Loud Neighbors----Vent

[Clara Bow]

I will vent here so that I don't go to jail for binding and gagging my neighbors. I live on a dead end street. The house next door to me is the last house on our side of the road. There is a house directly opposite it.
Now my neighbors are very nice people, especially the ones next door. My son plays with their grandkids sometimes, and Mr J even watches my son play outside sometimes for me so I can run in and get some chores done (Mr J also takes him for motorcycle rides and lets him help wash the boat. Jack adores Mr J). "Lisa" at the end of the street on the other side is nice, a little dingy, but not bad.
The problem? These people are loud! At least once a week when Mr and Mrs J's kids come over for dinner they stand outside after eleven and yack away in the yard....never mind that others are trying to sleep and they know I have a young son who's in bed, they yack it up in the front yard forty forevers, then slam their car doors as loud as possible.....and Lisa's got a gaggle of teenagers at her place that drive pellmell down the road with their stereos blasting and thumping all hours of the night. Lisa also keeps a large fire burning in one of those outdoor chimney things constantly...whether she's out there or not. We have no idea why.
Now I do not want to be a witchy neighbor, and the noise isn't EVERY night. It's just so annoying to be right on the edge of dropping off to sleep only to wake up to booming music, or conversations and car doors. I try not to complain, but ARGGGGHHHH!!!
Okay, I feel better now. Does anyone else put up with this?? I think the best course of action is to be quiet myself and let well enough alone. It's not nightly, but it is irritating when it happens....

[wetblanket]

You have my sympathy - I know what it's like to have noisy neighbours!

Maybe different tactics are required for each noise issue. 

E.g. when your neighbours are yakking it up in the front yard, you could do something like go outside (with mussed hair, a jacket over your pj's, etc so it's very clear you were just in bed) with a worried/concerned look on your face and say something like "Oh, Mr J!  It's you!  I heard something but I guess I was too dopey with sleep not to recognize your voice!"

With any luck they'll get the hint.

With Lisa and her noisy teenagers, you may have to take a direct approach, kindly but firmly explain the problem and ask her to deal with it.

[sotadragon]

I don't know if this is too PA or what, but I would call the cops on them when they're too noisy late at night.  If the cops in your area are stretched thin as it is though, I wouldn't understand not doing this.  If you do call the cops, your neighbors will not need to know it was you that called and you don't have to go over there and turn your relationship with them sour.

A friend of mine calls the cops on his neighbors in the apartment building whenever they get out of hand and it always calms things down.  Of course, his neighbors are into pot and God knows what else and physical fighting (that night we called the cops about three times and I still get nasty shivers when I remember what we heard through the wall  )

[Clara Bow]

We live on the grounds of the state mental hospital in the employee housing (yes my friends are DELIGHTED that I live at the funny farm) so we don't call the police for anything short of crime, we call security. And Mr J is a high up in security, so I doubt they would even come. I've talked to Lisa about asking the kids to keep their stereos down, but there's only so much you can do with other people's ill-raised little brats....

[sotadragon]

Ooooh... well, that does make it a different situation entirely.  I'm sorry you're having to deal with the noise.  At least your neighbors are nice otherwise.

[Clara Bow]

If they weren't such nice people I would have been over there with a bat many times.....