We have lived in our 2nd floor apartment for 1 1/2 yrs and have just received our first complaint today from the office. I have two boys who think that the only way to move is to run, dance, skip, jump, crawl, roll... pretty much anything but walk. I am constantly on their case about it. Some days it feels like all I'm doing is yelling at them about being too loud. I hate feeling like I have to watch their and my every move in our own home. They also like to yell or play loudly, especially when friends are over. When they get too loud, I quiet them. We will be moving probably mid-November, so this won't be a problem after that. Anyone have any good suggestions on how to keep kids quiet? Today's a great day to get the note too because the boys have hardly made a peep all day.
I grew up in an apartment. For us, it was a matter of establishing firm "indoor rules". I practiced walking quietly, using my "indoor voice", amusing myself with "indoor activities". For me, the biggest problem was that there was no outdoor place to play, so I had some physical development issues. If you've got an outdoor place for the boys to run and play and shout, that'll make it easier for them to be quiet indoors. Good indoor activities: Reading. Drawing. (My mother would buy huge rolls of brown paper and let me draw on them.) Building things out of Lego. Building things out of recycling materials (you can make a really decent town out of styrofoam and plastic cartons). Building forts out of pillows and blankets and chairs. TV, of course. (We actually didn't have a TV when I was a kid, but I sure wish we had!) Educational video games. (Another thing I wish we'd had when I was a kid.) Don't have friends over if there's no outdoor place for them to play - meet them at the park, or the McDonald's playplace, or where ever there's somewhere for them to run and shout. It's not fair to make them be quiet when they've got friends around. Also, never let them wear shoes in the house! :lol:
Well MegCanada had a lot of wonderful ideas. My girls both lived in apartment for over 3 years and they were your boys age when we lived in the apartment. We did a lot of indoor things. When we were inside we build with legos, played on the table with play dough. Played computer games. Watch tv... Then we make sure we went out side a couple times during the day usually morning and then later in the afternoon to run all those little bugs we had in our pants out... When we came back in we shaked all the bugs out of pants by the door and we went in learning to walk like nice children and have manners for others. Make it a game.... But, remember no matter what you do sometimes you just can't please everyone all the time.
Meg has great ideas. I have three boys, so I'll underscore what she said about getting outside - do it every day. Really makes a difference. I also like to use wii video games in particular, because they use their muscles a bit more (more energy gets burned, I think). Have to be careful with the jumping stuff, though.
You've been given some good ideas. But I also think it's unreasonable to expect quiet all the time, even indoors, from boys that age. Can you talk to the person who complained? Is there a reason for the complaint...such as he works third shift and is trying to sleep in the AM when your boys are most rowdy...? Maybe if you could pin-point a specific time that is troublesome and work on that, they might be more tolerant of other times. You could tell your boys, "Mr. John is trying to sleep, so we need to be especially quiet right now." Or "Miss Susan is older, and she doesn't understand boys running, so why don't we show her how well-behaved we are by making her some cookies?"
You've been there for 1 1/2 years and this is the first complaint? Be proud of that one !! Is the complainer someone new to the building (or do you know that information)? If you're comfortable with it, maybe invite them in for coffee or something when your boys are wildest so they see that they're normal healthy boys and that you do try to keep them quiet.
Thanks for all the suggestions. We do have a little playground in our apartment, but there is no yelling allowed at it. Unfortunately, I can't drive right now, so we're stuck at home during the week. Jonathan usually gets more active, the more active he is. He's the opposite of most kids. It is true that I need to bring them outside more though, so I will try that. I also babysit a 3 yr old girl twice a week, which I can't and won't stop doing. We'll just have to figure something out. We only have someone over on Friday night and that's because our husbands all get together at another house. We can't go over her house because she's in the middle of packing up, so maybe it'll have to be McD's every Friday night. I know it's not fair to disturb other people, but it also doesn't seem fair that they can't have friends over. I don't ever complain to management about other people, despite their dog barking all day or them honking the horn at 2am or their kids having a grand old time outside at 10pm or them making out at the bottom of the stairs all the time. To me, it's all a part of apartment living. There's noise. Unless I think someone is going to die, I'm not calling anyone. I know I'm rambling on, but just let me reiterate one more thing, I do not let my kids be obnoxious. When they run, I stop them. When they yell, I quiet them. They are just enthusiastic when they are playing. I try to keep on top of it, but guess I'm not doing good enough.
Thank you for that and for the other suggestions. I will try to take them outside more for sure. It's just been so hot this summer that we haven't gotten out as much as I'd like to. Thanks, EyeoftheStorm, the Wii is a great thing. Jackie- I wish I could, but they have a policy in the apartment where they can't tell you who complained. I am going to ask today what exactly was the problem. The boys are most active around 3pm and 6pm it seems. So I'd imagine it's those times. But it also could have been a report from a couple weeks ago when we had kids over. They were excessively noisy and the other parent wasn't exactly helping to keep them quiet. I just wish someone had come up and talked to me first. Thanks Brenda, I wish I knew. I can only guess it's the downstairs person, but it's strange because she smiles, waves, and makes small talk with me all the time. Plus she has 6 kids of her own, so it's weird she wouldn't say something to me specifically.
If it were that "one time" event when they were excessively noisy, things might just work out itself. As Kris said, if this is your only complaint in that long of time, it shows you've done an excellent job keeping things under control! You might even go to the lady who might have complained, and say something like, "Did we disturb you the other day? The boys had some friends over and they got a little loud. Believe me, this isn't going to be a regular occurance!" And then she can respond with, "Oh, no! Boys will be boys!" or "Well, they were a bit more than normal, but...."
I don't live in an apartment, but I do live with my Parents and brother (Dum Dum DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM). So it's Me, DH, 3 boys living with Mom, Dad, and autistic brother. ARGH! ONly, my parents and brother hate the noise the boys make so we can only be in one room. Outside play is they KEY!!! Get them outside as much as possible! I try to do mine one a schedule so that when I see that they are getting loud I can say, "Outside Time is in 20 minutes! Hold onto your quiet voice until then!!" Or if it just can't be helped we go outside early! Legos are a great thing, and so is drawing. I've also been known to use the computer from time to time (They love to look at farm scenes on youtube, and to do starfall.com and other things)
Aw, don't be hard on yourself! One complaint? With two boys and another child you babysit? You're doing great! Our apartment was actually in a senior's residence, believe it or not. So my mother had to be a lot stricter than you have to be, because I was the only child in the entire building. I had to even be careful how I walked, because if I thumped, then we could have been kicked out. And it wasn't easy finding safe, affordable, places to live in Trenton, NJ, in the seventies. It was critical I learned to be quiet. Just hang on - you'll be moving soon! :love:
Thanks everyone. I probably did take it all too personally. There's a lot going on right now, especially with buying our first house. Just seemed like one more thing to stress me out. Since it is cooler, we will definitely go outside more. It's only for a short while more and then we'll have 4 1/2 acres in the middle of nowhere to run and shout on. Meg- My dad had a friend in an apartment like that. We had to tip toe around every time we visited. I can't imagine living like that all the time.
We used to live in an apartment on the first floor when our first two were 2 & 4 so I understand. I tried to keep them quiet but, really, there's going to be some noise. We got a complaint once because my 2 year old was going through "terrible two's" and would throw a fit for about 30-45 min a day. Even then I did NOT just ignore that. I tried to calm him, turn down other noise (like radio or TV) if necessary so as not to add to the sounds or tried to get him down for a nap prior to his outbursts. One neighbor complained. My husband used to say basicly what you're saying-expect noise when living in an apartment. Just between us he'd say "Don't like the noise? Rent a house!" And YES I know sometimes a person can't afford a house but the point being, expect the noise-other tennents, car horns, loud talking, banging doors and yelling kids!!!
