At first, everything seemed fine. But now I’m wondering if I’m being unreasonable for asking them (again) to tone it down with sitting in their cars outside our house late at night.

They have three cars, two on their drive, one on the street (Parents). I never hear a peep from them until around 11 pm, when the two sons start sitting on the drive in their cars, playing music or talking on loudspeaker. It sounds silly, but it feels really intrusive as our bedroom’s at the front of the house, and it’s like they’re sitting with us in our room.

Sometimes they leave the engine running idle with music or phone calls blaring, and when they finally go out, the peace doesn’t last long. They often come home at 1 or 2 am, slam car doors, and chat loudly. It wakes my husband and me up almost every weekend.

About 1 month in I knocked on and spoke to the Mum who seemed apologetic about it, and it did calm down for about two weeks. Then it slid right back. When I sent a polite text recently, “Could you maybe keep the car noise down tonight? Kids in bed.”), she replied that I was being unreasonable, and it was "normal level of noise that her sons make" and of course the dreaded "We can't hear it".

I honestly have never been in this situation with a neighbour, I don’t want to escalate things and make bad blood, but if I say nothing, it’ll just keep happening.

So… am I being unreasonable to ask them to stop hanging out in their cars after 10/11pm? Especially when we’ve got young kids and someone working from home? Or should I just accept this is modern life in 2025 and grin and bear it?