Neighbours’ leaving-the-house ritual

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Oh my days, this was my Mum and then some! Every day she’d watch me leave, waving and shouting. I’d beg her not to - it was especially embarrassing as a teenager, but her standard response was ‘what if I never see you again?’.

And so the guilt-ridden ritual continued, through school, work, and eventually when I’d park outside her house dropping my own kids at the school near her house. Then she got ill, we didn’t really understand how ill but the waving stopped, and I missed it and even felt a little snubbed without it. And then she was gone. We were clearing the house out and found an old undeveloped film, got it developed and it included a picture of her waving us off in the distance, it was like a last goodbye.

So yep, absolutely batshit crazy - but absolutely wonderful too!

The mum in the house behind me has two teenage boys, and every morning they are walking down the drive leaving for school she shouts out "Education, woo hoo! It's a privilege!".

This should become a Mumsnet thing. Kids up and down the country being shouted at to appreciate their education. Imagine a whole street doing it!

My neighbour does this with her grandkids who are there everyday. She absolutely bellows 'BYE BYE Babies . Nanny loves you' The kids look terrified

Me and my mum are the sort of people who sit on the sofa and cuddle and say "I love you" at the end of phone calls.

Sorry if that makes people feel a bit ill.

What we have never done is shout about it at the front door because that would be really annoying for other people.

We d

I agree that this may come from a place of anxiety about something happening to the people you love and not getting the chance to say goodbye. It's all good and well laughing over someone's ritual and it sounds like it is very over the top but I can sort of understand why they might be doing it. When I wave my children off I literally wave until they are out of sight. It makes me feel better.

YANBU.

They're unhinged performing in their own soft focus soap, OP.

Maybe a robust chorus of 'So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu' each time they're on stage might work?

I feel irritated just by the description but I’ve just posted a thread about my irritability!

OMG! This is my DH's family. Every departure takes hours. It starts in the house and takes forever to get down the hallway and to the front door. Then all progress seems to stop for ages, and sometimes it starts to reverse back into the kitchen. Once out it's a process to get down the drive and through the gate. Almost impossible to get into the car, as they are leaning in to kiss the kids goodbye. Then they seem to move around every side and angle of the car endlessly getting a last glimpse of us. I just start the engine now and start to move away very cautiously or more time is lost. Then when we are finally moving, DH will wind down all the windows to their extremity so he can wave heartily to them and they to him as we take off down the street. The frantic waving goes on until we are out of sight. They live about a 20 min drive away and we see them at least once a week.

This us

Roaring I love you, have a fab day, miss you already

My opposite neighbours do this too. They also do it if a family member is coming home, they will all come out and wait at the end of the driveway craning their necks to catch the first glimpse of the family member. I can only imagine that they all text or call to alert family members when they are nearing home so that everyone can troop out to greet them. It's bloody weird!!

We do this when my parents leave. Not for 30 houses though and they are driving so it's quick.
How loud is it so they annoy you? I never thought maybe I was pissing the neighbours off every Friday.

ilovesushi That made me smile! I always have a slight struggle leaving DH's parents' house as they crowd round the car to give the kids final kisses through the open windows and I'm always terrified of driving over someone's foot. But if I don't drive they won't move away from the vehicle. They do live about 11 hours away though so it's not such a regular occurrence!

😅😆
This is funny.
I can imagine it would annoy me too.

Hose pipe!!

Oh gosh, you could almost have been describing my family. For us, it's because my 4 year old only really has memories of us being in lockdown and working from home. So at first when life started getting back to something resembling normal, she would get upset and worried whenever someone would leave the house. We made a bit of a routine around having a kiss, hug, high five and wave and it somehow morphed into also blowing kisses etc. I am quite conscious that we are most likely disturbing the neighbours, but it's only for short bursts of time at reasonable hours and it seems to help her cope.