline."
"I'm also torn because I'm due to have my baby in a few weeks, and I doubt they'll be finished construction by then and will be constantly waking up my newborn when she tries to sleep."
"Is there anything else I can do?"
"AITAH?"
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You're the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No A**holes Here
Some sympathized with the OP but were not sure what to do about the noise.
"If they are doing it on prohibited days, call the authorities on it. Other than that, you have to deal with their a**holery until they are finished." - fuzzyizmit
"7:00 AM to 8:00 PM are not normal business hours and would be excessive to most people. But I'm not sure what to do about it. OP is NTA." - PaleGoat527
"Are they able to do as OP asked and just not do the very loudest things first thing in the morning?"
"Yes, they are choosing not to because they are AHs.NOR." - PaleGoat527
"I am going to guess the neighbours can see you are pregnant and they will probably call you some slack for lashing out."
"No one is their best version when sleep deprived, and they probably understand that. But if I were them, I would continue the construction as before, though a bit more careful on Sundays."
"So... Perhaps invest in some earplugs?" - Aardbeienshake
"Sorry, but YTA. Your inconvenience and pregnancy is one thing, but what is legal is what matters."
"The only thing you can do, since it's illegal to do works on Sundays, is to call the police when that happens, or weekdays after 6:00 PM. I'm quite surprised why you haven't done that for so long..." - youshalloneverlearn
Some also encouraged the OP to repair her relationship with the neighbors, not knowing how long they'd live next door to each other.
"If you contact authorities to stop them from working on weekends, it is going to extend the time they will take to finish the renovation. So you can deal with it now, or have it eventually wake your infant up months down the road."
"ESH. You waited to be good and mad before saying anything, and then you went off. They were dismissive, probably because of the way you approached the situation." - NoDaisy
"YTA. Why would you leave it and get angrier and angrier until you yell at someone about something they had no idea was a problem?"
"Seriously, what happened to having a simple conversation and finding a solution together?"
"What I’d do: Go back, apologise for your emotional state, say you’re hoping to have a conversation about times and weekends, and take it from there. If he refuses to talk, and he continues doing noisy work on prohibited days, then report him."
"Signed, a tired mum of two under three." - d1zz186
"Not to mention that when you went and cursed them out, you ran the risk of them not being so eager to be friendly and polite when you’re the one with a crying baby in the middle of the night." - The_Death_Flower
"I understand why it's annoying, and I understand how tiring pregnancy is, but you ruined any chance of them having sympathy for you."
"My worst nightmare would be feuding with my neighbors. Use headphones, a sound machine, sleep in a room further away from that side of the house because you've screwed yourself now." - AnastatiaMcGill
"I sympathise with OP, truly, but you know these people aren’t considerate, like, sure, you’re legally allowed to drive at 7:00 AM, but it’s considerate to start at a time when 90% of people are awake, of others, and you never know how petty someone can be when they feel attacked." - The_Death_Flower
Others tried to see a silver lining and hoped the renovations would be done before the baby arrived.
"Wouldn’t it be preferable for them to do as much work as possible before the baby comes? I can only imagine the noise being even more problematic when OP needs to put the baby down for a nap. It’s annoying, but it’s also temporary." - dancedanceunderpants
"This is an ongoing problem, and should have been addressed in a more mature way, and from the onset."
"These people are going to be your neighbors. Being welcoming, and going to speak with them (outside of yelling out of frustration) would likely have gone a lot longer of a way than what you did."
"This sucks, but overall they are staying within the guidelines. If you want to call them out about Sunday, you’re welcome to do that legally, but you also need to again remember that these are neighbors and building casual goodwill is important if this is also your permanent living situation."
"I’m not saying they’re not being inconsiderate, and they absolutely could be handling this in a better way. But you also need to acknowledge that the handling of this by coming in hot as likely the opposite of helpful." - gurlwithdragontat2
"A soft YTA. You're pregnant, sleep-deprived, and stretched thin. Sleep is so important that depriving a person of it is genuinely torture."
"But you should've addressed this earlier, say, on a Sunday or bank holiday, not when they're operating within their rights, because now you do look like a bit of an a**hole."
"Good luck with everything, OP." - CraicGremlin
"It’ll all even out when the baby is crying 24/7 regardless of Sundays and bank holidays." - Beginning-Damage-555
The subReddit understood what the OP was going through, and while they didn't necessarily know what to do about it or didn't necessarily like how the OP handled herself, they could at least say the renovation noises and the pregnancy would not last forever, and then the OP and her neighbors would enjoy the next phases of their lives after months of very different hard work.
