My first CF thread 😱

[Donotunderstandmyhouse]

Hi all!

I've read lots about cfers on here but now I think I actually have one?! Or maybe the heat and being 7 months pregnant is making me go mad ....

Anyway! Just had garden done last weekend so I'm enjoying it lots now it's hot :-) ddog is also enjoying the new sprinkler! Today we planned on having a bbq at about 3/4 with some family members coming round. Dh was just outside setting it all up (getting bbq out cleaning it etc).

Ndn (who I know enough to say hi to/take parcels in but that's about it) has just messaged me on fb to ask if we are having a bbq. I assumed she was asking because of washing or something so I said yes at about 3. She then replied asking if she could use it too as there garden is a state and they have no bbq? I said they were welcome to join us if she liked (they have always seemed nice and I'm up for making new friends!). Anyway she didn't respond at first but now she's messaged saying no thank you they are going to an Easter egg hunt later but if they could use it before they go at about 2 that would be great????

What on Earth?! I've just replied saying I don't think that will work for us (fave mumsnet phrase!) 😂 but Aibu to think she's a cf? Or am I just not being neighbourly?

[PutyourtoponTrevor]

But they don't want to just borrow the bbq, they want to use it in OPs garden

[Donotunderstandmyhouse]

@SaltedCaramelEverything haha oh dear imagine! I'm laughing now but maybe I'm setting myself up for a busy summer😂

@FaithInfinity I actually think they want to use our garden not just our bbq as dh has just said her husband was saying how it must be nice to be able to sit in the garden 🧐 I don't understand if they are the type of people who like to sit outdoors etc why they have made theirs into an allotment style rather than putting a little patio or something! Anyway if they turn out to be nice I have no qualms about having them over :-) we have a little slide and sandpit for when my nephews come and they have a toddler so happy for someone to make use :-) as long as we are there of course 😂

[Charley50]

Be careful OP - it starts with a barbecue, then your garden, then your whole life! 😱 Maybe you need to lure her to the skylight and put an end to this before it gets messy.

[Booskina]

Thanks for the laugh OP 🤣

[Donotunderstandmyhouse]

@Charley50 😂😂😂😂😂😂 I'm actually thinking maybe I need to have the skylight permanently filled in before baby comes... i mean what if she scales the seven foot of wall and ends up on the roof?! It's a real concern with these hazardous features!

Right anyway I have been chastised for being on my phone for the last hour by dh and now must go set up for my guests (dull!). I will update you all if she turns up :-)

Thank you for the laughs everyone :-)

[SaltedCaramelEverything]

Actually I’ve just remembered how my mum made one of her (still) closest friends. When we went on holiday, she gave our side gate key to a family a few doors down whose garden was a building site so they could use ours with the kids while we were away. They hugely appreciated it.

However I guess the difference is my mum offered, unlike this CF doing the asking!

[SchadenfreudePersonified]

I have got lots of wedding champagne left that we were going to open tonight (toasting ds new job) so I could make sure that's all drank before they arrive and then leave the bottles out while serving them my very finest blue wkd and dhs disgusting larger?

Excellent idea

Even better to let them see that they could have been sipping Premier Krug.

Blue WKD - I'd forgotten that stuff even existed! It's bloody awful, even by the standard of ancho-ops. One sip of that, about 15 years ago was enough to make me determined never to touch "kids' drinks" again, no matter how desperate I was for booze.

[WordsFailMeAgain]

Just to add my neighbourly CFery (although I am enjoying this thread!) I treated myself to a nice electric hedge trimmer last week and NDN saw it being delivered and commented that they will have to borrow it now they know I’ve got it!

Saved up for that for weeks and haven’t even used it myself! I replied that I had just ordered it for my mum as she wasn’t home to take delivery!

[YoThePussy]

OP, I sense you have a potential Zilla on your hands. Bbqzilla anyone?

[MrsMozartMkII]

We await with baited wotsit!

Enjoy your barbie lass. Fingers crossed there's no CF-ery later when you're wanting to chill.

[Donotunderstandmyhouse]

Came to the loo to check if any more comments...I am not disappointed.

@WordsFailMeAgain ooo could I also borrow? We have a bush at the end of the garden that could do with a good trim!

@SchadenfreudePersonified thank you :-) I have already got out the moet ! It's been so long since I've had alcohol (didn't drink while trying) I think I'd accept anything atm!!



I'm addicted to this thread and dh is definitely on to me. Slightly concerned that what I am classing as my five minutes of fame has gone to my head. I'm hiding in the downstairs toilet to read these and dh is knocking on the door telling me he knows I'm on here 😱😂

[Stefoscope]

Haha, maybe she'll ask you to sort her garden for her next .

WordsFailMe - how kind of her. Although I'd take that over my CF neighbour who once took a parcel in for me, but rather than making sure I got it, decided to open the contents and use it herself. When my DP saw the evidence of this in their garden and asked them about it they tried to tell us the parcel didn't have our address or a return address on it!

[WordsFailMeAgain]

@Donotunderstandmyhouse of course you can borrow it! You’ll obviously have to wait your turn though cos clearly there is a queue

I wouldn’t mind as much but we don’t really get on that well and also it’s their border so the hedge is theirs anyway, but they never cut the bloody thing so I always end up doing it ...

Off to live on an island.

[WordsFailMeAgain]

@Stefoscope that is just illegal!! Although the hedge cutter neighbours of mine have been caught on cctv pinching a parcel from another neighbour’s green bin once, so I’m honoured they bothered to ask first

[CherieBabySpliffUp]

Not going to lie, just posting so I remember to come back for the update

[SnowyAlpsandPeaks]

Watch you will come home one day in the summer and they will be having a party with friends in your garden now.........

[HJWT]

This thread is hilarious 😂😂

[OffToBedhampton]

This is absolutely hilarious!! @Donotunderstandmyhouse

Great to make new friends of NDN as long as

1. No agreeing they can use your garden and come over to play all the time (leaving you with cost of snacks and supervisory/clean up duties which with toddlers is hectic!) . For every play date at yours, equal playdates inside her house! Or no deal!!

2 No offers to them to use your garden or BBQ when you aren't using it! It takes ages to cool down and clean, so using it 2 hours before you need it, or even day after, is a big fat no!

[ItsAGo]

Wow, they are clearly going to start using your garden when you are out.
I had a neighbour moved in who commented that our front garden would be good to put a bench on so she could sit and drink her morning coffee in the sun and the kids could play out there. Reader we fenced on our garden the next month to keep them out and told her it had already been booked in 😂

[RuggerHug]

Was it the BBQ or the shed that started off the Mexican house thief....

[SchadenfreudePersonified]

Reading about this CFs is good for me.

It makes me grateful for my NDN, who in 34 years hasn't cut a hedge, tidied a garden or put a coat of paint on her windows (I don't know how they stay in, they're so rotten), but who at the same time will also take in parcels for us (and not ope, steal or destroy them), never complains about the Schadendogs having their occasional canine "song for Europe", doesn't make a lot of noise, and on one occasion stopped one of our rabbits from getting lost!*

*We'd been out for the day, and came back to her and her two kids in the street surrounding to bunny. They'd apparently been there for an hour or so, having noticed he'd escaped his hutch and the garden, but been unable to catch him. They didn't want to leave him to get lost or run over.

While I am in daily dread hat the house will collapse from neglect and bring ours down with it, I am desperately grateful that they are so kind (as well as lazy)!

[RosamundDarnley]

we have a little slide and sandpit for when my nephews come and they have a toddler so happy for someone to make use :-) as long as we are there of course

You laugh... But there was a thread where NDN were using the garden & garden toys without knowledge or permission when owners were out. One day Owner’s ds was asked to install a lock in the gate so duly trundled up with earphones in listening to music, installed said lock and went off for the day unknowingly locking ndn & children into garden.

Cue kerfuffle.

Threads probably in classics.

[Oldbutstillgotit]

Exh and I arrived home early one day and our NDN was relaxing on one of our loungers in our garden . She wasn’t the slightest bit embarrassed, said our garden was much nicer than hers and she didn’t have a lounger !

[OffToBedhampton]

@Oldbutstillgotit

What did you say? Has she done it again??? That's CFery at it's top level!

[OffToBedhampton]

I've always been happy to have back of house NDN over in our garden. We had a trampoline. And as long as we were out with them they were allowed to pop over and play. Then my DS and their NDNDS used to walk home together so no probs with him nipping through our garden to call on DS or when saying bye (as that's a massive shortcut on route to school). However I drew the line at NDN DS walking through with his mates each day without calling for DS (as they had different groups by then) and all his mates trailing through our garden on way home stopping to bounce and chill out on our trampoline for the afternoon without my DS being home (he was playing sports after-school.often) nor my DS involved! Our gate was constantly left open even though we'd locked it (their DS was very tall and undid it and left it unlocked, unlike my DS who ensured it was locked afterwards)

To be fair to my back NDN - they didn't know and she soooo had a word with her son, when I said "ummm... Can you ask him not to do that, as he & his mates gave me such a fright!"