A woman took to Mumsnet to confess that she and her children were the 'noisy neighbours' in a rural village. However, she has asked online users if she's being unreasonable allowing her children to have friends over in the garden during the summer evenings.
On the 'am I being unreasonable thread', she wrote: "I recently moved to a new area with my adult children, a detached house in five acres, I do have two neighbours quite close to my house. My kids are sociable and keen to make friends in [the] rural area. They went to the local village pub and invited three to four people back to our house (I didn't hear anything, it's a Georgian house and the walls are thick). They were sitting outside in the courtyard singing local folk songs and chatting.
"This evening my neighbour came round to complain about the noise of singing and chatting after midnight on Friday. I apologised, said my kids were perhaps a bit overzealous and keen to make friends and maybe got carried away on a summer's evening on this one occasion and that I would speak to them and tell them to be mindful of our neighbours. Do I tell my kids they can't have people back after the pub, am I being unreasonable? Is what they did unacceptable as a one off?
READ MORE: 'My next door neighbour is posting photos of my garden on Instagram and pretending it's hers'
She added: "The neighbour said he drinks in the local pub and had heard my kids were 'rounding people up' to come back to our house! Which sounded a bit stalkerish tbh [to be honest]. Help and advice welcomed." You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Many Mumsnet users thought the children were being disrespectful to the neighbours. One commenter said: "Too late and too loud. Do you want your neighbours to dislike you? That's the road you're headed down. Tell your kids you don't want that happening again. If that's how they want to socialise, they can get their own home." Another person added: "Loud partying after midnight is a bit unreasonable."
However, many users agreed that if it was a one-off night, then it wasn't an issue. But, they did believe that, given the circumstances, the neighbours were not in the wrong, as they were not to know if it was a one-time-thing. One commenter said: "Thinking about it a bit more, if it is actually a one off (or a very occasional thing) then I think it's fine. My neighbours are lovely and quiet, and if they happened to have a party one night and get a bit carried away then it wouldn't be a big deal. But from your new neighbour's perspective, he has no idea if this is going to be every night from now on."
Another user agreed, saying: "I think this is part of the issue. If my neighbours had a bit of a party one evening and it got a bit noisy I’d think ‘oh well, they’ve been great neighbours for years, everyone has a noisy evening once in a while.’ But if they’d just moved in and then their kids came back from the pub singing folk songs into the night I’d think ‘oh no I’m going to end up on one of those nightmare neighbour threads on Mumsnet.’"
One user added: "The neighbour was reasonable to raise it as a complaint, it’s definitely unreasonable to be making noise after midnight that could disturb your neighbours. If it’s a one-off and it’s not going to happen again then maybe it’s not a big deal but your neighbour didn't know that it won’t be a regular occurrence so I can see why he raised it. You don’t need to tell your kids they can’t have people over from the pub again but you do need to tell them to be considerate of the neighbours and not be loudly singing outside. Past 10-11pm they should have either quietened down or moved indoors."
Another user agreed, saying: "It's polite to come indoors after 10[pm]. The neighbours wouldn't have heard then. I can see why they thought they didn't need to in five acres but sound travels at night." While another commenter said: "Not much you can do now other than apologise. And next time ask your kids to invite them inside!"
READ NEXT:
Seven hours of thunderstorms expected to hit Wales after Met Office records 36,000 lightning strikes
The man who breeds tens of thousands of leeches for the NHS from a tiny Welsh farm
The new man-made 'Welsh Riviera' that people are calling the best beach around
The dire state of Cardiff’s Queen Street, the rundown and atrophying retail giant
The Welsh farmers' mart where 'time has almost stood still' with no electric or computers
