To have a fag in my garden if I want to?

[WomanInChains]

I only smoke in my garden, never in the street or anywhere else. A footpath runs along the side of it adjoining a woodland area. Footpath is a short cut to supermarket, doctors, hairdressers. I smoke in the alleyway at the side of my garden which runs adjacent with the footpath.

I am getting sick of random people making loud comments when they pass by my fence like 'that stink is disgusting, ohh someone's smoking eurgghh' and etc.

WIBU to shout over to the next person to fuck off away from my fence if it bothers them rather than pausing and making comments?

somebody having a fag in the open air isn't going to do any harm. What do you think Is In exhaust fumes? Get a grip.

Classic "Look over there" non-argument. The fact that you can point to something else that causes damage to help very obviously does not prove that cigarette smoke is harmless.

Take that grip right back.

I have to live with a similar issue. I don’t smoke but my neighbours do. They smoke oitsode by their back door. This means it comes in my house and when I want to stand in my back yard all I can smell is smoke and when I hang my washing out it makes me even crosser. It is very ironic that people don’t want their house to smell but they’re happy to make other people inhale the smell. I’m also guessing round here it’s a rental rule that houses are non smoking as all the smoking neighbours I’ve had smoking outside are all renters. We love in a terrace so there’s no getting away with it.
AIBU to want to bring in my washing smelling fresh and not of cigarette smoke?
AIBU to want to sit in my yard or have my children be able to play in the back yard without inhaling second hand smoke.
By the way, I own and have been there longer than all od these neighbours and have no choice whether I stay or not as my house is in negative equity so would move if I could afford to!

Oh and I’ve never really made it an issue with my neighbours. I try to ignore it. Kids are less tactful and may mention it. It’s an improvement on the weed we could constantly smell outside and inside when we had a weed smoking neighbour and a cannabis growing neighbour (was arrested that one and no longer there).
Old window frames don’t seal out smoke or noise on a terrace!! Waiting on my lottery win!!

Smoke in your house then. Or does the smell bother you?

It’s your garden! Tell the miserable twats to fuck off.

I am very much of the opinion that people should be free to do what they like on their own property as long as what they are doing is legal. For many people, smoking is completely unacceptable in any circumstances. Unfortunately smokers are totally unaware of the smell of their smoke and how it affects other people. There is a smoker who works in one of our local shops and I have seen people refuse to go to her checkout because she absolutely reeks of cigarette smoke. A friend of mine who was undergoing chemotherapy was in a bus queue and started throwing up when a woman in the queue lit a cigarette. The friend who was with her asked the smoker to either stub her cigarette out or move away, all she got was a load of abuse from the smoker, who was totally unconcerned about her friend.

Had a family next door and both the adults smoked in the garden (rented house). Couldnt open my window at the side or back of house without the smoke and smell wafting into my bedrooms. Absolutely horribly. Complained to the landlord, family moved. There are laws about smoking on communal areas in housing, they need to be extended to any nuisance caused by smoking. It's antisocial, unhealthy, smelly, expensive. Why do smokers avoid smoking in their home, because they know how awful it is.YANBU, you are being stupid to smoke indoors or outdoors.

celticprincess apt name BTW. Your washing really smells of smoke from a cigarette across your garden from a neighbour? Your children are not inhaling anything unless they're standing right next to the smoker while outside. Ridiculous hysteria!

I smoke outside so it dissipates in the open air Manic. I can guarantee you my single cigarette is not harming anyone but myself. You sound like a loon complaining to your neighbours landlord that they are perfectly legally smoking in their garden. What you have done if they owned the property? What response did you get exactly? Unless they were standing right outside your open windows, I doubt smoke was coming in .

So basically you got your neighbours evicted because you didn’t like them smoking in the garden?

Leontine

So basically you got your neighbours evicted because you didn’t like them smoking in the garden?

Did you read the post? Constant smoking by her bank and side windows so that she couldn’t open her window for the smell of smoke. Sounds pretty grim to me.

celticprincess apt name BTW. Your washing really smells of smoke from a cigarette across your garden from a neighbour? Your children are not inhaling anything unless they're standing right next to the smoker while outside. Ridiculous hysteria!

I'm obviously not celticprincess, but I can absolutely believe this. I don't think smokers realise how much cigarette smoke clings to clothes, it absolutely stinks even if you don't think it does.
If the next door garden is close by like here, it could easily make washing stink.

No matter how "grim", they were doing something entirely legal. I'd be ashamed to admit something like that.

Lots of behaviour is legal but grim.

And if they were moved on by the council on the grounds of their actions then surely it was deemed sufficiently grim to warrant that action by a completely o jevtice tjird party.

I used to enjoy smoking, but these days vape now and then

If you can't enjoy a cigarette in your own garden without people making rude comments, what has become of people?

It's a harmful habit that stinks. YABU for paying to damage yourself and also for expecting other people to accept your stink.

If the smoke dissipated so well, how would the people in the alley know to make comments?

Because it doesn't. Your argument can't be that it doesn't affect other people. It has to be that you don't care (and as justification you can add that it is legal).

And not just one or two people
This is obviously a fairly regular occurrence from random unconnected people.

@rainbowsandsmiles thank you for your support.

@womaninchains you know nothing about me. The neighbour I refer to literally stands next to my children smoking her cigarette when she is smoking at her door. Tiny back yards, low thin fence to separate that’s all. But like I say I’ve never made comment or brought it up. And yes my washing does often smell of the smoke. Her washing smells even worse as she must over compensate with super straight smelling washing powder or conditioner, mixed in with smoking smell. Having grown up with a chain smoking grandparent it’s a smell with memories attached. And the smoke is coming at my washing from back yards both sides of mine!! Several of the neighbours congregate and chat over the fences with their cigarettes too so often doesn’t dissipate.

When I was a smoker I truely did not realise how much the smell lingers, and how horrible it can be
When it goes stale that’s the worst. It’s not like it smells of shit. And BBQ smoke does permeate but there is something about that type of smoke that isn’t as foul smelling. Bonfires all smell different. Some can smell horrible and some actually not so bad depending on what is burning

Essentially the smell of smoke depends on what you burn. And there is something in cigarettes - even particular brands (cheaper smell worse) that really really smells awful, lingers and smells stale and horrible

I think people are in denial about it, which is a shame but it’s part of the addiction

My washing also smells of smoke if people smoke over it. If the window is open the curtains and the house smell of smoke for several hours. When I smoked I made the house smell when I came indoors. I just didn’t realise how much

I wish my neighbours smoked cigarettes instead of inflicting us with the rancid smells from their barbeques. As soon as there's a decent day they're out there with whatever vile-smelling shite is on the menu along with the loud, shrieking gc and assorted relatives with their equally revolting dogs
Would be nice to have a bit of warning so I can get my washing in before the hideous smell sets in.
Give me a nice considerate smoker any day over the wankers that inflict their bbq stink on us.

Oh yes the BBQs!! I ranted on FB last summer about my washing needing a rewatch after neighbours got BBQ out!! I don’t BBQ as I don’t have one or space for one. I’ve managed to time my wash load better this year. 😂😂

No matter how "grim", they were doing something entirely legal. I'd be ashamed to admit something like that

i never understand how, on MN, people think that absolutely anything goes so long as it isn't actually illegal. The concept that behaviour could be legal but could also be totally inconsiderate and unpleasant seems to pass them by.

I can guarantee you my single cigarette is not harming anyone but myself

Well if that were that case, passive smoking and all the problems it creates wouldn’t exist now, would they?! But they do. So your “guarantee” is worthless.

I probably do similar without even thinking. I walk down an alleyway that has houses on one side and a school on the other and leads to fields. The fences of the gardens are all solid so I can't see anyone on the other side and I'm pretty sure if I could smell something I might say something "oooh can you smell that bbq?" "Urgh it stinks of fags down here". It's not meant to be offensive or anything, just noting a smell. I might say smoking is gross too. If they're telling you to put your far out then that's out of order, otherwise it's not really any different to a passing comment is it?

You can smoke in your own garden. I am very much a believer in individual freedom and choice. When smoking goes the authoritarians will start on drinking and then making everyone a vegan and so on. They need to be resisted firmly.

But I saw the misery when a friend’s smoker husband died prematurely from lung cancer and I would urge you to try to give it up.