Hollie in Portland, Oregon spotted this note on the second-floor landing as she was walking up to her apartment.
While I’m usually not in favor of note-leaving when a direct confrontation would do, I give this one a pass — creative spelling and all — because, really, have you ever met a middle schooler without an an attitude? I’d say forcing a kid to make it through eighth grade is enough of an ass-kicking already.
related: Another Portland teen takes on her noisy neighbors
67 responses so far ↓
#1
georgina
Team middle schooler.
Aug 21, 2011 at 1:31 pm rating: 63
#2
polarbearwithredhair
she has more balls than most adults I know
Aug 21, 2011 at 1:39 pm rating: 43
#3
Rattus
She included an identifier, so good for her, and I’m confident that she will learn the mechanics of communication in middle-school, though somewhat concerned that she hasn’t learned them by this point.
Aug 21, 2011 at 1:41 pm rating: 32
#4
Jimmy
from p-town…the next one will definitely have a bird on it.
Aug 21, 2011 at 1:52 pm rating: 6
#5
havingfitz
Team Kid: at least she seems okay with scented laundry detergent.
Aug 21, 2011 at 1:57 pm rating: 27
#6
Lindsey
Looks like someone’s parents didn’t teach them not to give their address to strangers…
Aug 21, 2011 at 2:15 pm rating: 15
#7
venom47
I am going to bet that the cowardly parents told the girl to do this. They probaly figure that no one will bother a middle schooler and think they can get away with that. I have never heard of kids being excited that summer vacation is over and school is starting, much less so excited about it they fear they will lose sleep from someones footsteps.
Aug 21, 2011 at 2:24 pm rating: 6
#8
Sed
If she’s so tiered, she should really just tell the neighbors to take it down a level or two.
Aug 21, 2011 at 2:37 pm rating: 52
#9
Buck
I feel for her. One reason I’ll never live a mult-level apartment complex ever again.
Aug 21, 2011 at 2:38 pm rating: 10
#10
Mia
Jesus, her spelling is terrible. I can’t imagine a 6th/7th grader (depending on which grade is the first to get counted as “middle school” where she lives) not knowing how to spell things like “tired” and “neighbors” properly.
Aug 21, 2011 at 3:28 pm rating: 17
#11
Shannon
Her parents are probably making her go to sleep early a couple of weeks before school starts so she can be ready and used to it when she has to get up at 6:15 every day. I hope the “niebors” didn’t take the note wrong and they understand that going from elementary school to middle school is a big deal to a kid.
Aug 21, 2011 at 3:35 pm rating: 14
#12
Adriana
I remember when I used to think 6:15 AM was early. The good ol’ days.
Aug 21, 2011 at 3:50 pm rating: 25
#13
kaledrina
I’m gonna go “Team Neibors” on this one. My guess is that “stomping around in the middle of the night” is actually them getting up at 4:00 or 5:00 AM and getting ready for WORK.
Also, because I am immediately biased against anyone who made it to middle school without being able to spell, well, anything.
Aug 21, 2011 at 4:51 pm rating: 35
#14
ptamom
Team Middle Schooler. I had a neighbor in college who used to do a full run stomp down the stairs that happened to be next to my bedroom. I had a good chuckle when I heard, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, trip, bang, then “UGH”. Nice.
Aug 21, 2011 at 4:57 pm rating: 34
#15
GeekRyuu
Team Middle Schooler. While the lack of spelling skills is something I find appalling, I’m also aware that I probably have had a far greater level of education in that regard than others and that I probably CARE more about it than most other people.
Plus, I had neighbors in college that WOULD NOT SHUT UP. Wrestling upstairs at all hours, loud music downstairs at all hours, and me just trying to get quiet time to study or catch a nap before going to class or work. Worse, these were college apartments that were SUPPOSED to go quiet during midterms and finals. Did that matter to THESE jackasses? What do you think?
Good on you, kid. And remember to pay attention and study hard in your English/composition classes this year.
Aug 21, 2011 at 5:40 pm rating: 16
#16
Jaylemeux
I don’t actually see a lot of attitude in the tone of the note. She was pretty straightforward about it.
Aug 21, 2011 at 5:59 pm rating: 18
#17
aaa
Team aaa. Because I’m awesome. And only losers go to middle school. And stomp around at night.
Aug 21, 2011 at 6:36 pm rating: 8
#18
Morgan
I kind of love the middle schooler. Her note cracks me up.
Aug 21, 2011 at 8:39 pm rating: 2
#19
Nicko
Yo, good on this girl! This isn’t passive-aggressive – it’s just a solid “think of some other people” heads-up. Good job kid!
Aug 21, 2011 at 10:21 pm rating: 8
#20
divaandwriter
Dear Kid,
You have spunk. I hate spunk! And LEARN HOW TO SPELL!
Right now bad spelling will only get you poor grades in English class. Later on, it will just make you look illiterate when you are trying to get into college or apply for a job. Yes, I know there is always Spell Check, but that is not completely reliable.
“Niebor”
BTW, having had to put up with noisy neighbors myself, I am Team Kid.
Aug 22, 2011 at 9:03 am rating: 9
#21
SilentPsycho
Team Middle Schooler. I have no clue what age middle school is, but I can certainly relate to this. I’m currently stuck with a nice neighbour, who just has the unfortunate inability to bathe her kid, aged 7, without singing her head off…between 12:30am and 1am.
Guess who can hear her, even with their windows shut, and who has work on the days she does this…
Aug 22, 2011 at 12:02 pm rating: 4
#22
AB745
Tenatively team neighbors. The last apartment I lived in was not exactly sound-proof, so ‘stomping’ could easily translate to ‘walking’. My downstairs neighbor (who was a cop and let us know it!) regularly threatened and harassed us for things like shutting a dresser drawer, walking from room to room, and one time got mad because she could hear the people above US ‘stomping’.
I support a resident’s right to live in their apartment! Just because she goes to bed early doesn’t mean they have to. I really doubt their hobbies include plain-old stomping in the middle of the night.
Aug 22, 2011 at 12:51 pm rating: 7
#23
GhostWriter
Kid’s got problems. When it’s summertime and you’re 13 years old, you should give middle school a thought, maybe the night before the first day of classes. …two weeks before? She oughtta be doing the midnight stomp herself.
Aug 22, 2011 at 1:36 pm rating: 1
#24
humorless
Someone get the kid a fan. There’s truly objectionable noise (partying, roller skating on hardwood, beginner drum lessons) and there’s the noise that’s a product of close quarters. Waking up to the noise is on you, kid, find a way to adjust to it. Sleep with headphones, have a white noise machine, attach foam to the walls and ceilings.
Aug 22, 2011 at 2:24 pm rating: 3
#25
Derp
I kind of love the middle schooler.
What’s up with all the animosity directed to this kid? Comments like “kids got problems” and “noise is on you kid” just make me picture a fat, grumpy, geezer, grumbling at an ancient computer screen.
Aug 22, 2011 at 3:15 pm rating: 11
#26
Eileen
Lighten up on the spelling. She’s only eleven, if she’s just starting middle school. She still has time to learn. If she’s still spelling like this when she’s in high school, then she’s got problems.
And good for her for taking the initiative and addressing the problem herself instead of waiting for her parents to do it. Although if the noise continues, I think someone needs to have a talk with the building manager.
Aug 22, 2011 at 4:15 pm rating: 1
#27
Cuddlefish
When you live in an apartment you need to always expect there is going to be a certain level of noise and you need to realize that different people have different schedules. At my old apartment the cops were called on us because someone was playing an acoustic guitar at 8 at night yet I was constantly woken up after 12 hour overnight shifts at 7 am by our neighbors children. Hence why I rent a house now. Apartments suck.
Aug 22, 2011 at 5:13 pm rating: 2
#28
Sarah
Oh man, I am feeling this kid’s pain. We just got a new upstairs neighbor, and for as skinny a thing as she is, you’d think that she was an elephant from the way she stomps. Before anyone responds QQing about “normal living sounds”, no. The previous tenants we could hear, but it was clearly normal walking/living noises. This girl stomps like her life depends on it, and she tends to do it the most between 11pm-4am… once she starts and wakes us up, we’re prevented from falling back asleep because it’s continuous until as late as 10am. Seriously, I’m not exaggerating: non-stop stomping.
We’ve currently got the central air going, two fans, a window a/c unit, and an air purifier running to try and drown her out, but it’s no use. She’s that loud.
She also smokes so much that I’ve had to take to keeping an inhaler by the bed and I don’t even have asthma. How do you even physically smoke that much?!
Aug 22, 2011 at 6:32 pm rating: 5
#29
gladystopia
To all the persnickety spellers: there may be a fairly-plausible explanation.
I used to be an English teacher. In the early ’90s, there was a movement within educational circles, a movement which theorized that students should not concern themselves with spelling correctly (supposedly because worrying how a word is spelled would interrupt the flow of their thoughts and stifle their creativity.) They were encouraged to use “inventive spelling” as they wrote, then proofread their work, going to the dictionary to check the spelling of the words they were uncertain about.
Since then, of course, much of the “invented spelling” doctrine has been debunked; rather than proofreading their work and improving it in a second draft, many kids would simply hand in their original work, misspellings and all. The “inventive” spelling proponents have largely moved on, but there are still a few diehards who keep the concept alive.
I’m wondering whether our young note-writer might have been taught to write using this theory–and if so, I hope she encounters a strict, old-school type of teacher who breaks her of her bad spelling habits.
Aug 23, 2011 at 1:31 am rating: 5
#30
ArmyofWords
That’s a good explanation gladystopia. I think part of the problem is technology. Kids are getting cell phones and using the internet at a younger age now, resulting in a lot of texting and netspeak. I used to think kids these days were a little stupid, but it’s more likely that they’re just lazy.
Aug 29, 2011 at 12:39 pm rating: 0
#31
Amy
I just like the fact that while her spelling may be atrocious, she still grasps the ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ rule when it comes to her attempt at “neighbors”.
Aug 29, 2011 at 3:09 pm rating: 0
#32
tsel
I am really sure that I am on Team Kiddo.
Kids tend to model their spelling on the examples of people around them. A nice neighbor would re-write her note for her, with proper spelling, as a model.
Sep 5, 2011 at 1:46 pm rating: 0
#33
Jordan
I can’t even read that. I hated grade 8. And 7, and 6… and 5. 3 was pretty bad too.
Oct 30, 2011 at 11:04 pm rating: 0
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