How to deal with gossiping neighbours.

[dargus]

Our nearly 1 year old kid sometimes cries at night, when he is hungry; perhaps for 10 seconds or even up to 2 minutes.
One neighbour does not like it and starts spreading malicious gossip. F.i.: we would hit our child. The neighbour even seems to have reported it to the police.

We are currently considering how to deal with this situation.
The police stated that a recording of any kind, recording the neighbour's voice, would be a first step.
Finding any possible witnesses of similar defamating facts would be a second stap. Then, we could have a case.

Have you had any experiences with gossiping neighbours, spreading malicious rumours?
What did you do?
How would you settle this kind of problem?

[maoman]

One neighbour does not like it and starts spreading malicious gossip. F.i.: we would hit our child. The neighbour even seems to have reported it to the police.

Details, please. How has this gotten back to you? Have the police contacted you?

What did you do? How would you settle this kind of problem?

Why do you care? In my experience, most people pay no attention to these kinds of busybodies. The ones that do believe what they say are are idiots, and of little import. Is this affecting your daily life in any way?

[funkymonkey]

Finding any possible witnesses of similar defamating facts would be a second stap.

You may have difficulty finding anyone who is willing to cross the gossiping neighbor and side with the foreigner.

[Deuce Dropper]

SHIT+PAPERSACK+LIGHTER+DOORBELL+RUN

[TheGingerMan]

Confrontation! Coupled with tactical undermining.....

[Nuit]

SHIT+PAPERSACK+LIGHTER+DOORBELL+RUN

Dammit, that's it. I got in all kinds of trouble with
PAPERSACK+LIGHTER+RUN+DOORBELL+SHIT

[sandman]

Why do you even care? Like they're going to give a shit what you do!

[k.k.]

Sure, it's unpleasant if you suspect a neighbor is gossiping about you, but at the end of the day if it doesn't affect your life, forget about it. Those kind of people are simply not worth your time. You don't give a shit about them, right? So don't sweat it. There's lots of locals here who have too much time on their hands and like to cause trouble where there is none.

I'm the only foreigner in my small apartment building, and despite being a friendly guy, I know there are some neighbors who don't like me for whatever reasons. Probably just because I'm a foreigner and they occasionally hear Western noise coming from my apartment rather than Mandarin husband/wife quarrels or KTV blaring on at all hours. But I don't give a shit. Taipei is a noisy city. I deal with, and they have to as well.

[Nuit]

I remember having this twice when our kid was 1 or 2, each time it was a couple of gossiping a-ma's, although we were travelling both times and it was easier to confront. They’ve got nothing better to do, presumably their own kids (if they had anyway) have grown up, and they feel obliged to comment on the parenting skills of the big-nose and his wife.

On the one plane, this woman was really pissing off my wife, loudly saying that we obviously weren’t feeding our daughter properly, and we should be doing this, shouldn’t be doing that, on and on. In the end, I went over and politely told her to STFU. She did (or at least I couldn’t hear her after that).

It’s trickier if it’s around home, but I think you still got to confront him/her. Tell them to mind their own business, don’t mince your words. Impose yourself on the neighbourhood. Have the wife and child there as back-up.

Wouldn’t even consider legal stuff right now. This should be in Parenting forum. Just throw your weight around.

[urodacus]

misinformation. feed them grist for their mill, that eventually makes them look like idiots.