Hi
I am not sure that this is the right place to post something about an issue with neighbours but I thought it might fall under ‘relationships’ in a way as it is regarding the relationship between us and our neighbours.
Just for a bit of background, we own our house and have lived here 15 years and the neighbour I am going to discuss only moved in just before Christmas. We have not had much to do with the neighbours, they are a couple the same sort of age as myself and DH and have one small child about 18 months old. We have two young primary age DC.
We have in recent months started to speak a little over the wall and say hello and they seemed pleasant. Most people on our street don’t really speak. Anyway, we are not the Waltons and yes out children can be noisy if they play in the garden but only like normal children. We don’t have parties or play loud music or anything like that. A few weeks ago the lady Nextdoor collared me over the wall to complain that the night before my children had kept her son awake or woke him up crying. I knew the night she meant and my child had a night tremor which she does suffer from when it’s warm etc and the screaming can be loud. I apologised and explained and she was ok about it. Since then I have noticed that she is always watching me out of the window and when I notice her watching she actually ducks down from the window. I know this might sound strange but I said to my DH a while ago that I had a funny feeling about her and can tell she’s a nosey neighbour as she makes comments sometimes to me. For example one night I was looking for our cat in the street and she must have seen me leave my gate to go and look and it was around 10pm and she pointed out to me that she was aware I was outside at that time, almost like I shouldn’t have been. I wasn’t shouting the cat.
Another time she complained to me about my neighbours on the other side because they had a bbq with friends during lockdown and she was fuming about that.
Anyway, we are about to have some work done end of this week on our roof so at 7am this morning my scaffolding came. I wasn’t told what time it would arrive, I was only told it would be Wednesday or Thursday. Anyway this afternoon she collared me in the garden over the wall and was guns blazing that the men who bought the scaffolding woke her up and her child. It is not my fault as I had no idea what time. She wouldn’t accept it. She then said that if my children play in the garden on an evening that they have to be inside by 7pm as that’s when she puts her son to bed and she does not want any noise. My children are just normal children and don’t go to bed really late by can play out until 8pm now. She was quite nasty with how she spoke to me and said she fell out with her last neighbours and she had to move and that she won’t put up with it but I’m confused about what she’s complaining about and I feel like she’s going to be complaining every time I cough in the garden. It became semi- heated this afternoon as I felt she was telling me what to do and what she is complaining about is ridiculous. It is as if she thinks she is lady muck and everyone around her must do as she says. What she is complaining about is noise from normal living. She has a dog and doesn’t clean up the mess and it stinks but I don’t say anything. I am worried about her as I think she has an unhealthy interest in us and watches us and I feel it’s going to be compliant after complaint. Can anyone help or advise on what I can do about this before it gets out of hand?
Many thanks