Just reading the thread on neighbours with noisy kids and another one about neighbours in Complaints - it's interesting as we are going through a similar episode at the moment - though my point of view is slightly off-topic in either case hence a different thread.
We moved from Basel to Zürich recently having been in Basel for nearly 9 years. Our son is 3 years old and as a baby did his fare share of screaming and running about as a toddler - we never once had the neighbours complain; though we did our best to minimise the noise - at the end of the day you will never get it to zero as hard as you try. But we have lived in Switzerland for long enough to know the score.
In our new place in Zürich, we had the keys to the place a few weeks before we properly moved in so we spent a night here around Ascension Day on lilos just to get him used to the idea of moving. In the morning, a couple of times around the 10am mark, he bounced a little rubber ball he has on the parquet flooring and seconds later the neighbour from downstairs came to complain. Fair enough - we apologised and promised to prevent a recurrence.
After we moved in we held an apéro for all neigbours in the block and got on first name terms - including with the couple downstairs. So we put the previous incident down to a one-off.
About a week ago, my wifes brother came with his family from Amsterdam on their way to holiday in Italy and stayed overnight. Of course, the kids got a bit loud and at 10:01pm exactly the downstairs neighbour came. Again, fair cop and I apologised. Then she went on to complain about all the noise we make before 7am - which surprised me a little.
Normally I get up at 6am and do a few exercises on a yoga mat we have, have a quick shower (which is allowed in Swiss law - forget the urban myths) and breakfast before leaving for the office around 7:30ish - so I asked if it was any of that. She said no, it is our son running about. I was amazed as he is usually up out of bed just before I leave - before that he is asleep so not running about; and we're pretty strict on him running indoors - though he forgets himself from time to time as 3 year olds do and we check him. So if there is any sound from him, it is outside the "Nachtrühe" time - and I explained that the law allows children to play (the Swiss German word is "Gspännli") in the apartment - of course we do our best to minimise inconvenience to the neighbours.
Having lost that argument she then changed tack and told us that her (two teenagers) kids want to have a lie in during the school holidays so we have to be dead quiet even outside the Nachtrühe time. In my experience, any teenager needs an atom bomb under their bed to get them up before lunchtime - so that argument did not wash; however I just said we'll do our best but she must appreciate that the law allows for a certain amount of noise during the day when it constitutes normal use of the residence and that we can't put our son in a straight-jacket.
She also complained about the fact that as I am walking to the lift to go to the office (a 5 second walk) - he says "bye bye Daddy" a couple of times in the hallway. So now we do whispered "bye byes" - even if it is outside the quiet period.
As it is, the woman has some health issues - some kind of hip joint problem so I imagine she does not sleep well (and co-proxamol - the usual painkiller in such cases - is fairly poky stuff that plays havoc with your judgement) so I do try to see it from her side; but by the same token we can't be expected to live like monks. I should add that the same neighbours had an air-conditioning unit going into the night during the hot weather a few weeks back which kept me awake; and she smokes what smells like Navy Cut on the balcony which makes our balcony unusable on occasion. However I'll let it go as I imagine she gets few pleasures in life at the moment.
I have mentioned the whole episode to quite a few Swiss colleagues - young and old - who tell me we are in the right and we should consider writing to the apartment management (Verwaltung) - however I will hold off from that one for the time being as I don't want to go poking a wasp's nest. Ultimately the solution is to find a proper house with its own garden (already started looking) however we still have to live here so we just smile politely and do our best to keep them sweet. All the other neighbours are fine.
Of course I haven't told them yet that I am a keen piccolo player in a Basel Fasnacht clique...
Cheers,
Nick