About my neighbour "entertaining" in the street

[LakieLady]

I think this is weird behaviour but am fully prepared to be told IABU.

The woman in the house diagonally opposite seems to prefer to sit out in front of her house rather than in her back garden. I can't fathom it out, her back garden faces the same way as our front, so is sunny until approx 2-3pm. It also has a nice view across the downs, instead of parked vans and houses.

She's not in her front garden, which is shady, or on her drive (her car is there), but she and 3 friends have folding chairs out on the pavement and are sitting out there chatting and drinking cuppas. It's not because of social distancing, either, the pavement's narrow and they're really close together. Anyone walking along that side of the road would have to walk in the road or cross over.

By some weird acoustic quirk, they sound as though they're in the same room as me, I can hear every word they say, at least when the 6 kids they have between them stop yelling. I'm bloody glad I'm not working today, I wouldn't be able to hear myself think. And (whisper it quietly) the children are chalking all over the pavement.

So, AIBU to think this is weird? And can anyone come up with a reason why someone would prefer to sit in the street rather than in the back garden?

Watch the kids, it used to be a common sight.

Can they get to her back garden without going through her house?

I have no outside gate, is she in the same boat?

So they're watching the kids playing out? I used to do the same with a neighbour when the kids were small. We didn't block the pavement though and I really hope jo one heard our conversations .
Anyway, look forward to rainy days, op.

It's bloody odd the way people congregate outside the front when they have a back garden available. Common too - you can tell a lot about people who do this.

Oh no, OP, you are living in a street with common people. Quick, you need to move and we will speak of this no longer.

There could be work being done in the garden.
They could be watching the kids.
They might just not want to sit around the back.

It's odd but as long as it's not causing an actual nuisance or carrying on into anti-social hours then does it really matter?

Also, what's the issue with drawing on the pavements? Mine spend most of their time doodling with chalk in the street 🤷

I find it quite nice and old fashioned. It’s also quite a sociable thing as well. They can have a chat to people who pass.

Mumsnet is a beacon of anti social behaviour from what I’ve seen though so it doesn’t surprise me that folk look down their nose at people who shock horror actually want to speak to people and see people

Is it impeding you in anyway OP? If not then jog on.

It's odd they are on the pavement although it wouldn't bother me if people were in their front garden rather than the back.

She sounds quite selfish, blocking the pavement when she has a garden to sit in and also making a racket in the street! Does she realise that you can have people in your back garden now socially? Maybe she isnt aware and that's why she's out front

Ah yes it's common apparently the kids are playing out they are watching the kids play out the only annoying thing is blocking the pavement.

Where I live most of us sit at the front in the afternoon. The houses face on to a green, not the road, and people entertained out there before Covid. During lockdown we sat in front of our own houses and socialised at a good distance from each other. Occasionally someone from the other end of the row would wander up to chat, again, keeping a suitable distance. It made the whole thing bearable.

Why can’t they sit in the front garden? Why do they have to force kids and roam and dog walkers and wheelchair and scooter users to cross over or travel in the road? Totally pointless and a bit selfish and self absorbed I think. They shouldn’t be blocking the PUBLIC FOOTPATH cos they want to have a natter.

Ah, @myBumJuiceSmellsLikeRoses, you're right.

I've just looked at the agent's details on Zoopla and it seems that the previous owners built an extra room behind the garage, so you now have to go through the house to get to the back (you used to be able to go straight through the garage).

Common as muck! I know this because I was told when I was sat put with SIL watching DC play. And I was told chalk was 'vandalism'

If they weren't blocking the pavement I'd say it's one of the sociable things that we seem to have lost, and one of the better things about the past.

I really don't get the issue people have with this ? People bang on about lack of community nowadays yet when someone actually sits outside the front of their house to speak with neighbours they are apparently "common". I'd love to do this but our neighbours are not very sociable.

Common

Yea that sums up some on here . Your word Common is a slur to the working class who always sat out front, to watch the kids and be, well, neighborly

Some of you are utter snobs

Oh the Horror of chalk on the pavement OP!!

Her front garden is tiny (10' approx) and slopes quite steeply down towards the house. You couldn't sit in it unless you had a special chair with legs of different lengths. It must also be very dark, as it has a tall hedge that goes to above the height of the living room windows.

@Mrsjayy, the noise is quite annoying too. I'm glad I don't work on Mondays, as a lot of my work is done over the phone and it really sounded as though they were in the same room. I didn't need to hear that her mate's latest BF turned out to be a bastard and that she's online dating again, and that she's put on more than a stone since lockdown. I wonder if sound travels better uphill?

@shemadeit, I sometimes sit on my front step with a cuppa while deciding which bit of front garden to tackle next and I find it quite sociable when people chat as they pass. An elderly gent along the road brought me a Rudbeckia from his garden the other day, because I said I wasn't going to bother planting the beds this year as I felt it was a bit late to get anything much flowering this summer, which I thought was really sweet. But sitting on your step on your own while taking a break from the garden is very different from putting chairs on the pavement for you and your mates, imo.

My NDN thinks other neighbour is common, I think. She has made comments about how "dreadful" it looks because Other Neighbour leaves her wheelie bins on the grass verge all the time, and had I noticed how many bottles she puts in her recycling (which I hadn't, although I had noticed quite a lot of clanking).

Anyway, I'm plainly developing Hyacinth Bucket tendencies because to me coloured chalk all over the pavement is only one step up from graffiti until the rain washes it away!

I have a neighbour who does this OP. We have large drives and huge back gardens but instead of using theirs this family park their cars in the road in front of other people's houses and sit on the footpath in front of their house. I can't understand it as it inconveniences other people and why pay for a large drive and garden if you're not going to use it?

Wow 🤣

@DullDullWeather I completely agree.

Cannot believe that anyone is so snobby nowadays to judge others as 'common' for this. Life is different now, if the kids played out with no supervision that would be bad. 😕

I have pictures from when my late grandad was a child. There are loads of his house and street and they are all full of kids playing and women standing in front of the houses chatting away.

It's sad that we've moved away from that sense of community really.

I really like seeing children's chalk drawings on pavements.

Do people not like this? I always thought of it as a good thing.

GET A LIFE! Is this all you have to think and worry about....😡

It's just chatter though.people are entitled to be neighbourly and sit outside their house
The only issue imo is sitting on the pavement do they move if someone is trying to pass ?