On this week’s So You Think You’re an Adult segment, one couple’s new neighbours are seemingly swingers and definitely too noisy.
“We had new neighbours move in a few months ago, and my husband I are pretty sure they are popular swingers,” she told Moncrieff.
“On the first weekend of every month, they seem to invite a lot of their couple friends over, and when it comes to late night, Jesus I swear the noise and sounds and thumping we can hear is enough to wake the dead.
“My nieces are staying this weekend and now my husband and I agree we need to finally address the issue, but we're unsure how to do it without causing embarrassment.
The couple are on the fence between sending a letter, which might be “passive aggressive”, or confronting the couple face to face, which is quite intimidating.
“How can we address the matter without causing undue embarrassment for anyone involved?” the woman asked.
Swinging by to complain
Writer Barbara Scully said the swinging isn’t the actual problem – the noise is.
“You need to divorce the noise from what's going on to cause the noise,” she said.
“If they were having a party every Sunday or Saturday and just playing music and dancing around the hall and living room, it would be the same disturbance.
“Why the noise is being made or what's causing the noise to be made really is irrelevant unless they want to be the moral judges next door.”
With this in mind, Barbara recommended the couple simply let the potential swingers know about the noise and hope it will be reduced.
Judgement
Broadcaster Declan Buckley agreed with Barbara that it’s not that complicated, but argued the couple themselves might have more of a problem with the swingers than they realise.
“They're getting kind of exasperated the level that's beyond saying it's the noise pollution problem,” he said.
“It’s making the problem of the noise and the disturbance even bigger, because they are adding a judgment in on top.
“If it was just the noise, I think they would have already done something about it.”
Declan and Barbara both advised, if the couple are too comfortable with swinging to talk to their neighbours, to “get a grip”.
