Have you tried introducing yourself, or maybe leaving an apology/explanation note with contact information. Downstairs it probably feels like they are screaming into the void whenever there is noise, they might have a kid trying to take a nap or something that you can compromise about. There also might be certain noises that seem small to you but are more irritating to them.
Honestly, the only good downstairs (or upstairs) neighbor I ever had was a mostly deaf older woman.
The youngest is 5 and he's a handful, so we got our babysitter to help us three days of the week. She lost all her jobs and has no income otherwise, and for us it means we can work normally 3 days a week, so everybody wins.
But he's also finally getting better at playing alone. (He used to be great at that when he was 3, less so more recently.) It's also a matter of managing the expectations of your kids, I guess.
obviously 'talking' wouldn't have worked here.
If they are just ignoring the cops, why would they listen to neighbor.
They were assholes, and talking to them didn't help. I can't say we were too broken up when he died of a coronary and she moved out of the building.
What makes this very challenging is that a) Kid wants attention continually so there is no point in trying to do any work while it is my turn.
b) We live in an apartment complex and folks who live downstairs have called cops on our kid multiple times for running around. This despite the fact that he never does during "queit hours (sleeps from 8 pm to 7 am)" and these noises are protected by SF tenant laws. Couple of weeks back a SF police officer knocked on our door and tried to arbitrate. Internally, I wanted to slam the door in the cop's face though I was respectful.
c) Because of (b) kid knows that we are very sensitive about him running around. So anytime he feels he is not getting attention, he will run or stomp on the floor.
Fun times