I don’t know if I’m being sensitive or unreasonable here. My next door neighbour approached me at the weekend to give me dates of their summer garden parties.
For context, We live in a terrace of modern houses and we all have similar sized gardens, enclosed by neighbouring gardens, back and side.
So my neighbour told me about her planned garden parties over the next few months and there were 3 dates confirmed, 2 tbc.
But, she has specifically asked us that we don’t use our garden during the days of these parties.
I was a little take aback and said that we don’t have any scheduled bbqs or parties on those dates so they will be fine. But she said they didn’t want us to use our garden, AT ALL!
Apparently it will spoil the atmosphere if I was to “pop to the bins and empty my recycling” or if they could hear the washing machine on a spin if I left the back door open!
I did laugh at this stage and say well I can’t promise to not access my garden for the whole day.
She went on to say how her friends are “well to do” and they would expect privacy and not to be interrupted by unnecessary noise.
I got a little frustrated at this point and I asked if she was just letting me know or if the neighbours the other side were also being asked this. She assured me that, yes they were and they confirmed they won’t be using their garden or the gate to their garden at the back so as to not disturb her.
Am I being unreasonable to think that this request is unusually controlling?