Redditor Calls Out Neighbors Over Their Crying Baby After They Complain About His Washing Machine: ‘They’re Probably Just Exhausted Parents’

A Redditor says a noise complaint about his washing machine turned into a much bigger argument after he brought up his neighbors’ crying baby. The user, u/National-Honeydew657, shared the story on Reddit’s r/AmItheAsshole, a subreddit where users ask whether they were in the wrong in a particular situation. The post has received more than 5,400 upvotes and 900 comments.

According to the Redditor, he moved into a small apartment building with eight units about six months ago. His next-door neighbors have a baby who, he said, cries frequently.

“My next-door neighbours have a baby, which I assume was born around the time I moved in. The baby cries a lot, but I’ve never complained because that’s just what babies do,” he wrote.

The building held its annual residents’ meeting, and during the meeting, the neighbors reportedly complained about the noise from his washing machine.

“Out of nowhere, my neighbours told me that my washing machine is very loud and that I use it during quiet hours,” he wrote. “They’re right, but they never told me it bothered them. If they had, I would have simply done my laundry at a different time.”

Frustrated by the complaint, the Redditor said he brought up their baby and pointed out that he had never complained about the noise coming from their apartment.

According to his post, the comment prompted other residents to begin discussing the baby’s crying as well. The conversation became heated, and the baby’s mother eventually began crying.

The property manager then ended the meeting.

“Nothing was really resolved there, but I now feel pretty bad about starting the whole debate,” the Redditor wrote. “They could have told me about the washing machine before bringing it up publicly, but they’re probably just exhausted parents.”

Redditors Debate the Noise Complaint

The post prompted commenters to weigh in on whether the Redditor was wrong for bringing up the baby after receiving the complaint about his washing machine.

Many commenters sided with the Redditor and judged him “NTA,” meaning “not the a---ole” under Reddit’s terminology.

Other commenters acknowledged that a crying baby and a washing machine are different kinds of noise. Some argued that a baby crying is generally outside a parent’s control, while the timing of a washing machine can be changed.

The discussion also focused on whether the neighbors should have spoken to the Redditor privately before bringing up the washing machine at the residents’ meeting.

At the same time, the original poster acknowledged that his response contributed to the argument becoming larger than the initial complaint.

Rather than resolving the noise issue, the meeting ended with multiple residents discussing the baby’s crying and the baby’s mother becoming upset. The Redditor did not provide an update about whether he and his neighbors later discussed the washing machine or reached an agreement about quiet hours.

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the events described in the Reddit post, which are based solely on u/National-Honeydew657’s account of the dispute with his neighbors.