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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Neighbour's basketball hoop

62 replies

tiredofthisshit21 · 31/12/2021 14:43

Inspired by the clean washing in front garden thread from yesterday...

The back of our house, including our bedroom, backs onto neighbour's drive. Since Xmas day we have woken up to the sound of a football repeatedly bouncing. Thus....thud....thud.....thud..... They have bought the kids a basketball hoop and put it on the front drive. Yes, they have a back garden. AIBU to think this is a tad anti social? If it's relevant, when they had their extension built a few years ago they repeatedly allowed their workmen to block our drive, to the point where I had to go round there and lose my shit after not being able to get out for work for the billionth time. At the end of the VERY long build process they brought us a very cheap bottle of shitty wine to apologise for the inconvenience.

They're twats, aren't they??

OP posts:
Original poster
tiredofthisshit21 · 31/12/2021 15:35

@Hankunamatata

I banned basketball (yep I'm mean mum) as couldn't cope with thud. Footballs out the back have to be light ones so they dont make a racket or damage anything if they go over. DC now retreat to the local park or green
Would you like to come and live next door to me? 😬
OP posts:
BurntO · 31/12/2021 15:37

They aren’t twats…you bought a house with neighbours and this seems like a typical family next door type situation

BoredZelda · 31/12/2021 16:09

for gods sake live and let live getting pathetic. Go and join in and have a laugh or watch them play. Miserable sods.

Says someone who has never had to put up with the constant thudding of a ball or let their own kids do it without giving a shit about their neighbours.

I can imagine the reaction if the OP pulled up a chair to watch her neighbour’s children play ball games.

“Miserable sod” is the usual comment trotted out by people who think they and their kids are way more important than everyone else. In order to justify their selfishness they have to insult anyone who complains as they have no other response.

godmum56 · 31/12/2021 16:09

@Floralnomad

The people who live behind us ( garden to garden ) have placed their basketball hoop against the back fence so every time he misses the hoop the ball lands in our garden - idiots !
what a pity that somehow they get damaged.....
godmum56 · 31/12/2021 16:10

@Hankunamatata

I banned basketball (yep I'm mean mum) as couldn't cope with thud. Footballs out the back have to be light ones so they dont make a racket or damage anything if they go over. DC now retreat to the local park or green
that's pretty much what its like round here.
Ihearthosesleighbellsringing · 31/12/2021 16:13

My son really wanted a basketball hoop for Christmas but there was no way I could put my neighbours (or myself) through the relentless thud, thud, thudding.
Obviously they can play whatever they want on their own property but it is a bit insensitive of them.

ponkydonkey · 31/12/2021 16:29

Oh god the bought my stuff n one in lock down it was so awful listening to it... I gave it away 🤣 and said it broke in a storm

NumberTheory · 31/12/2021 16:46

From the extension thing it does sound like your neighbours are twats, but I don’t think the basketball hoop is twatish.

Noise from someone else that disturbs you always feels unreasonable. I do sympathize. But I think ball games are a normal part of childhood and if they’re sticking to their driveway and not doing it really early or really late (and 9 isn’t really early, even on a holiday/weekend), then you just have to learn to live with it with as much grace as possible.

AshLane · 31/12/2021 16:56

Our local annoyance is a squeaky trampoline - squeak, squeak, squeak - alternated with screams. But do you know, the kids are outside, exercising and having fun. So great for them!

AshLane · 31/12/2021 16:58

And so much prefer this to kids suffering with MH and weight issues.

Live and let live.

m00rfarm · 31/12/2021 17:01

It would drive me crazy. Don’t understand the people saying it’s not a problem!

icedcoffees · 31/12/2021 17:04

@Nodancingshoes

I remember playing Tennis against the wall in my driveway between mine and my neighbours house when I was young...bet they hated me 😂😂😂😂
I did this too Grin

One neighbour would come and tell me when she was going out and said I was more than welcome to play on her wall when she wasn't in (she had a side wall with no windows). She was lovely :)

SlashBeef · 31/12/2021 17:08

I think they're total twats. I'd never put a basketball net up on our house. The thudding is horrendous.

Essexmate · 31/12/2021 17:11

Honestly, people always complaining that kids roam the streets because they have nothing to do and when they do find something the neighbours are complaining!

stressedout2021 · 31/12/2021 17:17

@Essexmate

Honestly, people always complaining that kids roam the streets because they have nothing to do and when they do find something the neighbours are complaining!
I agree. We are constantly having a go when kids roam the streets or spend all day on screens and then have a go when they play outside their own homes! Hmm
MyOtherLifeIsAFairytale · 31/12/2021 17:19

They’re not the twats.

rwalker · 31/12/2021 17:20

@Sportslady44

for gods sake live and let live getting pathetic. Go and join in and have a laugh or watch them play. Miserable sods.
Why should OP have to listen to endless thud thud thud
thetinsoldier · 31/12/2021 17:28

This is hilarious! I posted a while ago about the opposite- my dd played basketball in our drive - between our house and ndn - for literally five mins before the neighbour came round to say the nose was echoing round his house. Dd stopped and we moved the hoop and bought a soft ball.

I posted on here and everyone said I was BU because the sound of a ball thudding is so annoying. Clearly a different crowd are posting today...

gogohm · 31/12/2021 17:44

Basketball hoop at the front seems normal to me, if they put it at the back someone else would be moaning too. Perhaps a quiet word to ask them if they could wait until 10am

MumOf21 · 31/12/2021 18:09

I use to work night duty in a local care home when my children were small, and every weekend the local kids would congregate at the bottom of our cul-de-sac and use it as a basketball pitch, with the Goal situated on next doors drive right outside my Bedroom window.

Needless to say, l hardly slept before having to go back on duty, and any request to parents for their children To use the local park at the back of the houses opposite fell on deaf ears from parents and teenagers alike, despite it being much safer and more well equipped for all ball games than the bottom of our Cul-de-sac ever was!

JohnSmithDrive · 31/12/2021 18:14

Basket ball hoops are almost always on the drive.

When you said "were woken by" I was ready to say unreasonable, but 9am on a weekday?

You're also very unreasonable about the shitty wine. You've decided and they're never going to get anything right, are they?

Dodgyveneers · 31/12/2021 18:18

That would drive me nuts, some people are very selfish though.

Dodgyveneers · 31/12/2021 18:19

@thetinsoldier

This is hilarious! I posted a while ago about the opposite- my dd played basketball in our drive - between our house and ndn - for literally five mins before the neighbour came round to say the nose was echoing round his house. Dd stopped and we moved the hoop and bought a soft ball.

I posted on here and everyone said I was BU because the sound of a ball thudding is so annoying. Clearly a different crowd are posting today...

Grin the joy of mumsnet. Often people will follow the first few responses too.
blissfulllife · 31/12/2021 18:23

Same here op. I vibrates though our house upsetting my ASD daughter. From very early in the morning. I got my neighbour to come in mine and listen to what it's like and he was shocked even though it's attached to their house. Anyway he's moved it round to the side of their house now and it's tolerable now. I hate being a moaner but gosh it was driving us potty lol

Coyoacan · 31/12/2021 18:34

I had to live for five years in a place where children smashed my windows for kicks nearly every day. What I would have given to see them playing basketball or football.

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