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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be pissed off with neighbour mowing grass today

333 replies

BarefootMe · 06/05/2018 18:52

I will probably be shot down for this. First really sunny day for months when we could enjoy our garden. We have grass and were sitting out for first time this year, enjoying late breakfast and the papers - utter bliss. Then next door neighbour started his very noisy ride-on mower. Their garden is much bigger than hours and it took nearly an hour of noise, petrol fumes etc. Then a peaceful break, and just relaxing again this afternoon when he started up again, and then produced another mower for the edges - more noise, more fumes.
For context we have had a really difficult time since last summer, very stressful and this was literally the first day we could really let go and relax without pressures to think about. Neighbour does not know that, but I am annoyed because it is inconsiderate. He works from home a lot of the time, and could have done this on a weekday. Very old fashioned probably, but I was brought up not to create any disturbance on a Sunday which was regarded as a day or rest when your neighbours deserved peace and quiet. For that reason, I never use a mower on a Sunday, or do other noisy building work, etc. Just needed to express my annoyance and regret at the return of tension so soon.

OP posts:
quizqueen · 07/05/2018 00:43

Why did you choose to live next door to a house with a garden lawn so large it requires the owner to use a sit on motor if you don't like to hear a mower being used to cut the lawn?

Abra1de · 07/05/2018 00:48

I hate music blaring out during the day. Chores have to be done, but why does everyone have to listen to your music?

salsmum · 07/05/2018 01:29

I'm wondering how noise tolerant we are in the u.k.? Because we only have rare lovely sunny days mostly where we can get in the garden after being 'indoors' for most of the day do we actually become less tolerant of ordinary garden noises? I work nights as a Carer from Friday through to Tuesday morning so therefor have to sleep in the day but aside from the neighbours son opposite who is always in and out several times a day with one of those open exhausts in his car (that sounds like a jet) and folks that light smoky bonfires half way through the day when I've just put washing out, I realise that although IM trying to sleep life goes on and folks are just enjoying their gardens and keeping them nice (mowing lawns) just as I would...if I didn't work nights...live and let live I say.

BoomBoomsCousin · 07/05/2018 02:06

It seems the whole concept of respecting your neighbours' peace and quiet on a Sunday has gone down the drain.

I don't know about down the drain, but certainly, we are a more diverse country and Sunday is not the stultifying day it used to be.

I would find it annoying if my neighbour decided to mow the grass the one nice day I had available to me to sit outside, but it's not an unreasonable thing for him to do and the "But it's Sunday" cry is at least 3 decades too late.

FluffyPineapple · 07/05/2018 02:07

I have had to listen to next doors kids screeching and whining all weekend as they "played" in their paddling pool. The sound of a lawnmower pales in comparison.

LakieLady · 07/05/2018 05:12

Last night, we had about 12 people here for a BBQ on the patio and he strimmed then used a mulcher. He has zero awareness of others

Sure it wasn't retaliation for barbecue noise and smells?

DasPepe · 07/05/2018 05:24

We’re currently in Germany where you are not allowed to do jobs like these on Sundays. Also drilling etc Also shops don’t open and only special permit lorries are allowed on motorways, so that there is less traffic.
It makes Saturdays horrendous sometimes but I did enjoy a quiet Sunday yesterday and could hear the birds sing all day.

LakieLady · 07/05/2018 05:42

Today we had about 20 mins when it sounded like we lived in the middle of Brands Hatch with what must have been a massive group of bikers steaming up the main road on their way to the coast.

Are you in East Sussex, by any chance? Near the A21? There's a big bike meet in Hastings on the first May bank holiday every year.

Sorry about your diagnosis too. Flowers

LakieLady · 07/05/2018 05:55

I’m unsure why people have to wait until the prime time when people will be having lunches outside etc to do their noisy garden work.

My front garden gets the sun early, so is usually dry enough to cut by 9.30 or so. The I’m unsure why people have to wait until the prime time when people will be having lunches outside etc to do their noisy garden work. The top part of the back garden gets the sun from about 9 and is usually dry enough by about 10, but the part nearest the house doesn't get the sun till an hour or so later. If we start doing the top bit at 10, by the time we've done all the edges and raked up it's getting on for lunch time.

We were out seeing MIL yesterday, so still have the front grass and half the back to do today, plus half the back hedge and loads of pruning. If we can get hold of DSS and borrow his chipper (he's a tree surgeon, so his chipper is the dog's bollocks!), we'll be doing that, too. If anyone has a problem with it, it's kind of tough really. We spent most of Saturday pruning and cutting back the front, which had got really overgrown, and half the back hedge, and we're both at work for the rest of the week.

lovesugarfreejelly63 · 07/05/2018 06:15

My neighbour on sunny days has a bbq all day long, every day if possible, the air is filled with smell of sausages, onions, other bbq bits and it coincides just as I am hanging out washing, then on the other hand when my grandchildren come around and playing in my garden, they are boisterous, tit for tat really, live and let live.

trixymalixy · 07/05/2018 06:19

YABVU

seventh · 07/05/2018 06:31

Neighbours' noise really pisses me off

But if I want to avoid it, I need to move to a place where there are no neighbours

So yes. YABVU

cricketballs3 · 07/05/2018 06:44

We spent Saturday strumming, pruning etc as the grass wasn't dry enough to mow. When we mowed yesterday it sounded like everyone else had done the same as us as there was a choir of mowers Grin

ChiefSuspect · 07/05/2018 09:32

It seems the whole concept of respecting your neighbours' peace and quiet on a Sunday has gone down the drain.

So the crux of this is that it was done on a Sunday?

By all means rest on a Sunday if that's what your religious beliefs suggest you do, but please don't expect other people to pander to your religious beliefs. Why should you impose your beliefs on everyone else?

I remember when swings used to be chained up in play parks on a Sunday for the same reason. Thank goodness most of society has moved on.

NorthernKnickers · 07/05/2018 09:33

Seriously? 🙄

Parker231 · 07/05/2018 10:45

Do people still do ‘peace and quiet ‘ on a Sunday?

NorthernKnickers · 07/05/2018 11:16

OP does obvious 😂...I spend it rushing around like a fucking lunatic trying to do all the things I can't do on any other day, because I'm, you know, working! Also, clearly getting judged by the OP for mowing my lawn...because yesterday I was visiting a sick relative 200 miles away and Mon-Fri it was pissing down here for the majority of the week...even if I'd had time, which I don't, as stated previously, I work (75 hours this week!!)

Today, it's a bank holiday...I'm at home, writing reports! Have been since 7.30 this morning. I hope others are enjoying the sun: I'd LOVE to hear them mowing their lawns as it would mean I can live vicariously through them, and believe that there still is life outside 'little Johnny is a VERY lively member of the class, with a strong sense of injustice!' (Can't shut up and is handy with his fists!)

Because, you know, MY needs and wants do NOT trump theirs...unlike the OP's 🙄🤷‍♀️

NorthernKnickers · 07/05/2018 11:17

'Obviously'

Tanith · 07/05/2018 11:20

“ It seems the whole concept of respecting your neighbours' peace and quiet on a Sunday has gone down the drain.

Yes, about 50 years ago.”

30 years ago. That’s when the Keep Sunday Special campaign was against the shops opening on a Sunday.
They said that Sunday would just become another Saturday and shop workers and leisure workers would lose their day off.

You have the likes of B&Q and Asda to thank for Sundays as they are.

Bunchofdaffodils · 07/05/2018 11:30

Storminateapot Thankyou for your beautiful perspective xx

IronMansIronButt · 07/05/2018 12:04

It seems the whole concept of respecting your neighbours' peace and quiet on a Sunday has gone down the drain

No, it seems the whole concept of not thinking youre the centre of the universe, and having some respect for your neighbours doing their own things has gone down the drain.

People mow lawns on sunny afternoons, they always have done so,.

SoupDragon · 07/05/2018 12:08

You have the likes of B&Q and Asda to thank for Sundays as they are.

Will they come and mow my lawn on a Sunday then? Awesome!

DamsonOnThisDress · 07/05/2018 12:15

I love hearing lawn mowers on nice days. Makes me smile. Like a triumphant choral soundtrack marking the end of the bast@rd rain for 10 minutes.

FrancisCrawford · 07/05/2018 12:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tanith · 07/05/2018 12:25

“Will they come and mow my lawn on a Sunday then? Awesome!”

Doubt it! Their motivation was to get their shops open legally (some were opening illegally) and force their workers to work on Sundays and bank holidays without paying the double and triple time wages they used to have to pay.

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