Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To enjoy looking through other people's windows in the evening.

237 replies

LEMmingaround · 15/10/2014 11:13

I do this when i walk to and from my little cleaning job. It makes me feel all warm inside!

Doesn't matter what people are doing, what they have on display etc, its better when they have lamps rather than lights and i love to see families sat with their dinners on their laps or kids playing on the floor in front of the fire. Or single folk sat with their lap-top and Wine or Brew.

I'm not being nosey, it just makes me feel nice

I'm a weirdo aren't i??? Blush

OP posts:
catzpyjamas · 16/10/2014 21:42

OP, sorry if someone already mentioned this and I missed it but I think you would like these paintings by Avril Paton: www.avrilpaton.co.uk
I can look at them for hours and it saves the need to go out in the cold!

Comito · 16/10/2014 21:56

But don't you all feel a bit odd staring in people's windows? After reading this thread I tried on the way home but I literally couldn't. If I saw a window with curtains open and lights on I'd glance but then my gaze would just skate away and I couldn't bring myself to stare in in case someone saw. I dunno, it just felt wrong.

Original poster
LEMmingaround · 16/10/2014 22:03

I wonder if leaving a lamp on, not the big light obviously, leaving the curtains open could be given as a sign of being a mnetter. The peeper can wear a mnet scarf (although i don't know what that is)

OP posts:
jezzapaxmanslovechild · 16/10/2014 22:03

Catz - that's a lovely picture!
I was at an art gallery in leeds about 5 years ago and there was this brilliant picture of a block of flats at night time with various things happening in different windows as you were looking down onto it. I loved that picture and often wish Id bought it...

Aherdofmims · 16/10/2014 22:10

Are you my mum? She adores this too!

(don't think you are because her complaint is there aren't enough houses where she lives!)

CalamityGem · 16/10/2014 22:12

Oddly enough, my experience was in Glasgow's west end too. Great for snooping!

BriarRainbowshimmer · 16/10/2014 22:13

I'm looking forward to Christmas. It's so nice when people make extra effort to decorate the outside of their houses.

CheeseAndBeans · 16/10/2014 22:16

I do this too! Love seeing into people's homes. We live in flats, and I love seeing how other people have done things!
This also reminds me of when I was a kid, doing my weekly paper round after school, used to be lovely seeing all the families sitting down with dinner, watching neighbours. Did make me jealous during the wet dark evenings though!

Momagain1 · 16/10/2014 22:17

No one is advocating stopping and staring, just looking as you go by. Most windows are above or below eye level, so you can only see a glimpse of the near end of the room.

I do keep eyes front when on the sort of street with windows right at the sidewalk and at a height you could stop and have a chat. I would feel very stressed in such a spot where everyone could look right in at close quarters, so I avoid even glancing.

But if there is a bit of distance and elevation, I look.

Last place I lived in California, about a third of the houses were designed with a big patio door onto a covered dining porch at the front of the house, including ours. Most of us didnt bother with any covering. Curtains or vertical blinds were kind of in the way of the inside dining area, and there wasnt room to fully open them, so it was like having a wall and door if you did. Amazing how different the exact same room and cabinetry could look with different paint and treatment of the small window on the other side! (Had we stayed, our long term plan was to close in the dining porch to move the indoor dining space, slide the kitchen frontward, and put the darn patio doors into the back garden, where such things SHOULD be. )

tiredvommachine · 16/10/2014 22:21

Lovely thread Smile

ClapHandsIfYouBelieveInFatties · 16/10/2014 22:25

Briar Oh yes....I love that. There's a street near my house with beautiful big Victorian houses...I love walking down there at dusk and seeing all the Christmas fairy lights in the windows.

FlappertyFlippers · 16/10/2014 22:33

I am Dutch and would highly recommend a mumsnet trip to walk through some residential streets in Holland! Lots of beautiful interiors lit up without curtains for the curiously minded passerby.

The house we live in now (in the UK) has the kitchen at the front. I seem to be the only one on my street where never shuts the blinds in there. dh has admitted he'd prefer them shut when it's dark outside, but then I'd loose my motivation for keeping the kitchen sparkly clean and tidy

Plateofcrumbs · 16/10/2014 22:54

I love my train commute home in London in winter, when you can see into the homes of people whose houses back on to the railway lines - people in their kitchens getting meals ready, talking to the kids etc.

I have a real aversion to curtains, we have none at all in our living room, so everyone gets to stare in at us, doesn't bother me - I like looking at people passing by. Am on maternity leave at the moment and am getting used to the rhythms of daytime life in our neighbourhood - the same people passing by each day.

Glad to read that in Holland people tend not to draw curtains, I will tell others I am following Dutch tradition!

Cake4me · 16/10/2014 23:11

It's potentially dangerous. Walking to tube with DH one winter morning (this was pre-kids when we had time for such niceties), we got to super-expensive road and he was so busy eye-balling lovely front rooms with the trees and decorations, he walked into one of those skinny grey signposts. 10 years ago but still a funny memory....

helpmekeepstrong · 16/10/2014 23:40

1965 - 1970 driving to granny's. No M25, North circ, and street after street of Christmas trees in windows. Heaven.... sigh.

helpmekeepstrong · 16/10/2014 23:43

ooooh! I forgot to mention the Lucozade bottle-sign (nothing to do with Christmas) and in later years the trees on the top of the Gillette building.... Father Christmas was on his way.

StrawberryCheese · 16/10/2014 23:48

I love doing this on my walk home from work because I have to go through quite a posh bit and they always have really lovely kitchens with an island. Once you get closer to my side of town it is wise to not look in the windows, otherwise you may see a completely naked man stood watching the tv whilst eating a piece of toast!

DadDadDad · 17/10/2014 00:02

Well, there's no rule that says that I have to sit down to eat toast!

cerealqueen · 17/10/2014 00:26

I always think of Rear Window, love watching James Stewart( is it? ) watching the world through the windows of his neighbours.

Edward Hopper pictures are good for that too.

jellyboatsandpirates · 17/10/2014 00:37

I do this. There;s something lovely about seeing people curled up on the sofa with fires blazing, or throws over the laps.
If you don't want nosey cows like myself gawping in on their second long walk past your house on a night, that's why the inventor of the curtains and the blinds invented what they did! Smile

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 17/10/2014 00:39

That's a really sweet thing to do, ClapHands.

amicissimma -- I love that Bryson quote. Always makes me feel a bit teary.

Is it weird that when I go to my parents' house if I have to go outside to do a chore after dark, I'll often spend a few minutes in the garden just looking at the cosily lit up house? It makes me feel so happy to see the glowing windows, maybe catch a glimpse of my dad stirring something on the stove or my mum putting the kettle on.

jellyboatsandpirates · 17/10/2014 00:39

But don't you all feel a bit odd staring in people's windows? After reading this thread I tried on the way home but I literally couldn't. If I saw a window with curtains open and lights on I'd glance but then my gaze would just skate away and I couldn't bring myself to stare in in case someone saw. I dunno, it just felt wrong.

If you're walking past though it's literally seconds and then you're gone! Unless you're dawdling and gawping with a rubber neck. Grin
Then you might look a bit conspicuous and daft!

HappyHomebird · 17/10/2014 00:45

Since I was a child peeping into houses as I walk past has been a favourite little treat for me. At Halloween and Christmas we make a point of going out specifically to do this. I have even taken a sneaky little picture of lovely Christmas trees in the windows.

On autumn evenings I actually get a real pleasure from making the front room pleasant to look at for passers by with tealights and lanterns - I take pride in it.

Chumhum · 17/10/2014 00:47

We live on the edge of a suburban village only about 300 yards from the shops so get lots of people going past and buses idling during rush hour. I hadn't notic how many people were peaking in until recently when I poped out myself at night. As ours is a raised ground floor you can only see in from waist height so if you're lounging on the sofa you can't be seen so I often forget to close the blinds. It does look so cosy from outside and especially lovely when the dog looks out of the window at the passers by.

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 17/10/2014 00:53

If I come in and it's only just dark I'll usually leave the curtains open for a few minutes, especially if it looks cosy or I'm doing something domestic like folding clothes. I like the idea of spreading the cosiness Blush

Swipe left for the next trending thread