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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to ask the neighbours to open the curtains?

434 replies

cocostrawberry · 21/01/2015 14:41

A youngish couple with no children bought a house on our estate about a year ago. They don't get involved with any of the activities such as the summer bbq and basically seem to isolate themselves from the rest of us, their loss. However my main bug is that they NEVER have the living room curtains open and quite often leave the other ones shut also, today every single one of them are shut and I know they are home.

I've hinted a couple of times that it would be best for them to leave them open, the girl mumbled something about a projector and watching films, but they can't be watching films all the time.

AIBU to just point blank ask them to open the curtains during the day, it really depresses me to look across to their house with all the curtains closed, it doesn't look inviting and it looks odd compared to the rest of the estate, we all manage to open their curtains everyday, so why can't they? My DH thinks I'm BU and should just leave them to it but I think when it effects other people I have a right to say something?

OP posts:
Jessicahyde85 · 22/01/2015 10:25

I open my curtains at 6am every morning.... I don't look at my neighbours house to see what their windows are up to... YABU!!

LoisDrankMyTableDecoration · 22/01/2015 10:28

Curtain closers ASSEMBLE!

lexi86 · 22/01/2015 10:31

oh no, we are a mid 20's couple who moved onto an estate almost a year ago after buying our first house and sadly do not open the front curtains as we both leave the house at 7am and do not return until about 6pm - at the time of the year do not open our curtains/blinds. i have never realised before how much of an impact this must be having on my poor neighbours who clearly do not leave the house during work hours and have nothing better to do with their life of luxury than look at my curtains and wonder what is going on behind them.

please op accept my vast apologies for the detrimental effect that my 40 hour working week lifestyle must be having on your housewife life!

btw - you, and those who agree with you are being so unreasonable and i cannot fathom how you do not understand this!

fairnotfit · 22/01/2015 10:33

This thread is brilliant.

I'm off to fiddle with all the blinds at all the windows, so they're all at different levels.

Somewhere in our cul-de-sac, somebody's head will probably explode.

Idontseeanysontarans · 22/01/2015 10:54

I have deliberately not opened the playroom curtains properly on one side, just to see if the curtain twitchers are watching and Mumsnetting.
See, I have a playroom. That's posh that is...Wink

Phalenopsis · 22/01/2015 10:54

My neighbours have one side of the curtains open right now.

What on earth does that mean?!

cozietoesie · 22/01/2015 11:03

You're too young for that knowledge, Phalenopsis.

Phalenopsis · 22/01/2015 11:07

Now they've closed that side and opened the other! It's semaphore for something.

I'm so glad I've read this thread. I must have made so many drapery faux pas in the past. Blush

Lweji · 22/01/2015 11:22

Could it be that they are watching tv or working at the computer and are blocking the sunlight? Just a thought.

CurlyWurlyCake · 22/01/2015 11:29

I can't remember if the upstairs blinds are open.

I feel like trash Sad

Staywithme · 22/01/2015 11:49

You're too young for that knowledge, Phalenopsis.

Hahaha Grin

cozietoesie · 22/01/2015 11:49

Good grief, woman - it's past sunrise and you haven't checked?

Frusso · 22/01/2015 11:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

HolyTerror · 22/01/2015 12:08

This reminds me about the stories my mother used to tell about her neighbours in very, very rural Ireland in the 1950s. It was a small place, gossip was rife, and there was a lot of bosom-hoiking and head wagging about anyone perceived to be lazy. A household's laziness was judged on how early or late smoke rose from the chimney in the morning, showing that someone at least was up and about the day's work.

But there were rumours that a certain household used to stick a bit of a greenish furze bush into the grate and set light to it in the early morning, leaving it to smoulder smokily, AND put a bicycle outside the front door, while the inhabitants sneakily went back to bed, claiming later that they had been up and about before anyone else's smoke was showing.

They would have been onto the closed curtains as fast as they would have been onto lack of mass attendance. But this was in about 1952, ten miles from the nearest small town,, before rural electrification, TV or the invention of recreational sex.

Hatespiders · 22/01/2015 13:15

Frusso you're definitely common bastards. I bet you don't attend the sociable barbecues either? Disgusting.

I'd give anything to know what the half-a-curtain means! 'Orgy tonight'?
'Milkman please ring and enter'? 'I'm at it, please do not disturb'?

I hardly dare confess, but ...er...I am actually on our village social committee. (This is true.)
We planned and put on a superb Jubilee Celebration. With a dog show, fancy dress parade and...barbecue. And everyone came.
But of course, we banned those whose curtains are never opened.)

ToffeeCaramel · 22/01/2015 13:20

At least with the curtains closed this can't happen.

Number3cometome · 22/01/2015 13:23

I don't open my curtains in my front room during the day because a) I am at work and don't want potential burglars seeing what I have on offer and b) because I cannot be fucked to think about curtains when leaving the house at 6am in the morning!

YABU leave the poor buggers alone, they are leaving curtains open not being antisocial!

cozietoesie · 22/01/2015 13:37

.....But of course, we banned those whose curtains are never opened.....

Well Quite! It would never do.

Girlwhowearsglasses · 22/01/2015 13:48

When we moved into our house there were net curtains on every single window front and back. Even in the sun room/conservatory. I found it creepy. You actually couldn't see out never mind in.

foreverdepressed · 22/01/2015 14:06

17 pages of entertainment. A classic thread surely?

CompetitiveCrispEater · 22/01/2015 15:54

Another one piling in here to see if the OP was about me. No nets though, and no one has asked me about it.

Mine stay closed because:
-I'm lazy
-keeps the heat in
-don't want to look out at the mouthbreathers who live round here
-I'm not interested in curtains
-me and my husband have sex in various rooms
-I like the fact it might annoy people in my street who sound a lot like the OP vacuous, nothing to do with their lives, in everyone's business

Feel like getting curtains for my car now, and keeping them shut too.

Number3cometome · 22/01/2015 16:00

CompetitiveCrispEater

Oh yes the sex on the front room floor thing, I forgot to add that on to my list too.

I don't care if the neighbours see me, I just think they may get a bit jealous ;)

EBearhug · 22/01/2015 16:22

My opposite neighbours usually have their curtains shut. They're drug dealers (I live in all the best places.)

I sometimes have my curtains shut during the day. Sometimes, it's because I'm away. Sometimes, it's because I was on-call or doing out-of-hours work and I'm catching up on sleep . Sometimes it's laziness and I just haven't got round to opening them yet. I don't care if it bothers the neighbours.

wowfudge · 22/01/2015 16:32

I've got to pile in here after all these pages - I care not a jot about anyone else's window coverings, but I would feel I had forgotten to do something if I didn't open the curtains in the morning.

Actually I've got slovenly about the dining room ones and can't be arsed to close them at night as they are at the back of the house. Those particular curtains stay closed during the day from April to August as it's a huge window and the sunlight steaming in makes the room boiling hot.

Lweji · 22/01/2015 16:37

That's not counting the ones with nets and you can't tell.

Which is why it's surprising that the OP knows that her (his?) neighbours have their curtains closed.