Noise reduction from neighboring properties - ideas?

Well, but you can hardly forbid the neighbor to turn on a radio outside....

But you are not alone with the problem.... there are already three of us here...

The problem in the head arises because you think you have spent so much money to finally live your life the way you want and have your peace, and then you still have to be told by other people how to spend your free time.... Because the music forces you to put on headphones or you simply can't lie down at noon if you want to because the neighbor is playing music...

I haven't found a solution for it either; for me, it even went so far that I pondered for days whether it was wise to build and how I could be so stupid to choose the wrong building materials....

You can really tear yourself apart with that...

The only real solution is that you have to manage to program your mind not to focus on it anymore. Even if it tears you up inside, you have to manage not to pay attention by distracting yourself with something else. There were plenty of suggestions here....

Especially because you also wrote that you have a baby: Our reptile brain is programmed to pick up threatening noises as a new mom.... your brain classified that as threatening, and you have to manage to reverse that.

But you are not alone with the problem .... there are already 3 of us here ...

... four! But unfortunately I really can’t help either. For me, it’s a certain neighbor, with whom there has already been some stress over other things (and whose hobby to my horror is various gasoline-powered garden tools...). And of all people, this neighbor also likes to listen to loud music outside - my brain can’t switch that off. I’ve now reached the point where I consciously tell myself that it’s silly and objectively the tractor of the other neighbor is much worse, but doesn’t bother me in the least. I then deliberately focus on other things than the bass lines - and it begins to take effect. Working on your own psyche is, I fear, unfortunately much more promising than trying to stop deep sound waves. That is simply a real challenge physically. Unfortunately.

I also prefer it often without background music, sometimes I turn off the droning at work... or enjoy the silence at home.

Currently he’s tinkering over there, yes, and yesterday annoyingly right on our house side. So there were only a few meters’ direct distance between the radio and our house.

It helps me if I know who it is and associate the sound with a positive voice in my head. So, neighbor explaining the world to his child in the yard... I’m immediately in that negative attitude. I can control that. I think to myself: great, how he deals with the child. How he explains the world to the little one... and then it’s only half as annoying.

Then it simmers right away if I can’t behave normally as I would actually do, but now have to carry an annoying headphone around / be driven out of my own house (keyword going to the playground/ to IKEA etc.) / have to play counter-music even though I don’t want to hear any - that just makes me internally even angrier. Hard to explain.

Well, but that’s exactly THE attitude YOU can change. You don’t have to wear headphones or go to the playground. It’s an option you can choose for yourself. No one forces you. Not even the neighbor. Because the problem is you yourself, as you have also realized. And if you are the problem yourself, you can’t be angry at your own options, i.e. solutions.

Well, but you can hardly forbid the neighbor to turn on a radio outside ....

Maybe it's because of my age, but I know it as going through life and trying not to bother other people. Be it through smells, loud talking, burping, etc., and also listening to music so loud that others have to listen in, whether they want to or not. Basically, I think "one" is in the garden because one wants to hear nature, the "outside" (birdsong, the buzzing of insects, cricket chirping ...) as opposed to "inside," and in my view music is not a sound that belongs to nature. That sounds exaggerated now, I know, but the idea of listening to music "outside," except at an open-air concert, wouldn't occur to me. For that, I have my system(s) in the house.

I would have actually said it's the other way around. Those who come from the countryside know it and hardly notice it consciously. You must be the exception ;)

Both could be true. I consciously notice it and am happy about it because of the above-mentioned associations. :) I also like to watch when farmers make their rounds in the fields. :-)

Maybe it's because of my age, but I know it this way: you go through life trying not to bother other people. Be it through smells, loud talking, burping, etc., and also not playing music so loud that others have to listen, whether they want to or not. Basically, I think "one" is in the garden because one wants to hear nature, the "outside" (birdsong, buzzing of insects, chirping of crickets ...) as opposed to the "inside", and in my view, music is not a sound that belongs to nature. That sounds exaggerated, I know, but I wouldn't come up with the idea of listening to music "outside," except at an open-air concert. For that, I have my system(s) inside the house.

He's not doing an open-air concert but has a construction site radio on... If you go over to him and ask him to turn it off, then you are not far off from being the annoying goat...