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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think all you smug bastards with GARDENS don't know how lucky you are!

112 replies

TrappedInHell · 20/04/2013 13:56

Sorry, sorry, sorry but I am RANTING and feeling full of woe is me! I live in a fucking FLAT on the 2nd floor. I feel trapped, hemmed in and high up. I want to send the DCs out into the sunshine while I do stuff. I want to plant flowers and mow grass just to get the smell. I want to hang washing and see the wind blow through it. I want my toddler to have a sandpit. I want to sit outside in the sun with a glass of wine. I want to do the DCs a bbq. How did my life come to this??? There is nothing I can do to change for the foreseeable future.

AAAAARRRRRGGHHHHHH!

OP posts:

LynetteScavo · 23/04/2013 21:52

I have a garden, and I know I am very lucky. I am not smug. I have been looking at where I might live when I'm old (I like to plan ahead, I'm not due to retire for 25 years!), and don't need a garden. I came to the conclusion that I really would like at last a small patch of grass to call my own.

TiredFeet · 23/04/2013 22:36

Yanbu. I have lived in a flat and I hated it in the summer. I really feel for you. People moaning to you about their gardens and how much work they are are being rather insensitive!

teaandthorazine · 24/04/2013 07:05

ThatGhastlyWoman

Twattybollocks · 24/04/2013 08:28

Well I've been moaning all week about how much my back hurts and how much work is involved in getting my garden to look even slightly respectable for the summer but I confess I do feel for you. Yes it's hard work, but nothing beats sitting out there in the evenings after kids are in bed, with a glass of something and just listening to the birds and the stillness.

VisualiseAHorse · 24/04/2013 08:36

I could've written this post.

Even worse...outside my window is a gorgeous empty field. But I have to go through 3 fire doors to get the buggy out, and we live when OH works, so there are often members of the public just wandering around. Which means I can't just open the back door in the morning (still in pjs, bed hair etc) to let the dog out for a wee. Oh No. I have to get dressed, get the baby dressed, put him in a sling/buggy and trundle through 3 stupid fire doors just to let the dog have a wee.

fuzzpig · 24/04/2013 08:53

I empathise OP. TBF we do have a small patch of grass in front so we are lucky in that respect.

I would LOVE a back garden. I am disabled and even being out front while the DCs run around is too much for me (they aren't old enough to be unsupervised) and things like walking to the park are impossible at the moment.

undercoversahm · 24/04/2013 08:53

Where do you live, OP? You can come and share mine. You have made me realise again how very very lucky I am to have a (small but lovely) garden. It makes all the difference. YADNBU.

?grandparents with gardens?

Eskino · 24/04/2013 09:10

Ah I feel for you. We spent last summer in a flat with a baby.

Me and the next door neighbour would sit with our babies on the nearest patch of grass, surrounded by drying washing on racks. It was a lovely memory but im still pleased we both have moved to houses with gardens.

Do you have a nearby verge or patch you could put a few pots on, that would deter dog shitting owners? I'm all for taking over our little green spaces.

sashh · 24/04/2013 11:04

You are welcome to share mine if you will do the mowing. No problem with a sandpit, not sure about a trampoline but I would consider it.

I'll even pour the glass of wine for you

mmmerangue · 24/04/2013 11:12

I had this discussion with my parents last week.

They have a 1/4 hectare tree filled, over flowing with greenness and life, ponds, ducks, all walled in and it was a treasure to grow up with (albeit I didn't realise that till it was no longer mine.)

I have a shared courtyard in which the paving is crooked and not safe for DS and a patch of grass out front right next to a fast main road and the grass is shit and nothing grows in the flower bed I dug cause of all the traffic and poor light. Also we are 1st floor up a set of concrete steps so I can't just set DS free and watch him from the kitchen window like some sort of stepford wife fantasy

Now the weather is here and the park is a 20 minute walk away as well, it's bumming me right out

quoteunquote · 24/04/2013 12:45

I second the NT membership, if you find one of the offer vans, for about £35, you get unlimited access to all properties, most have wonderful gardens,

google guerrilla gardening, and guerilla gardening and the name of where you live, there are plenty of respectable groups around, we have lots of spaces in and around our town that have been taken over, one of which is now a lovely walled garden, which is used by a lot of families, it was a fly tipping spot. I bet there is a space near you that needs to be hit.

and get camping, it really helps when you are feeling detached from the land.

honeytea · 24/04/2013 13:16

I actually feel smug about living in an apartment. We do have a lovely big communal garden with a playground and pool and BBQs. I think a communal garden is a great solution for us, the kids all go out and play together.

We have been thinking of selling our flat and buying a house, we went to look at houses this weekend, both houses had big gardens with play houses and trampolines but I just thought oh god I'd have to look after this garden. I'm much happier with my balcony and someone else mowing the lawn in the communal garden.

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