Exhausted Woman Working Night Shifts Begs Neighbor To Keep Her Newborn Baby Quiet — 'It's Constant'
Babies don't have an on and off switch.
DinaPhoto | Shutterstock Nobody likes the sound of a baby crying. In fact, research shows it's almost impossible to ignore the sound, as it triggers a physiological response that makes us immediately alert — whether the crying child in question is yours or your neighbor's.
An exhausted woman working nights begged her neighbor to keep her newborn baby quiet.
Ring camera footage captured the woman pleading with her neighbor to stop her baby from crying so much.
“I’ve just done a full night shift, and I really just need some peace and quiet to go to sleep,” she said to the mom.
The mom was flabbergasted that her neighbor would ask such a question and claimed that she was doing her best to get her baby to settle. “Do you understand that it’s a newborn baby? You can’t just shut them up when you want to,” she said to the woman.
While the woman claimed to empathize as a mother herself, she added that her son never cried as constantly as her neighbor’s baby does.
Still, the mother said that she “doesn’t need to worry about other people getting sleep” while she’s trying to take care of her newborn, who the woman informed her “should be in a routine by now.”
“I just need some sleep," the woman stressed. I’m absolutely worn out.”
The frustrated mother suggested the woman shut her windows to lessen the noise, yet the woman claimed that it “isn’t the same” and urged her neighbor to have consideration for those trying to sleep.
The video divided viewers, with some finding the woman's demands to be absurd and others insisting that her frustrations were valid.
Some people argued that the woman had no right to expect a newborn to stop crying simply because she asked — especially in the child's own home.
“She’s asking her to quiet the baby like she [the mom] hasn’t thought of that already,” one user wrote.
Yury Nikolaev | Shutterstock
“When you work nights, you have to accept there's daytime noise from people being up, and it's on you to resolve,” another commenter noted.
However, others argued that the tired woman’s frustrations were completely valid.
“In the neighbor’s defense, I’ve seen parents who just let their babies cry and scream and don’t even attempt to quiet or comfort them, assuming that other people need to just deal with it,” one TikTok user wrote.
Some commenters understood both perspectives but advised the woman to do what she could to block out the baby's cries. "I see both sides, but only one side can do anything about it," one user wrote. "Headphones. White noise. A newborn can’t be turned off."
Budimir Jevtic | Shutterstock
While it's normal to get annoyed at a noisy baby when you’re trying to sleep, newborns are not trying to disrupt others on purpose.
Babies are adjusting to a whole new environment, and are bound to experience fear and discomfort. Since they can’t talk, they communicate their needs in the only way they can — by crying. And, unfortunately for this woman, and even more so for the baby's parents, some cry more than others.
According to Boston Children’s Hospital, up to 30% of healthy newborns suffer from colic, which is characterized as prolonged bouts of intense crying for no apparent reason.
In many cases, the baby has already been fed, burped, and changed, and the parents cannot seem to pinpoint what the problem is. No matter how much soothing and attention they give their babies, they continue to cry for hours on end.
Thankfully, most babies outgrow colic within a few months.
Alina Tanya | Shutterstock
While nobody enjoys the sound of a crying baby, no one is more stressed out by the noise than the baby’s parents, who in most cases, are doing anything and everything they can to calm their child and avoid disturbing those around them.
Instead of demanding they keep their baby quiet (as if their parents hadn’t already thought of that), strangers can help by offering a helping hand or, at the very least, basic understanding and compassion.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.