A mum has hit back at a neighbour who told her to keep her kids inside during the day while he worked from home.
The neighbour, as the woman explains, has moved his home office to a room closer to the garden and the kids have been soaking up the lovely weather outside. However, he complained they were being too noisy during 'very important' meetings.
The mum took to Mumsnet to ask if she was being unreasonable for standing her ground and telling him she will continue to use her garden as normal. The woman added that the neighbour was being rude and condescending, arguing he should just close the window.
Comments quickly gathered to support her and others added suggestions.
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The mum wrote: "We've lived next door to these neighbours for years. Know each other well enough to say hi, put bins out on holiday, but we're not friends. We've been using our garden in the same way for years. No changes on our side, nothing new.
"We've come back from holiday to find neighbour has re-organised his home office and he now sits at a massive (open) window right on the boundary between our gardens. That must have been a spare bedroom before maybe, I don't know. We never saw anyone in it.
"I sat outside at our patio table this morning to have a coffee and I could hear every word he said through his open window, could hear every word his colleagues said on their online meetings. He might as well have been sitting at the table with me. Not sure there's much I can do about that, he can use his house however he likes.
"My son, aged 10, and his pals are sitting outside at the table trading Pokemom cards. There's four of them, they are laughing and chatting but they're not shouting or being silly. And it's a sunny afternoon in the school holidays, they can be outside laughing in the garden if they want to be.
"Neighbour has just come to the door to ask me if I can take them inside because he has a full afternoon of work meetings and their noise is distracting him.
"I said, "What, the whole afternoon? You want them to stay indoors all afternoon?" He said completely straight-faced "I'll be working till 6.30pm."
"I laughed and said, "Well no, that won't be possible".
"At this point he said in a very slow, careful, mansplaining voice just in case I couldn't follow him ,"I don't think you understand. I have a Very Important Job. These are very important meetings. I negotiate multi-million dollar contracts every day, I need to be able to concentrate.""
The mum fumed: "Seriously? I always thought he was a bit of a t*** but who talks like this? Who actually says "Very Important" like that? Twice? He has no idea what my job is or how important DH [dear husband] or I might be.
|I just said, "No, we'll carry on using our garden as we always have. Maybe you could close your window when you're needing to concentrate. And just so you're aware, I can hear you and your colleagues when your window is open, I hope you're not saying anything confidential. I must get on, thanks for doing the bins while we were away,"then shut the door.
"He's gone, I can hear him on his 'Very Important Meeting'. I could join in, I can hear every word on both sides. I suspect he'll be back, probably when dh is back from work so they can talk man to man.
Though she admitted: "He's unsettled me though, he was so self-confident when he came to the door, so sure that he would get exactly what he wanted. How do you get that kind of confidence? I wish I had it. Or is it arrogance? He made me think I was in the wrong at first."
She added: "We love our garden, we use it all the time. I'm not sure how we'll deal with this one, but I wasn't bad by refusing to bring the kids inside, was I? He's the one who has made the change, not us. I don't think WFH is new for him, he was just somewhere else in his house before I guess. Now he's on top of our patio with his big booming voice. I feel quite sad about it, if he's there all day every day it's going to be awful."
Many fellow Mumsnet users rallied round the woman.
One commented: "My DH has very important meetings. If it's noisy outside, he closes the window! Maybe you need to start quoting back to him some info from his calls..."
A second said: "YANBU [You are not being unreasonable] not your fault he made a poor location choice for his office. Crack on and ignore him."
"I think you need to start some Very Important drum lessons," a third suggested.
Another hit back: "If he’s such a big shot he can install air con and keep the window closed or get a dedicated office pod."
"Oh goodness I'd be inviting my children's friends round more often .. many be set up a paddle pool or trampoline," one added.
And another echoed: "Please immediately get a hot tub and garden bar!"
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