We've lived next door to these neighbours for years. Know each other well enough to say hi, put bins out on holiday, but we're not friends. We've been using our garden in the same way for years. No changes on our side, nothing new.
We've come back from holiday to find neighbour has re-organised his home office and he now sits at a massive (open) window right on the boundary between our gardens. That must have been a spare bedroom before maybe, I don't know. We never saw anyone in it.
I sat outside at our patio table this morning to have a coffee and I could hear every word he said through his open window, could hear every word his colleagues said on their online meetings. He might as well have been sitting at the table with me. Not sure there's much I can do about that, he can use his house however he likes.
Ds10 and his pals are sitting outside at the table trading Pokemom cards. There's 4 of them, they are laughing and chatting but they're not shouting or being silly. And it's a sunny afternoon in the school holidays, they can be outside laughing in the garden if they want to be.
Neighbour has just come to the door to ask me if I can take them inside because he has a full afternoon of work meetings and their noise is distracting him.
I said "what, the whole afternoon? You want them to stay indoors all afternoon?"
He said completely straight-faced "I'll be working till 6.30pm"
I laughed and said "well no, that won't be possible".
At this point he said in a very slow, careful, mansplaining voice just in case I couldn't follow him "I don't think you understand. I have a Very Important Job. These are very important meetings. I negotiate multi-million dollar contracts every day, I need to be able to concentrate."
Seriously? I always though he was a bit of a twat but who talks like this? Who actually says "Very Important" like that? Twice? He has no idea what my job is or how important dh or I might be.
I just said "no, we'll carry on using our garden as we always have. Maybe you could close your window when you're needing to concentrate. And just so you're aware, I can hear you and your colleagues when your window is open, I hope you're not saying anything confidential. I must get on, thanks for doing the bins while we were away" then shut the door.
He's gone, I can hear him on his Very Important Meeting. I could join in, I can hear every word on both sides. I suspect he'll be back, probably when dh is back from work so they can talk man to man.
He's unsettled me though, he was so self-confident when he came to the door, so sure that he would get exactly what he wanted. How do you get that kind of confidence? I wish I had it. Or is it arrogance? He made me think I was in the wrong at first.
We love our garden, we use it all the time. I'm not sure how we'll deal with this one, but I wasn't BU by refusing to bring the kids inside, was I? He's the one who has made the change, not us. I don't think wfh is new for him, he was just somewhere else in his house before I guess. Now he's on top of our patio with his big booming voice. I feel quite sad about it, if he's there all day every day it's going to be awful.
AIBU?
To not accommodate Very Important Neighbour's new home office?
Knitwit101 · 09/08/2022 14:35
Am I being unreasonable?
5480 votes. Final results.
POLLBoybandfacedfannyfart · 09/08/2022 14:49
What type of music do you think would really grate in his nerves and give entirely the wrong impression?
<rifles through CDs>
I have an impressive array of rap and grime for a middle-aged white woman.
I think you handled it brilliantly, I’d have probably felt guilty and shushed the children all afternoon.
Knitwit101 · 09/08/2022 15:20
I like the idea of bagpipe lessons
Well now you'll all think I'm a troll because this part is too good to be true, but we're in Scotland and ds15 does actually play the bagpipes. But he doesn't play in the house or garden, he just plays the chanter at home and plays his pipes at band practice or at school, he's in a school band. In fact his pipes have been in school all summer holiday.
One time they were practising for a competition and he did have his pipes at home, he had rules about how long he could play and what times, and we warned the neighbours. They are ridiculously loud up close.
The kids are back at school here next week, maybe he could bring them home....
SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 09/08/2022 15:20
I’m sure we can think of an excellent playlist for @Knitwit101, @Boybandfacedfannyfart!
I’d start with Let It Go.
Then Baby Shark.
Maybe Crazy Frog later on.
Boybandfacedfannyfart · 09/08/2022 14:49
What type of music do you think would really grate in his nerves and give entirely the wrong impression?
<rifles through CDs>
I have an impressive array of rap and grime for a middle-aged white woman.
I think you handled it brilliantly, I’d have probably felt guilty and shushed the children all afternoon.
MrsTerryPratchett · 09/08/2022 15:06
I nominate @Fladdermus DH for coolest-sounding job.
Fladdermus · 09/08/2022 15:02
What a self important knobber he is. My DH has a very important job and was WFH yesterday. He had a meeting way more important than your neighbours I expect (nuclear scientists discussing potential nuclear disaster in Ukraine, proper important). He absolutely could not be disturbed, so took his laptop and sat in the dark, dank cellar with all the spiders. He wouldn't dream of telling us or the neighbours to pipe down.
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