To smoke in my own garden

[LittleBear4]

I am a smoker. I smoke 10 fags a day and I'm not planning on giving it up yet (one day!).

In smoke in my garden, I've got two neighbours either side and one every time I'm smoking will come out and say 'it stinks out here' and will start to cough loudly.

It's really getting on my nerves, I can't move down the end of the garden because it's tiny and would make no difference at all but AIBU to hate the passive aggressive comments when I'm smoking in my garden?

You are entitled to smoke in your garden if you want to.
Your neighbours are equally entitled to say that it stinks if they want to.

Get over it.

I smoke outside in the garden,and don't really care what the neighbours say.I don't think having a ciggie ouside would really impact badly into someones house. One of my neighbours is always having barbies,and that kind of smell always hangs around more, He also lights a fire in his incinerator at times,and that's quite a choking experience, billowing smoke all over the gardens.

They sound incredibly immature. If they have such a problem with it they should come and talk to you directly instead of behaving like children in the playground. I am a smoker currently, have been a non smoker for many years, and it would never ever bother me. I can't imagine getting worked up over something so petty or embarrassing myself by behaving so immaturely.

Why not get a siren or maybe a recording of a Tarzan call, like they do with the wave machine at Center Parcs, and play that loudly before you light up?

That way your neighbours could be warned and could rush inside and spare themselves from the fleeting irritation of the smell of a neighbour’s gasper.

Mumsnet garden rules:

No trampolines
No children who make noise
No music
No climbing frames higher than 2 feet tall
No feeding foxes
No barking dogs
Control your cats toilet habits
And now we can add no smoking!

Have I missed any ?🙄

They're in their garden when they say it. Why is your smoke allowed over the fence into their space, but not their words into yours?

You missed gardneing! I got a roasting for trimming trees. Apparently I Hate nature and want to live in a plastic perfect work😂😂

Yes Sloth.

No hot tubs.

I think you’re being hypocritical. You smoke outside because you don’t like your house to smell of smoke (presumably) yet you are happy to let your smoke smell drift into your neighbours garden?

Sleepingsloth you forgot no hot tubs

I think you are both being unreasonable in my view. Passive aggressive comments are horrible, however cigarette drifting across is awful too. We used to live next door to a smoker and if we had our back door or windows open the smell would come in whenever she smoked outside - which was frequently!

YABU. They don't like the smoke....you don't like hearing what they say. Why is your dislike of their behaviour any different from their dislike of your behaviour.

No BBQs unless you clear it with the neighbours, Sloth. You also need to clear mowing your lawn or strimming first. You need to make sure what you wear to sunbathe is appropriate, too, or better yet, don't do it because you will drop dead from melanoma. You need to clear DIY with them, too, someone might be revising. Not just noisy kids, but teens, too.

why not invest in citronella candles or insense. keeps beastie bugs from bothering and will mask or hide fag reek?x

OMG, tolerable, NO! You're not allowed scented candles or incense on MN, are you crazy!?

You have every right. but I , as your neighbour and non smoker would not like it. I don't think I'd act as they do though. Is there anywhere you can sit that improves relations?

Oh ffs have a fag in your garden, the smell lasts minutes then is gone!! Them complaining in their “own garden” isn’t the same. They are purposefully making snide comments to piss OP off. OP is not intentionally pissing anyone off- not comparable. The smoke will dissipate into the air in a few minutes and won’t linger, or passively effect anyone else. It’s just a smell. Far worse Is the local farmer muck spreading!!!!

YANBU to smoke in your garden, and they ANBU to not like it.

They ABU to make passive aggressive comments. YABU to expect them to not to complain that your smoking annoys them, just because them complaining annoys you.

You both need to suck it up I’m afraid.

Bloody hell you’re allowed to smoke in your own garden, anti smokers are a bunch of hypocrites they drive gas guzzling cars that do more harm to asthma sufferers than smokers do

Bingo!! There’s always at least one fucking idiot person who will come into these threads and compare cigarette smoking with driving cars.

Cars and motor transport have a highly useful function, they transport people and goods from A to be far more quickly and directly than any other mode of transport will which on balance could be judged to outweigh the downside of being bad for the environment. And even that is being worked on with the rise in development of electric vehicles.

I’ve yet to hear all these die hard defenders of smoking give me a single example of one highly useful function that only cigarettes can perform.

So you know that it's annoying your neighbours but you do it anyway. Maybe they should do tit for tat and discover a love of loud music at night outdoors.

It's your garden but the smell and smoke travels and who wants to breathe in that. A little consideration goes a long way.

Second hand smoke is rank, everywhere, and smoking serves no purpose (apart from to rake in huge sales taxes, which is presumably why it’s still legal). Your choice, OP, whether to be rank, but what exactly are you expecting from your neighbours? Neighbours on both sides reacting the same way? Sure, sure, it’s them the unreasonable ones...

When your NDN shouts "It stinks out here" shout back "I was just thinking that. Have you just farted?"

This is a very difficult problem where I can see both sides but, as a former smoker who packed up years ago, I try not to be self-righteous about those who do smoke. It's an addiction and a bloody hard one to break.

Equally it does smell horrible to those who don't smoke. If the gardens are small then it will have an effect in NDN's enjoyment but equally the OP has a right to enjoy smoking cigarettes. There isn't much tolerance for smokers these days.

OP, I hope you can master your problems and get to the stage of giving up smoking though. My DB had limb-saving surgery recently and the surgeon said it was due to smoking. He has smoked all his adult life but stopped the minute his leg was saved.

It's really getting on my nerves, I can't move down the end of the garden because it's tiny and would make no difference at all but AIBU to hate the passive aggressive comments when I'm smoking in my garden?

YABU. Smoking absolutely stinks.

Luckily they have moved now but I had neighbours that smoked and you simply couldn't sit out in the garden when they were smoking. I am sure like you they thought 'it's just a bit if smoke' but it is disgusting having to breathe that shit in.

Ignore them, takes under 5 minutes to smoke a cigarette, then the smell is gone.

The smoke will dissipate into the air in a few minutes and won’t linger, or passively effect anyone else. It’s just a smell

I'm sorry but no it's not just a smell. I think a lot of people on here truly believe it's 'just a smell' given their reaction. It is a dangerous smoke that carries over 7000 chemicals, of which hundreds are toxic and about 70 can cause cancer(1). The CDC state there is no safe level of exposure to second hand smoke.
Even brief secondhand smoke exposure can damage cells in ways that set the cancer process in motion

People need to think about that when subjecting other people and their kids to their smoking habits

(1)www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/health_effects/index.htm

Some mind find that fact sheet quite shocking if they read through it