Or is my neighbour about my laundry...?

[laundryninja]

Name changed in case she's on mumsnet

Don't know NDN well. We are quiet and (I thought!) inoffensive so no issues for the last 6 months we've lived here. There's a low fence between our gardens.

Given that I live in the west of scotland, it's a rare opportunity to hang clothes out on the line to dry, which DH and I have been doing the past few days.

Today NDN appeared at the door and asked me to "be more careful" with my laundry. I initially thought something had blown into her garden and apologised. She said no, that us hanging out "personal items" was embarrassing for her and she didn't want her young sons (who are late primary age I think) seeing things like that. After clarifying she meant bras and knickers I admit I snorted with laughter a bit and said "but don't they see YOUR pants drying indoors!?" to which she said that I clearly didn't want to help and that she'd ask her DH to come over later to speak to my DH once he's in from work!

I have not brought my laundry in and have just done another load. She's glaring from her conservatory. AIBU to ignore her? Or should I bring my offensive undies in off the line?

That's a good one Gaelach . Funny how we remember these things.

Interestingly, my dad's version of that poem began later in the day:

What's the time?
Half past nine

And so on.

This particular aspect of American "culture" sounds batshit to me.

Your neighbour wouldn't like me. Underwear and all other laundry out on the line most days here.

America is sounding less and less like the Land of the Free as this thread goes on.

I really couldn't care less what neighbours hang on their washing lines, and anyone coming round to complain about mine would get very short shrift indeed.

Oh, and your DH is a hero.

Thinkingblonde FFS, that's insane! Why is this madness spreading? You either have to tumble dry which is expensive and bad for the environment, or dry on airers and stuff, which can cause mould growth.

Thinkingblonde, if your friends live in a flat complex it wouldn't surprise me as managed properties occasionally habe these batshit rules. One of our previously rented ones did though everyone placed on balcony until someone complained and letters were sent. They also complained about yoga couple who used the back communal lawns each morning however said couple thoroughly ignored them.

Another reason for not having a tumble dryer is that they're the number one cause of house fires.

Wow I love that a thread about pants has reached 4 pages. I'm also worried that I've committed terrible faux pas hanging things out when we've been on hols in Florida... NDN have been here for a while I'm sure, though. Their kids have local accents!

Last night we went out for a late dinner and I made the effort to put on a matching, quite lacy set.

It's forecast to rain at 2pm but should I risk hanging them out when this morning's wash finishes....?

Ha ha ha no way!
Go and buy the most outrageous 'smalls' and hang them outside all the time.

No not in an apartment. My friends live in Burton Waters, in a house on a Marina, it's a gated complex.

I have a drier that attaches to a brick wall, think four arm rotary drier but without the pole. I suggested she gets one and put it in her garage then leave the garage doors open, the up and over one plus the door from the garage into the garden, to allow air to blow through. The drier folds up when not in use.

Clearly Ndn has been harbouring dark thoughts ever since your DH stole their dead fox, OP. And now she's getting her revenge....

Maybe it was their lucky fox

But whyyyy is outside drying banned, even in Lincolnshire - is it really just in case it offends people's sensibilities?!?!

My DH let him witter himself into a corner, then went on a rant encompassing feminism, pants and "eejitery". He then every so quietly leaned in close and said "and now you'll leave" then turned him round and gently walked the man down the steps.

Perfect response. If there was a "husband of the week" award, I'd nominate him immediately.

I wonder if Americans are anti-clotheslines because, for older generations, hanging washing outside is what the poor immigrant parents or grandparents used to do when they were fresh off the boat. Like walking anywhere or living in a city when you could be in a faceless exurb a handy 10 miles from the nearest shop. I have an American aunt who is exactly like this (she also refuses to go anywhere near large areas of Manhattan because she thinks it's still the slum it was when she came over as a child refugee at the end of WW2).

On the other hand my next door neighbours are American and have a lovely rotary washing line with a cover that they put on it every night.

They ban is in place for aesthetic reasons, think 'a river runs through it'. The passing cabin cruiser owners don't want to be greeted by lines of washing as they cruise by our friends house orbinded the other houses on the complex.
They can't even have a shed or any outside structure on their properties.

or indeed

Your DH sounds brilliant, and gorgeous. As does your kitten. If either of them ever need re-homing I will be happy to offer them sanctuary.

My mother was ever so repressed, as well as being the child of an upper-class and upper-middle-class pairing. We had an indoor airer in the kitchen which saw much use in winter (and dripped on our heads while we were trying to cook). But in the summer underwear got either hung on the outdoor line or spread out on the lawn. (Back garden, but easily seen into from two other houses and the road). If my mother didn't have a problem with it I can't imagine anyone else having one. And yet, it seems, they do.

My underwear dries indoors, on a rack in the bath. It would probably break a washing line.

didn't Naice people hang out their undies pinned inside pillowcases so as not to offend, in the Olden Days?

I love those indoor rise and fall airers-and their name: Sheila dryers.

I'm pinching "And now you'll leave" for future use.

I think some kind of screen between you and the New Calvinist front might be a good idea, OP. Your neighbours sound like the kind of people who might like a good 'hate', in the absence of any other hobbies.

Loving this.

How do you wear a c string? Do you just kinda clench between buttocks?

I've heard of this before from a Scottish traveller community.

What you do, if you don't want to cause offence, is to peg up your underwear inside sheets or large items so they're not in view.

They're a pair of loons. Let them glare.

Your kitten is TOO CUTE.

My only experience with an American person living in this country (sample size of one so not statistically significant) was that she could not comprehend that anyone in another country would do anything different from how it was done in her home state. The effect of this was that almost everything caused her huge stress and unhappiness, and made her moan to us all about how wrong everything we did was. The most hilarious one was that the weather here is wrong because we don't have proper seasons, it's just rainy and a bit grey most of the time. She couldn't quite understand why she struggled to make friends...

¯\(ツ)/¯