Everybody loves good neighbours

Since becoming a mum, sleep is a very sacred thing. I count the hours I get {or don’t get} each night. I miss the sleep I once took for granted.

I’m a wake and get up kinda person. As soon as I open my eyes, my feet hit the floor and I’m up for the day. I can’t get back to sleep, and I am hopeless at day-napping.

The other morning, before the sun had even risen, I was woken by the sounds of someone laughing. Loud laughing. Not just a meer giggle. Cackles that echoed off the walls. I peered over at the clock and it was minutes after 4am. I can’t remember exactly, but there was a definitely a 4 in front. I rolled over hoping the laughing would stop and I’d be able to get back to sleep.

It continued, along with some loud chatting, some music and other noises. So I got up and started working. It was a Thursday morning, after all.

I crankily tapped away on my computer as the after party continued next door.

A week later, last Sunday to be exact, it happened again. Hubby was away at work. It always seems to happen when he’s not home. This time it was some time after 6am and they’d decided to bring the party home. They sat in their backyard laughing and yelling, and having a good time. I crawled out of bed, opened my back door and softly and kindly requested, “Can you please be quiet?”

“Sure,” they promised from over the fence.

The noise continued, so I got up and started watching re-runs of Friends as I waited for Lacey to wake.

I don’t know why I’m surprised that people can be so inconsiderate, but each summer I am. I dream of free-standing homes with lovely neighbours who pop over to borrow sugar and milk. I also dream neighbours that live far enough away that I don’t hear everytime they use the bathroom*.

I grew up that way. We’d block off the street a few times a year and have parties in the cul-de-sac. We loved our neighbours, and they loved us back. We waved as we drove by. Where we live now, often people don’t even mutter hello as they get mail from the boxes, inches away from each other.


Do you have good neighbours? Can I borrow them?

* True story
{image source}

59 thoughts on “Everybody loves good neighbours”

  1. Urgh, I hear you. Our neighbours has transformed his garage I into a pub basically which shares a wall with our garage and the other side of that is our living room. We've tried the ask nicely, the bang on the garage door and the call the police methods of asking them to just be considerate of how much noise try are making but nothing works and I am made out to be the grumpy awful one in the whole situation because all I want to do is tone able to live peacefully in my own home! I have the same far away/kind neighbours dreams as you. One day, hopefully, one day.

  2. Urgh, I hear you. Our neighbours has transformed his garage I into a pub basically which shares a wall with our garage and the other side of that is our living room. We've tried the ask nicely, the bang on the garage door and the call the police methods of asking them to just be considerate of how much noise try are making but nothing works and I am made out to be the grumpy awful one in the whole situation because all I want to do is tone able to live peacefully in my own home! I have the same far away/kind neighbours dreams as you. One day, hopefully, one day.

  3. I only have one neighbour that I talk to the others we just wave hello. I think I stuffed up though I was asked to the street christmas party and I couldnt go because of my work christmas party and it didnt go down well. We have never been invited back.

  4. I have a crazy man living above me who feeds the cockatoos – leaving poop and birdseed all over my courtyard – and talks/yells to himself all day. He used to yell at night until I complained to the real estate

  5. Having bad neighbours is terrible. This might sound harsh but I HATE my neighbours. The couple immediately next door are very loud and inconsiderate. They slam the doors constantly and always make a lot of noise. They even cut my grape vine back as it was blocking their view into MY house! Needless to say they received a right ear bashing! The couple opposite had a baby in Dec and we popped a little present through the door. Still no thank you! It was only small but manners cost nowt!

  6. Ulgh! Soo sorry they woke you up. I have a hard time falling asleep so if I'm up, I'm usually up for the rest of the day, too. I can't nap either, so I sooo feel your pain. Maybe next time just call the police. You were very nice about it both the first and second times it happened. Especially if it's on a week night.

  7. Jeeps! Am I the only person out there who has lots of GREAT neighbours??? I have the kind of neighbours who'll lend you a cup of sugar, walk my dog, and are decent and respecting of the quiet. And not just ONE neighbour…almost the whole block! Guess I didn't realize how lucky I am!

  8. I am lucky enough to live in the country and don't experience crazy neighbours. We wave as we drive on our ride-ons and have the odd chat at the back fence. Though we aren't all best buddies when we had a major storm a few years back that destroyed countless trees blocking access, my neighbours were there clearing the path with tractors and chainsaws before I got home from work. We have all had the odd party but the courtesy is there with a note in the mailbox that a shin dig is on! I would find it horrible to have awful neighbours. Makes me realise how good I have it.

  9. OMG, this reminds me of growing up in Paddington. Yes its a beautiful place to live, so close to everything, but the neighbours were horrid.

    I had rung the police station down the road so many times they knew me by name. Their parties that would go on for days killed me. I used to work on the weekends and never slept cause of their loud, crazy music, laughing, singing and most horrid PEEING in the laneway! I was always so stressed.

    There was so much damage done to my car, intentional scratches, tyres being let down, glass smashed, that we sold and moved house!

  10. Sorry, we have CRAP neighbours. I am counting down the days till our lease expires (in about a month) Hopefully I will make it till then. We are in adjoining townhouses and last night after I had just put the kids to bed, the neighbour cranks up the stereo with the bass pounding through our wall… then don't get me started on the other side where they slam the door, slam the screen door, slam the gate at all hours of the day and night… yesterday morning I counted it happen about 15 times in about 5 minutes at 7am – c'mon people, seriously!!
    AND dont even get me going about the hideous little dogs across the road… who bark all day and night.. on Sunday morning from 6am-9.30am non stop and then nearly all the rest of the day… this morning they started at 5am, after finally stopping at 11pm last night….
    Sorry. rant over. Obviously its really affecting me today…lol.

  11. We are having neighbour problems too. I think it's rude that people have parties in complexes without warning their neighbours. I can't wait for winter when everyone locks up and doesn't have all night parties.

  12. Actually I think we were the neighbors people hate…or maybe my old neighbors were just too picky. We got the cops called on us because we were being too loud a couple of times, but we really weren't being loud at all. Of course this got a little annoying after a while and we knew our neighbor (cuz we only had one) was also unhappy so we moved. Now we have lovely neighbors!

  13. Yes the majority of the neighbours in the condo building are good.Except for one,who just really overstepped her boundaries.
    Showing up at school one day without calling my cell first,*We had a Dr.'s appt.*
    The worst was when I was in the laundry room,Hub was in the parkade,the 6 yr old was playing quietly,she who shall not be named convinced the 6 yr old to open the door to her.Therefore basically telling her it's okay to let her in..
    We haven't spoken since…
    She also kept on saying that the 6 yr old needed speech therapy,and so many other things.Soo happy to not have in our lives..

  14. We have lovely neighbours – actually we have so many nice people in the tiny sububrb where we live we are blessed, but that is the charm of our little sydney suburb. My daughter loves nothing more than a good chat with both sides which they induldge and our dog has been known to steal the odd shoe which they are good natured about. They were yelling out welcomes to us within 5 minutes of us moving in. They watch our house if we are going away for the weekend. We're very lucky. The only downside is we rent and they may not be our neighbours forever.

  15. I was going to say the same as Nikki! I have one excellent (her), one weird, loud and foulmouthed (other) and Nikki's neighbours from hell we can hear all the way over this side!

    Poor you. Inconsiderate neighbours are absolute hell.

  16. We have pretty good neighbours,one side has been a rental for a while but apart from their slamming of front wire door couldn't really complain. All others are friendly but respectful of our privacy. I wouldn't mind moving but am scared we would end up with a horrible set of neighbours 🙂

  17. Do I ever!

    I was just musing over a good neighbours post.

    My neighbour on one side mows my nature strip every Saturday. The other neighbour came to my rescue (hubby is away) last night and found the meter box and restored my power when it blacked out.

    At Christmas time we exchanged little gifts and a glass of champagne.

    It certainly helps to be friendly with neighbours. I'm hoping our friendliness will make them more forgiving when I'm crazy cocker spaniel has a bark attack.

  18. We have lovely neighbours – always helping out if we need something moved that is too heavy for one man by himself. K baby sits for a few families in the road. We train with one neighbour. We have street parties (planned and impromptu) but as we are in a cul-de-sac we don't have to cordon off the road – we all just congregate on someone's driveway and have a good time with food and music and chatting and invariably lots of drinking !!!!

    Wish you had good neighbours – they make such a difference – we used to have horrible neighbours and it was dreadful. Then they moved out and the next wave of neighbours moved in and it has been so nice since then.

  19. We have brilliant neighbours. We live in the inner west under the flight path so it's noisy and busy, but in a cul-de-sac. Our neighbours look out for each other. Our kids got Xmas presents from four different homes around us.
    It's the one reason we stay where we are. It's a real community.

  20. On one side of the fence we have an elderly lady who lives alone, she is nice and will wave Hello. I think the last time we chatted though, my eldest was 2…she's now 3.

    Then on the other side of the fence, we have a family who we don't know, never met, or really talked to, and who have parties that go to the wee hours of the morning. They will sit on the back deck singing or laughing that loud, that I have to close all the internal doors so they don't wake up the kids.

  21. I must say I don't miss living in town, purely for the fact that the only 'neighbours' that keep me awake are the sheep when they're in the house paddock.
    Our nearest neighbour's house is 2kms away, we do exchange veggies and other cooking items when needed, I just love it.
    Hope things settle down at night soon.

  22. I've only met one neighbour so far, and he is a nice retired gentleman, but we've only been here a few days! I hope we are not the neighbours from hell… with a toddler who has hit full pre-three hysterical tantrums several times a day I worry they think I'm torturing her.

    I have had bad neighbours several times, but worse are the idiots who live close by and drive their noisy crappy cars at full noise down your own and neighbouring streets with crappy doof doof music at jumbo jet volume. Guaranteed baby wakers every. single. time. None of them so far in our new street, cul de sacs have their uses.

  23. I have one good neighbour and one extremely bogan neighbour…don't get me started on the banshee across the road. All in all though I shouldn't complain because even though my bogan neighbours have drinkies on their deck chairs on their drive way at least I know my house is safe because they're home watching the street!

  24. I grew up on a game ranch, the only neighbors I knew where jackals and antelope. Now I live 100feet from my neighbors and they are rude and arrogant. It's sad that the world has become a place where you don't even know your neighbors name.

  25. I thought this post was going to end up with the neighbours painting that on the road in front of your house…LOL

    We live in a very quiet street,except when I get all ranty and I am screeching at the kids or the husband.

  26. I get worried that we are the bad neighbours – we are loud. Only during the day, mind. But our neighbours are lovely (we looked after the chooks for one and got to keep the eggs for one week) and we do the neighbourly thing and collect the mail when they go away. It makes me feel better when their dog barks (in compensation for my 4 loud ones). I was really happy when the neighbours at the back put the radio on loud the other day and their 7 year old was singing full ball whilst jumping on the trampoline – they are always quiet and I was happy that they joined our select group. But so far, come night fall there is serenity in the air. I hope you get that too.

  27. I am very lucky that these days I have great neighbours on both sides.

    Actually, my neighbours on one side of me have a little boy similar in age to Miss J, and he often comes over for a play, and vice versa.

    In the past I've had awful neighbours, great neighbours, noisy inconsiderate neighbours, and just plain bat-shit crazy neighbours (when I lived in Perth I seemed to attract weirdo neighbours – one place I lived across the road from two lesbians who would always come outside to fight, scream and hurl abuse at each other, sometimes spit at each other during these fights, always swear and once one of them lifted up her skirt to flash me when I was walking home from uni and they were outside fighting once again – she didn't wear knickers under skirts. I never understood why they ALWAYS came out the front to fight so the whole street would hear them??

    The next place I lived at had some very strange people living upstairs. The strata was constantly trying to get them kicked out, and the police turned up multiple times during fights. One morning we woke up to find huge flakes of black ash in our courtyard. Then looked over our wall and saw that someone had burnt out a lounge and pushed it off their balcony. Lucky they had enough momentum to get it all the way over the back fence and it didn't land in our courtyard!

    Both of these were in nice suburbs too – I think it was just my natural ability to attract weirdo's.

    I like to think that my last few years of nice neighbours makes up for the crap I put up with in my early 20's!

  28. They have to sleep eventually and that is when I would start my party noise! My neighborhood is quiet I hoped it would be friendly, people wave but never stop and say hello…I can borrow an egg from a few but conversations beyond that don't exist. Then the opposite I have one neighbor that is so far in my business I can't breathe….
    But I'm like you once I'm awake forget it….I'm up! I hope you get a nap in sometime…just force yourself!

  29. I live in an area full of units so noisy neighbours come with the territory I guess. I know everyone on my floor – about half by name and the rest by sight. But I really am not that interested in making friends with any of them. They are all lovely, but a ride in the lift is pretty much maximum exposure for me!

    Home is *my* space – my haven – and I like to be left alone in it.

    Once I got a note from my downstairs neighbour saying they could hear my high heels through the ceiling (my floor is lino on concrete and I thought that bad boy was thick so it was a bit unexpected). I just wrote on the reverse of the note that I was completely unaware that they could hear it but thanks for letting me know and stuck it under their door. Now I put my shoes on just before I leave and take them off when I first come home. Im glad they told me or I would never have known and been a bad neighbour making someone grumpy and keeping them awake!

  30. I think good neighbours are hard to find no matter where you live. I have an amazing family on my left side and a terrible one on the right side. They moved in and left their cardboard boxes and garbage on their driveway for nearly a year! And they spray my dog with water when she's playing in the yard. And to top it off hes a firefighter and shes a teacher and they have the worst children ever.

    But I can always borrow sugar and milk from left side who just happens to hate the right side;) you can never win! hope it gets better!

  31. I live in Uni halls, and it's kind've to be expected there, but I have flatmates who go out 2 or 3 times a week and come in at 3am waking me up. They have no consideration. The rest of my flatmates are lovely though. But believe me I feel your pain!

  32. Lady – you gotta move yourself to the Shire – we did it 4 years ago and have not looked back.. I now drive in to the big smoke to visit the Bondi sister and your roads are so SKINNY and the Eastern Suburbs are just so INTENSE now…..just sayin!

  33. I'm not sure those kind of neighbors exist anymore. At least nowhere that I've lived. We're all too self-absorbed in our own little technological bubbles to worry about getting to know the neighbors. Or maybe that's just me. Lol.

    I think it would be wonderful to have considerate, friendly neighbors though. Let me know if you find any. 😉

  34. I live in an apartment building, and usually don't mind a bit of neighbourly noise (this luckily does not extend to their bathroom trips!) – I can cope with TV, a bit of chat, doors opening and shutting. I find it comforting in a strange way to hear other people's alarms going off behind the doors as I leave in the morning and walk past, BUT we have one upstairs neighbour who has started learning piano, and has taken to practising at any time of day or night – AAAAAAAAARGH!!! I feel your pain with the parties though, we have a kind of dirt track and field at the back of the building, and in the summer it's always full of cars with the music on loud and people drinking and shouting etc. – at the weekends I don't mind too much, but when it's a Sunday night and monday morning's looming it drives me nuts! I hope you find some peace and quiet soon.x

  35. I live in a unit complex of 46 other units.. besides the loud music & laughing our neighbours conversations at 3am normally consist of “yeah bro, hey bro, ok bro, woooooohoooooo bro” one day i yelled out “IM NOT YOUR BRO, NOW GO TO SLEEP!!!”
    you can borrow them if you like?

  36. We live in a beautiful neighbourhood, people always say hello and wave until…… shortly before Christmas a family moved in opposite to a rental house. Teenagers are constantly banging car doors, playing loud music and arguing at any time of day or night. Last night there was a massive argument at 4.45 in the morning. With disgusting language. I finally got back to sleep, just as my littlies woke up.

  37. Continued…..
    At 7am I knocked on the door to let them know I was wide awake and just going for a walk………

  38. I know exactly what you're talking about. I live in a European city, on the ground floor, which is nice as we have a little garden in the back. But: so do our new neighbours. And believe me, their social life is much too active. They are about 50, but in summer they have guests over EVERY NIGHT. They eat, talk, listen to music and generally are just enjoying themselves. BUT EVERY NIGHT! And their garden and our bedroom are not 10 cm apart. WE CAN HEAR EVERYTHING! I could recount their ample experiences. I can hear them even if I close the windows and wear ear- plugs. Ugh. But it makes me smile that people are the same, no matter where on the globe.

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