Seeing Eye To Eye

We've recently run into an awkward cultural situation with our downstairs neighbors. Similar to us, they are a young family with two kids (ages 1 and 6). We've visited each other on a number of occasions and in general get along just fine. The problem is actually our kids' sleep schedules. You see, my kids, like many other American kids, go to bed at 8:30p.m. and wake up somewhere between 5:30a.m (which I realize is insanely early) and 7:00a.m. Their kids, like most kids in Turkey, go to bed at 12 midnight and wake up somewhere between 9:30a.m. and 10:00a.m.

The problem is that my kids get up early, make noise, and wake their kids below us. The husband has come to our door twice, before 9:00a.m., to complain.

We have added extra floor rugs to help muffle some of the sound, we try our best to keep our insanely loud children quiet, and we've been taking our kids upstairs (we have a two-floor set up) from the time they get up until about 8a.m. when we need to have breakfast and start getting ready for the day. But, the problem persists. Little feet and crying and inevitable objects dropping and chairs scooting in our apartment wake them up downstairs before their scheduled time of 10a.m.

It really comes down to the cultural issue of bedtime. Turkish kids go to bed late. American kids go to bed early. Yes, we're living in Turkey, but the bedtime issue is one I'm not willing to bend on. If I were to put my kids to bed at 12midnight, like many Turkish families, I would A). not have any "down" time without my children and B). not have any quality alone time with my husband. I believe both of those are important.

But, I can't ask her to change her kids' sleep schedules because, well...this is her culture.

So, unfortunately, we'll probably never see eye to eye on the issue.