To think neighbour isn’t nit picking for the sake of it?

[EatGrassAndPuke]

Detached houses. “Next door” is actually sideward on to us and we share the driveway. DH our Christmas lights on the outside of our house before Christmas. You can change the “light pattern” from just on all the time to slow twinkling and flashing. DD likes the flashing so we tend to have that one on. Neighbour has not mentioned it all over Christmas.

Last night we had the flashing pattern on. Neighbour has just stopped me on driveway to ask when we’re planning on taking the Christmas lights down as the flashing supposedly causes her bedroom to flash and prevents them getting to sleep. I asked why she’s not mentioned it until now so she said her DH is back at work today so they’ve “put up with it” but now he needs to be able to get to sleep on a night.

We have “history” with these neighbours and do not get on. AIBU to think this is just another excuse for them to start? We wasn’t planning on taking them down until Sunday.

Turn them off ffs.

We had absolutely vile neighbours a few years ago and I'm not ashamed to admit that I deliberately put up a LOT of very bright flashing LED xmas lights. I switched them on on 1st December and left them on until 5th January - constantly.
I know how much it annoyed them, it bloody annoyed me at times and our house was visible from Mars I reckon!
We have moved now and have lovely neighbours, and we are good neighbours to them. This year we have all chosen (cul de sac, 4 houses) to decorate our front gardens with white lights and icicles etc, and we all agreed 10pm was a good time for them to go off. DP leant them all timer switches and it's been lovely!

Is this a reverse? I can't believe anyone would think they were in the right here.

We had this with our neighbours this year. Their lights were flashing on my epileptic DDs wall all day and night

They said their DC liked the flashing rather than Static lights, but agreed to turn them off at 11.

Selfish cunts.

YABVU and I suggest you move the lights to your bedroom, see how you like flashing lights until midnight.

ohpretty
Why can’t people give suggestions? Because these have been poo poo’d. That only leaves switching them off.

Don’t people have black out blinds on their bedrooms?

No, not routinely. Silly thing to say, really.

I think you need to unplug the lights op. Your DD will live.
Tbh I think your neighbours have been nice about this. I would have been knocking on your door on the first night.

I'm a bit surprised by the 'robustness' of many responses on here. Why can't people give suggestions rather than ordering the OP to turn the lights off or take them down?

Because the OP has displayed such a thundering selfish entitled attitude that anything other than AIBU 'robustness' is unlikely to make them realise just how unreasonable they are being. Blinded by all the flashing lights, probably.

Freeda
Your poor dd

Take them down and apologise. It sounds as though they've just been politely grinning and bearing it, allowing you to have your Christmas lights up over Christmas but now its gotten too much. We all do this, put up with something for so long before we say something. It sounds as though they're being pretty polite about it.

The flashing lights trigger me to have seizures . They’re not nit picking . Yabu

I don’t think the OP will be back.

He doesn't need too faff with settings. Just be reasonable and don't turn them on.

They've been more than reasonable.

YABVU! We have horrible passive aggressive next door neighbours... tempting as it is to leave them on, our lights our set to go off around 10pm and we don't have them flashing.

If neither you nor your husband can spare a couple of minutes to change the timer, then you need to unplug the lights by 9 each evening.

Happy new year to you OP,please use this opportunity to rebuild your neighbourly relationship ,it’s not worth the backlash.
Whatever you decide to do will have an impact on what they will do to you in the future.

*to faff

You need your husband's permission to trun of the lights?I

Crikey

I think flashing lights on houses look really tacky and always feel sorry for anyone who has these facing their windows. We have multifunction ones but I always set them to static.
Our neighbours [opposite] set theirs to flash but we don't complain as it's only for a couple of weeks...

I’d find it extremely annoying to have flashing Christmas lights pointed at my bedroom window while I was trying to sleep. I think it’s very tolerant of your neighbours to leave it this long before talking to you about them.

It’s extremely unreasonable to leave them on as late as midnight. Surely there’s some sort of power switch at ground level that lets you turn them off earlier in the evening?

(And is your DD even awake that late?)

You sound like nightmare neighbours. Glad you're not mine.

I’ve got nothing to add to the original post.. seems pretty unanimous.

But I work odd shifts and sometimes go for a late night walk to unwind. On these walks I’ve noticed a lot of people have these inflatable snowmen/ Santa’s with a air blower which makes a racket. These are on past midnight and usually located near the party wall at the front of house where the main lounge/master bedroom is. I’d be having a mental breakdown if these were my neighbours.

I'm a bit surprised by the 'robustness' of many responses on here. Why can't people give suggestions rather than ordering the OP to turn the lights off or take them down?*

What is your suggestion then?

There have been plenty of suggestions so far:

1. Take then down.
2. Turn them off
3. Reset the timer to go off earlier
4. Not have the lights flashing

I'm struggling to think of any other suggestions so perhaps you can?

He sounds like an entitled prick, OP. Is he always this vile?