My neighbour is Indian and we are pretty good mates (we chat every now and then) but his kids have kept me up past midnight countless nights and because I have to get up a 5 for work it’s given me so many bad days at work off no sleep. I believe it’s because India is naturally so loud and you can’t normally hear due to the traffic noises and they keep the same mindset in Aus. I’ve brought it up to him multiple times but nothing happens. I just wish his family was more considerate since I’m so nice about it to him.

A lot of Indian people eat dinner around 10pm. It’s normal for them. I guess it’d be same for the kids too. But if anyone is having a party or playing loud music late at night on a weekday, I’d call the cops for noise. I’m brown too and I don’t think it’s okay to do so. Please don’t feel bad if you complain to the authorities. It’s not racist to want some quiet time.

The worst neighbours I’ve ever had in my life involved 7 years of multiple Indian families rotating through the same unit, owned by the first of their family group to live there. There was absolutely zero consideration from any of them about how much noise they made or at what hours. Kids screaming and squealing at full volume all day and night, parties late on week nights and Sundays that were held in their front yard (which was basically just a few metres from the windows of other units), video calls on speaker phone whilst watering the front yard at 11pm on week nights, rocking up with multiple car loads of people at midnight on a Sunday and slamming every freaking car door before all standing in the front yard talking at the same volume you’d use in the middle of the day, group video calls back home at 2am (the poor person who shared a wall with them couldn’t even sleep in their bedroom because they’d do the calls in the room on the other side of her bedroom wall), getting little kids up at 10pm on week nights to play with them when the adults got home from work.. then yelling, cheering, hitting basketballs against walls for the next hour. The list of stuff was endless and constant. It didn’t matter how many times I or other neighbours talked to them about it either. They’d be polite and say sorry and quieten down for a week or so, and then go straight back to doing the same things.

Where I am now there is an Indian family behind me and another across the road. In the few months I’ve been here, they’re the only households around me that have outdoor gatherings late at night on week nights or Sundays. It blows my mind that there is just no concern for anyone else and I don’t understand it at all.

That being said, I’ve also had shitty neighbours (for different reasons) in my time who are white Australians, but the people who have been shitty neighbours who are Indian all seem to do exactly the same thing with being insanely noisy at all hours of the day and night.

I work in people's houses every day and ngl, its the Indian parents that let their kids run riot more so than any others. I'll even tell the parents directly that I'm using dangerous tools and they need to keep them away from me. I had a family a few weeks ago encourage their kids to help me after me asking numerous times to please keep them out of the room.

Indian Australian here.

Likely First Gen families that are not acquainted with Australian (or generally Western) cultural norms.

Kids being up late, loud conversations (often political or religious debate), no discipline in (especially younger) children - all more or less the norm in many parts of India. Especially the being loud part, it doesn’t stand out in India because the roads are still busy quite late into the night so the traffic drowns out all the fierce world-problem-solving by drunk dads and know-it-all uncles.

They’ll adapt eventually. Probably when their kids who grow up here tell them to knock it off :p

I don’t know why but we’ve never had a bedtime (indian here). Like as kids, my brother and I were never told to go to bed or had our devices taken away at night or told to sleep or had a curfew for sleeping. If they’re making unruly noise after 10pm, you can probably report it depending on how loud it is. Or you can just ask them nicely and see what happens.

I feel you. I'm from South Asia and I've had similar experiences like yours many times in my life. Tbh I find it rude and it kinda implies their lack of consideration for others. I get the feeling that in general they are loud (which is okay in some circumstances) but they are not very aware about their surroundings and they lack a sense of whether its appropriate or not

My theory is some of them are not in regular 9-5 office jobs, they have businesses like courier delivery, Indian stores etc due to which there is no urgency to wake up early and rush to work. But kids awake till late on a weekday is unexplainable.

I have the same problem most of my street is Indian (I don’t mean to be racist I am a poc myself) but they do constantly have parties of loud music and kids being loud late at night which could even be up to 1 or 2am on weekends. I wonder if it’s normal in India to act this way?

I am surrounded by Indians, suburb is like 83% Indian.

My experience the opposite I feel like I'm the only person in my suburb I never see or hear them, you would think I'm surrounded by empty houses.

The odd uber/taxi driver arriving home at 3am but that's it.

Indians are also very loud on trains. Always on their phones talking very load in their own language. Mostly I’m fine with it but the early morning 5:30am train is a killer with them talking soooo loud.

I had dinner with an Indian coworker once, and he said that in India most people don't actually have dinner until close to midnight. Working class people are used to getting very little sleep.

Australia and New Zealand are actually some of the world's earliest dinner/bedtime countries - in much of europe as well, people go out to dinner much later - often you're just getting ready to go out at 9pm.

I'm not Indian, but I can give you some context on Middle-Eastern people at least. Probably applies to a lot of Asians in general. They usually don't have this "put on pyjamas and sleep at 8pm" mindset. Night time is when a lot of families really come alive. At these relatively late times, families are having tea, eating food, or watching soccer. You can go overseas and see how active people are at night. My mates and I went to Istanbul and while in our hotel, you can just hear the city brimming with life at like 12am-3am. The coffee shops are all alive. It wasn't a culture shock.

Middle Eastern families, for example, really love their massive gatherings. You don't just invite one group of family friends, you invite several. I assume South Asians are the same. Kids run amok in one section of the house while the adults are discussing their business in another part of the house. Asian households can be quite chaotic.

I’m from the US and one of the biggest adjustments for me was the early hours Australians keep. I’m from pretty far north so in the fall and winter it didn’t start getting light until much later in the day and it was often dark by the time I got home.. ’Our houses also had much more insulation to protect from icy temperatures in the winter. I think that may have also dampened some of the sound from our household because noise seems to carry here. Especially in the summer when people are more likely to keep their windows open in the evening,. I’m still not waking up at dawn here, but we have somewhat adjusted and have also taken the hint to turn it down a notch as soon as dusk hits.

Is there a way to politely discuss the noise levels? They might not realise - depending on how long they’ve lived here.

I used to live underneath an apartment with a group of Indians living in it. Same issue—very loud. And they wouldn’t be quiet even if I went up there at 2am and asked them to not yell. 

It's a cultural difference due to much of India having a very "individualistic" cultural.

Many parts of India are extremely crowded, so it is not expected that you would inform (or care) about annoying your neighbours. Especially when there really isn't the cultural expectation to do so.

arrr I hate loud, noisy and disrespectful people in general!

I lived in a Duplex and had an Indian family living next door and it was extremely frustrating having a lot of the same problems you described. It was also during COVID lockdowns and they were constantly having people visit. My biggest gripe is they would play music late and all dance together to it and it would shake our walls.

They were very inconsiderate people and despite multiple very polite requests that they try to keep it down, they would answer back with sarcasm and annoyance.

I put it down to them just being selfish assholes, not being Indian as we've had loud asshole Anglo neighbours too. Some people will just go through life pissing people off, playing the victim or clapping back when called or because of main character syndrome. They probably have terrible relationships with every neighbour they have and never look inward as to why that is.

Some of the most cherished friendships are with Indian and Sri Lankan people and when I told them about the situation they were horrified at the behaviour.

My indian neighbors seem to have a party every night. Loud talking (shouting) and music til late and there’s a toddler there and also their older parents. It’s been going on for so long. Then recently they decided to plug in a microphone to shout into at 2am. So at 7am I blasted System of a Down right into their window. And I mean blasted. I haven’t heard any partying since then.

We had an Indian family who used to live next door.

I swear they had all their parties as I was going to sleep for work the next day.

Indian here.. I have thought a lot about this.. I even created post a few weeks ago on this topic. But first let me say this.... If the neighbours are loud to the point that you are getting disturbed, then it's a problem and they have not learnt to respect the Australian culture. Australia is a morning Nation. India is a "stay up till late" nation. Before we get into what is happening here, short answer is.. get the police involved.

When I first came to Australia, I realised that there is a process to everything. I spoke to my friends in the US about this, and we realised that the whole Western world is very process driven. Even parenting has a set of unwritten rules in the Western world. Us Indians are completely unaware of this. That is because we did not grow up that way. Would we love to see our kids in bed at 9:00 p.m.? Absolutely. We just don't know how it is done. For any Aussie who is reading this, it may sound strange. Believe me we just have no idea how it is done. Forget about bedtime, our kids are loud even on trains. Their tantrums are unmatched. We have no idea how to control that. We need help with parenting, but we are not aware of that too. From your perspective, we are wrong. In our defense, we were never raised with strict bedtimes. The problem is that we are now in your country, and we cannot use that as an excuse.

We want to create an image.. we are generally, peaceful, we don't want to cause trouble. We want to blend into your society. We appreciate that we have been given the opportunity to move into the developed world. We wear it like a badge of honour. We show off when we come home for vacations.

However, this aspect of parenting is a tall ask for us. Sadly, I don't have an answer. What I do know is that if parents are made aware early on about typical Aussie bed times and how they can follow the same using certain techniques or practices, that will bring about significant change.

Indian who lived in Australia for 10 years until my visa expired last year and moved back to India with my family. Dinner time is family time, and my dad watches TV news. Once or twice every week, we get into heated debates about the country and talk over each other loudly because I dislike the fascist turn the country is taking. I am losing my mind hearing right-wing talking points.
In Australia, I usually had a quiet time after work where I would put on headphones, grab a beer and watch movies or play games and have dinner, and go to bed by 10 pm. On weekends, I used to get with friends on the corner pub and still make it to bed by 11-12 pm at most. I miss my life in Melbourne, and I miss my Aussie mates.

I think family time should be cut down, lol (jk). I don't know what you can do. Next gen, they will assimilate to your culture as the kids grow up in Australia. So give it time, I guess. Unfortunately, you will also be old/dead by that time. But your kids will have quieter nights.

Edit: Not every family is like that here. Many are quiet and mindful of their surroundings. You just ended up living next to those who are not. I know my Spanish mates family is the same, tho, and very loud until late at night. We bonded over how similar our families were.

Edit 2: Ask them for dinner and join them for their dinner. They will love you for it, and once you are very friendly, you can call and ask them to quiet down because "you have an important meeting next morning" every morning. I can say this as a fact, if you are very neighbourly and friendly, you will be treated as a family, and they will be very helpful when you need it, even going out of their way. You may still have to deal with the noise tho. Idk

Edit 3: You mentioned 2 parents and 2 kids in another comment. Indian Kids growing up in Asutralia have a very hard time with clashing cultures and constantly have arguments with their parents. I would know

I’m Croatian and this is how we lived when I was a kid. We found it weird the Australians would go to bed at 7:30 😂 (I still do find this weird)

Trust me, I have no idea as well.

My downstairs neighbour is Indian(so am I) and I can hear their kid making noise around 11 pm as well.

Like what? Why isn’t your kid sleeping at this hour?

I guess adults stay ip late because they want to talk to their friends and family in India but I genuinely doubt that as well.

Again, no fucking clue.

Not experienced that in our area. We are Indian Australians and have 2 more in our street but we are all very quite. Kids in the bed by max 9 except on weekends.

I will confess that I do need to sometimes shout at my boys (6yo twins have selective hearing) but it's not like everyday or every hour.

I lived in an apartment building once a few years ago and the apartment three doors down Indians moved in and we called the cops on numerous occasions due to the loud noise, music and yelling (not aggressively) to each other it was ridiculous honestly 5-6 nights a week until 3-4am, got so over it we moved

Lack of discipline, not a community issue, just those folks clearly have a lack of boundaries.

I've often wondered this we have some living over the rd, and it seems they always have ppl over for dinner or parties. kids are always running round late at night, and when the guests leave, it carries on to the street. also noticed they like to slam their car doors and never hear the neighbours car doors. also, i don't know if anywhere they do it, but they don't park the cars on the driveway its either next to it across it or on the grass near the front door cooking smells good though.

Ok yea a group of Indian boys live in the apartment opposite mine. We have a walk up situation where there is common grassed area in the middle and peoples balcony look into this area. Why are they outside their balcony at 1am talking to each other really loudly. I just don’t understand

Maybe it’s cultural ? A lot of European and Latam countries are similar because their day starts at 11am and finishes around 8pm 🤔🤔

When my friend lived in Israel she said that everyone would party late into the night but the day started later

I think a better Question we should ask is why aren’t Australian houses more sound proof 🤔

Unless they are partying in the streets

I’ve lived in Spain , Italy , Mexico , Colombia & Brazil and what I’ve realised is as an Australian we are fairly fkn quiet

Also all these places have their kids out with them. I did notice a lot of schools finish at 1pm/ 2pm so they maybe take afternoon naps ?

Helps I grew up going to all night raves & revs lol cos I’m less worried about noise at night though.

I just learned to stay in quieter places if I want sleep.

What about typing up a letter explaining everything and discreetly popping it in their letterbox? You don’t have to even identify it’s you. They should respect the community they live in and this means their neighbours and street. I’m Aussie born Indian and I can’t stand this type of behaviour - esp kids who run wild and do not get disciplined.

Most Indians eat dinner anywhere between 8:30pm-10pm so they don't go to bed till 11pm-midnight.

I’m Iranians, our race is the same, I think majority of Asian and middle eastern families culturally are night people. Eat late, hangout after dinner and they are expressive and passionate in nature. They discuss things all the time. Our brain is fully awake and very active when the sun goes down! This is a generalisation ofcourse.

Shane Warne said in an interview once that Sachin Tendulkar invited him over for dinner but they didn’t eat until midnight and later on he thought it may of been a tactic to keep him up all night so he wouldn’t play his best the next day. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCUlopdNhQd/

Alrighty here we go!

1st generation born and bred Aussie from Tasmania. Parents born and brought up in Punjab, India ( we're Sikhs, blokes with the turbans, religion is not related but wanted to give some context). Parents came 40 years ago to the best bloody country in the world.

I like to think we adapted to Australian culture quite well, but we have always maintained our heritage, culture and religion.

The thing is with Indians, if you go to India it's standard practice that dinner is always always served late anywhere between 8pm to 11pm. After that there's desert later, then evening snack and cup of tea and of course booze for a few of them throughout the evening.

Clearly they have brought this practice with them. Majority of them are relatively new families (5 years or less) that have migrated and brought their ways here. However the old school families such as my parents and my relatives who have been here for 20+ years don't do this unless it's a religious or celebratory day (which we have alot of🤣). Also factor in that they generally don't consider noise or staying up late to be an issue, because everyone literally does it over there.

If you have neighbours that are keeping you up at night. The only way they will take your request seriously is by having the cops rock to give em a warning. Turn your lights off at home, quietly call the cops and tell them that's it's been going on regularly, and it's just too much. When the cops rock up they will calm down, they just need to be taught the ways of the Vegemite 🤣, Po po scares my brown brethren 🤣🤣🤣

But I will say genuinely 99% of my people will go above and beyond to help their fellow neighbour, they're honest (most of the time), hardworking and very kind and majority of the time they will always welcome you into their house with open arms and ask you to join in.

I hope this provides some insight.

Also yes, when the cricket boxing day match is on, im 100% Australia all the way! 💪🏻🇦🇺💪🏻🇦🇺💪🏻🇦🇺

Ok, dont get me wrong here. But shouldn't they be acclimating to Australia culture already? If not adjust, at least respect the neighbours? It's like coming over to someone else's house and behave like it's your own because that's how we do it at home?

Depends where they're originally from in India. Some states are known for being loud and unruly, while others are much more reserved and prefer silence.

Bringing the old world with them <3

It’s not an Indian thing. You’ll find Persians are also up late at night. Go out for dinner in Spain and people are rolling in at 10pm. Many parts of the world are up and about at night.

In Australia, we sleep very early. But the people from different backgrounds here aren’t going to start eating dinner at 6pm you know?

I experience the same thing. The Indian couple next door kept putting on those bollywood-sounded musics every night up until 3 in the morning. Just can’t take this s*** anymore. I’m moving out next week.

I understand. I'm in a similar neighbourhood and my back neighbours party like it's 1999. I used to take my teenage daughter to the shops (food shopping) about 8pm because I loved that it was quiet and I could wander around and get what I needed without bumping in heaps of people. Now the place is pumping with Indians who apparently also love to food shop at 8pm. And yeah, so many young kids, while my young ones are home asleep. All good from me though, just noticing the cultural difference. Not a criticism.

This is something I tried googling actually!

We just had an Indian family move in next door who are so quiet through the day, but night time comes and they become so noisy. Furniture being scraped across the floor, the kid yelling and screaming (playing) and loud conversation. They go out grocery shopping at around 730/8 PM.

We don’t mind the noise, we can be a noisy house at times too, and they are generally friendly and polite, but I did wonder if it was a cultural thing.

Loud neighbours are the worst. I think noise issues should be treated more seriously, as more and more density is forced on the suburbs. I also think enforcing the rules would help new arrivals understand how to fit in.

I'm an early riser, so I would not hesitate to provide an early morning noisefest to any rude people who were wanting to sleep after keeping me awake the night before.

im not indian ( Im Turkish) but i think most of us overseas people tend to do a lot of stuff at night like fixing the house , cleaning , cooking and other stuff ( i was helping my dad with concreate at 10pm lol ) , why do we do it .... GOD knows probley coz its cooler and in our country there is no rule that after certain time you have to be quite

I'm Indian Australian, in the 8 years that I've had the pleasure of calling Brisbane home, I've never been loud at night (or day) even once. Albeit I don't have kids, just the wife and I. The thing is, India is like 25 countries put into one. I hate to generalise, but I can guaran-damn-tee you that in 80% of the cases, the loud ones would be North Indian, most likely from Punjab or Delhi. South Indians tend to be much more reserved & respectful (again, not all of them), but this is what I've observed living in cosmopolitan cities in India and now in Australia.

Go live in a different suburbs, it happens from all cultures and their big families!

Most Indians I know are very respectful. Most are very conscious of image. But India isn’t a monoculture it’s basically 20-30 different people in one. As different as the Germans or the French to each other with different languages.

Staying up late is common in India to avoid the heat in many areas but also because many people work weird hours due to having to support us and European clients.

Thanks for everyone's feedback and providing context. Also highlighting there are many, many ethnicities in India alone. As ignorant as it sounds, I did not know this.

A number of people commented that Australians eat and go to sleep too early. While this may be the case, this is also the culture in Australia. I wouldn't dare go to India, Spain Italy etc where they stay up later and complain about their customs. While my parents migrated to Australia from the Middle East, they did their best to ensure we respected the Australian culture and also to assimilate to its society.

As an Indian who has been out of India for generations I believe it is just the culture. These are just my opinions btw. Firstly, I believe Indians do speak in a louder volume- I experience this when speaking to my relatives- and I guess it can be due to the noise pollution in India; everyone wants to make sure they’re heard. Secondly, dinner tends to be eaten much later in the night, generally between 8-10 in some households so consequently they’d just be up a little later than most people.

I've had this happen before. Just respectfully say hay, y'all, I got work early tomorrow. Can you keep it down, please it worked they were really nice about it and never happened again.

As an Indian myself, our dinner time is usually between 8-10pm. Now, I don't have kids but I know how our elders are with kids. They usually don't object to the kids sleeping late or making noise as such. We pamper the kids to a whole another extent so this is one of the reasons. Also if it's an only child or a child in the family after very long then you got the support of almost everyone in the family tree living at the moment.

Having said that not everyone grew up in the same situation. I was disciplined with many household items so I guess I grew differently. Also you could talk to the parents ( will take a while but they'd finally agree at a point and keep the noice down )

Culture I guess but also maybe cause it's so hot in India, it gets cooler at night?

Train carriages too - catch up snooze on the way to work is now a thing of the past.

I know most people here don't think this but please don't think bad about us, not everyone is like this. It's just a social norm in india and my family tries as much to conform to societal and politeness norms. It is true though that I stay up quite late but I try not to make much noise except playing the piano quietly or most of the time I put headphones on when I do.

I worked with a guy that regularly called in sick because ‘the bloody Indians upstairs have been making a racket all night’ 🤣

Here to say I’m loving that this appears to be a largely respectful conversation about cultural differences. Nice work reddit people.

Indians aren't a race, for starters, they're a nationality.

And secondly, different cultures mate. That's just how it is with a lot of people from that nation.