Was this neighbour "entitled to say what he wants in his own garden?"

Yeah... we sure that was his wife he was sneaking to the bottom of the garden to call?

Tbf I'd be a bit worried if I were your friend, some people deliberately like/try to be heard, maybe he thought she was on her own. I feel like if you do something where people can hear, then you have to respect that they might also say something.

He was free to carry on his conversation if he wanted had he thought it was OK for neighbours and children to hear.

It's not like your friend was unpleasant or forcibly gagged him (although that sounds up his alley 😂).

I think it was sensible (and neighbourly if anything) to let him know he was loud enough to be overheard.

I mean even if it wasn’t his wife.

He was having a conversion with someone on the phone away from his children. Be that wife, sex worker, his brother’s wife maybe his best mate Samual.

I find it hard to believe he was talking to his wife. Why was he at the end of the garden?

I find it hard to believe he couldn’t hear there were children close by. I can hear the kids that live 2/3/4 houses away playing in the garden.

I was once in the garden complaining to DH that our recycling bag was missing for the second week on the run and I’d noticed next door had one that I hadn’t seen previously, all of a sudden a recycling bag came flying over the fence with a loud “we’ve got about 5 actually” from next door.

You can’t “say whatever you want” in your own garden if people can hear you. Legally it can be considered a public order offence if you use language likely to cause alarm or distress to others within earshot, even if you are on private property at the time.

Ok, I can’t be bothered to argue with you.

I burst out laughing reading this and DH thinks I've gone mad

Yes, he should, but his rights to say what he likes in his garden will (legally) will always be given more legal protection than offended neighbours.

Ego bruise by bro osmosis

You make your presence with children known and you distract them. If you are alone, you listen very quietly. 👂

No, I haven’t.

Got to love Reddit. So as long as you are not seen you can wank as much as you fancy in your garden.

So build a den, a shed or erect a tent 😉 or hide in your own bushes 🤣

Mush easier to get away with as a women than a man though anyway. No officer I just had a very very bad itch. 😇 maybe the start of thrush I’ll go to the chemist 😩 😂😂

You are right.

he hid at the end of his garden away from his kids ears.

Why should friends move their kids away from his ears.

He clearly also thought the friend was right due to his reaction.

But 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 - poor bloke

How did she keep the 3 and 5 year olds so silent he had no idea anyone was on the other side? I want to know her secret! My DC would be chatting.

You’ve misunderstood what @MrTiddlesTheCat is saying.

Retold story to husband just now who laughed, but said really, she had no right to tell him anything and embarrass him. It's his garden, he can have that conversation if he wants, and she should have moved the kids away until it stopped

I don’t think I like the cut of your DH’s jib. The man obviously didn’t want his own kids to hear it and his quite reasonable response suggests he didn’t want your friend or her kids to hear it either. What difference would it have made if your friend had called out, tactfully coughed or engaged in a ten minute battle with her children about why they had to instantly drop the thing they were very much enjoying doing, and go inside. He’s going to have been embarrassed no matter what she did. Your DH sounds quite entitled. No right? I sincerely hope you remind him of that the next time any of your neighbours do anything he disapproves of.

I don’t think you should tell someone what they can do or say in their own garden. I think I would have just shouted over to one of my kids their sandcastle looks great, so he would hear me and then hopefully realise he can be heard and stop.

😂

A garden isn’t a soundproof booth. If you’re standing right against a shared fence, you’re effectively in someone else’s ear. But he wasn’t being malicious, just careless and a bit thick. And the fact he immediately stopped tells you he knew it.

But legally you can do what you like in your garden, as long as you’re not forcing others to be part of it ,and you weren't forced as you had the choice to walk away.

Just bad timing and you handled it wonderfully!

Yeah as much as no one will buy you don’t hear two young kids on the other side of the fence, I do love ghe fact that mumsnet is so utterly obsessed with cheating someone actually posted do uou think he came to the bottom of the garden as his wife was in the house and so she couldn’t hear , 😂