[originaltext]M: How are your new neighbors?W: They seem nice enough, but they

M: How are your new neighbors?
W: They seem nice enough, but they have a son who’s driving me crazy.
M: What do you mean?
W: He comes home every night around 10 with his car windows rolled down andradio making noise. It stops as soon as he turns the car off. But by then our children are wide awake.
M: Oh, no.
W: Yes. Sometimes it takes us till mid-night to get the kids to settle down again.
M: Have you tried talking to them?
W: Well, I feel stupid complaining. It’s not as though he is turning his radio on all night.
M: You said yourself it is driving you crazy.
W: Well, you know how early I have to get up to be here at the office. I’m just not getting enough sleep and neither are the kids. They are so easily annoyed when I get home in the afternoon.
M: Maybe you could go over sometime with a little gift: a plant for the yard or something. Then you could ask about their son, whether they have any other children, and they’ll be sure to ask about yours.
W: Yeah, and then what?
M: Then you could mention that the hardest thing now is getting your kids to get to sleep at night.
W: And keeping them asleep.
M: That is the idea, and you should do it soon. The longer you wait, the harder it’ll be to do politely.