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Child Item

People who leave their curtains open in the suburbs

[Deleted User]

It's one thing wandering around in the nip when you live in the countryside, but I've likely seen more of my neighbours' anatomy than their own GP.

I'm not suggesting anything drastic like net curtains, but can't people at least draw the curtains when the lights come on?

I won't sugar-coat this, I've seen actual sexual activity between a couple of near neighbours at the onset of dusk. It shouldn't matter, but the fact is they weren't exactly in their youth and I could have done without that image.

There is also a narrow passage between my house and another neighbour. A side bedroom looks directly into their bedroom. If the window were open, we would be able to chat in indoor-voices. Yet they happily sit in bed, chatting and reading like a pair of exhibitionists, while I feel like some sort of prude for pulling the blind.

Obviously this problem is overcome by simply drawing your own curtains. But even taking the dogs out to do their wees, I've seen far more of my neighbours than I comfortable with.

Our road has a WhatsApp group and I'm nearly tempted to make some kind of general appeal to it. What do you think? Have you experienced this?

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riclad

riclad wrote: »

What I find strange is people who live in houses or ground floor apartments who leave the curtains open.
Do they not care who see, s them.
Are they oblivious, do they like looking at passers by.
I think when you over a certain height it does, nt matter if the curtains are open. The way apartments are designed most bedrooms have small windows not facing other buildings.
If the curtains are open you can see into the front room, kitchen area.
I don't understand people who leave curtains open at night when the lights are on.
I think if you live close to your neighbours it's just better to close the curtains.

Why would anyone have curtains open in a bedroom window at night.

mrsdewinter

Seamai wrote: »

"No nets, how common"

Lynda la Hughes
(Gimme, Gimme, Gimme)

Unpopular opinion: I wish net curtains would make a comeback.

jam_mac_jam

mrsdewinter wrote: »

Unpopular opinion: I wish net curtains would make a comeback.

No thanks. Awful filthy things.

biko

Send nudes

worded

I had a two year relationship with a neighbour that ended recently

She got net curtains

Strumms

Funny, my street has a WhatsApp group and I also live opposite a house that leaves blinds and curtains open in the front room downstairs 24/7. I don’t know why, it’s kinda weird, you can see right through into their fridge when they open it. I could see their Nutella is out of date by two weeks... seriously though they have young kids too I’m just somebody who has always valued privacy I guess it’s strange.

ILoveYourVibes

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It's one thing wandering around in the nip when you live in the countryside, but I've likely seen more of my neighbours' anatomy than their own GP.

I'm not suggesting anything drastic like net curtains, but can't people at least draw the curtains when the lights come on?

I do hope people know that even with net curtains during the day ...with no light on ..we can see you.

Its only in the dark we can't.

Sardonicat

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

I do hope people know that even with net curtains during the day ...with no light on ..we can see you.

Its only in the dark we can't.

You've got good eyesight.

ILoveYourVibes

Sardonicat wrote: »

You've got good eyesight.

i really don't ...i have a weird neighbor you likes to ..do certain things ...near the window tho...i keep my curtains closed all day all night...he's a bit anti social.

Actually you are right ..i prob do ...but he gives people problems and is ...menacing ..so he has made me a bit uncomfortable and ...nervous ..he lives behind me....lots of people have seen him.

JasonStatham

Basically mind your own business, is what I'd say. Don't look into people's houses...obviously people have stray eye now and again, you can't help noticing things, but don't stare lol

but to be honest, if I saw my neighbours having sex, I'd have a good laugh haha. Who knows since they are open to show the world maybe you can be invited in for a threesome. I think I'd get a big klAxon and honk it outside their window haha.

talla10

global23214124 wrote: »

And now to ride Mrs O'Reilly

Those women were in the nip :eek:

Rezident

frosty123 wrote: »

The Dutch do that all the time, lived in Holland for a spell...could write a book about what I saw everything from drug taking, yoga, domestic violence to a couple having sex, I kid you not

I love the Dutch but that couple sound like particularly good fun - best neighbours ever!

freshpopcorn

I blame Dermot Bannon he made it cool to leave all the lights on and not to close the curtains or even have them in the first place.

Chalk McHugh

Once your neighbour wasn't having sex with a chicken and giving new meaning to him enjoying a Sunday Roast (which i saw was a thread on here) whats the big deal?

[Deleted User]

Chalk McHugh wrote: »

Once your neighbour wasn't having sex with a chicken and giving new meaning to him enjoying a Sunday Roast (which i saw was a thread on here) whats the big deal?

It isn't a big deal at all really. It's just a curious behaviour. I like having the curtains and windows open during the night, but not in Dublin or a built-up area when the lights are on.

I wonder what the appeal is? Or is there no appeal, people are just complacent and don't realise they're on display?

Someone mentioned apartment blocks. That reminds me, I once lived in an apartment block in town, where every apartment looked into the apartments opposite, across a small courtyard, through protruding 8'x8' windows.

We were like goldfish, always on display, even during the daytime. The design of tbe place meant we couldn't help it.

I think that sort of thing is simply down to bad architecture. Even for zoo animals, when their enclosures are designed, are built in a way that allows the animal some privacy from prying eyes. Apparently they go a bit crazy without a hiding place.

Yellow_Fern

Has anyone tried that one way reflective film for windows? Would it look weird in a front room?

Millionaire only not

Yellow_Fern wrote: »

Has anyone tried that one way reflective film for windows? Would it look weird in a front room?

Thought that was the whole point of leaving curtains open was to let the neighbours watch bit of live porn .

Gruffalux

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

. Even for zoo animals, when their enclosures are designed, are built in a way that allows the animal some privacy from prying eyes. Apparently they go a bit crazy without a hiding place.

Not quite the no curtains dilemma, but I do not get the amount of houses built in the country - big fancy yokes - with an acre of lawn around them and not a bush or tree or wall or bit of bamboo screening to be found. It is like an open stage, every single time you leave the house you are on show to passing traffic. It honestly baffles me. Traditionally people would build up attractive woodlands or shrubberies or walls to give themselves privacy, but so many seem to go to the absolute opposite extreme. What is the point of having a garden or a home if you cannot be private and relaxed in it?

[Deleted User]

Gruffalox wrote: »

Not quite the no curtains dilemma, but I do not get the amount of houses built in the country - big fancy yokes - with an acre of lawn around them and not a bush or tree or wall or bit of bamboo screening to be found. It is like an open stage, every single time you leave the house you are on show to passing traffic. It honestly baffles me. Traditionally people would build up attractive woodlands or shrubberies or walls to give themselves privacy, but so many seem to go to the absolute opposite extreme. What is the point of having a garden or a home if you cannot be private and relaxed in it?

I completely agree. My sister built her house on the farm at home, behind a grove, and at the housewarming a few of the Dublin visitors were all "what's the point in building a house that nobody can see?". Strange mentality, a house is a sanctuary, not a display item.

CrankyHaus

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I completely agree. My sister built her house on the farm at home, behind a grove, and at the housewarming a few of the Dublin visitors were all "what's the point in building a house that nobody can see?". Strange mentality, a house is a sanctuary, not a display item.

I actually never copped that this was done deliberately to show off the house.

"Look on my works ye mighty and despair" doesn't exactly come to mine when you're looking at an unpainted concrete yoke.

I assumed it was pure laziness.

the purple tin

frosty123 wrote: »

The Dutch do that all the time, lived in Holland for a spell...could write a book about what I saw everything from drug taking, yoga, domestic violence to a couple having sex, I kid you not

If you close your curtains in NL the neighbours would get suspicious, think that you are building a bomb or something.

[Deleted User]

CrankyHaus wrote: »

I actually never copped that this was done deliberately to show off the house.

"Look on my works ye mighty and despair" doesn't exactly come to mine when you're looking at an unpainted concrete yoke.

I assumed it was pure laziness.

It might be laziness in some cases, but looking at some of the new MacMansions down home, a lot of them have hired landscaping but have (seemingly deliberately) avoided anything that obstructs the house.

Annoyingly, they're all built to the same paint-by-numbers design, so they're not even adding anything to the architecture of the area. Once you've seen one of these concrete & PVC piles, you've seen them all.

EmmetSpiceland

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It might be laziness in some cases, but looking at some of the new MacMansions down home, a lot of them have hired landscaping but have (seemingly deliberately) avoided anything that obstructs the house.

Annoyingly, they're all built to the same paint-by-numbers design, so they're not even adding anything to the architecture of the area. Once you've seen one of these concrete & PVC piles, you've seen them all.

I would have assumed the “clearing” of the front area around the house was to provide the owners with a nice view of the countryside without, the downside being the general public getting a nice view of within.

[Deleted User]

Lived on an estate years ago. The boyfriend of the woman opposite used to “come home for lunch” and then proceed to have very enthusiastic and energetic (not to say athletic) sex with her in the front room; no blinds, curtains, net curtains or, as far as we could see, any other precautions.

We took to holding up the sort of scorecards you see on Olympic skating competitions or Dancing with the Staff programmes, which he could see as he scuttled (well, limped, mostly) back to work at 1.55pm. I think the highest score I ever gave was 9.5 - just couldn’t bring myself to give him a ten, even though it looked like he had “given her a ten”, on a couple of occasions*!

Maybe you could try this approach??

* no, I’m not jealous. Not jealous at all, OK??

Strumms

Deleted User wrote: »

Lived on an estate years ago. The boyfriend of the woman opposite used to “come home for lunch” and then proceed to have very enthusiastic and energetic (not to say athletic) sex with her in the front room; no blinds, curtains, net curtains or, as far as we could see, any other precautions.

We took to holding up the sort of scorecards you see on Olympic skating competitions or Dancing with the Staff programmes, which he could see as he scuttled (well, limped, mostly) back to work at 1.55pm. I think the highest score I ever gave was 9.5 - just couldn’t bring myself to give him a ten, even though it looked like he had “given her a ten”, on a couple of occasions*!

Maybe you could try this approach??

* no, I’m not jealous. Not jealous at all, OK??

You’d give them 9.5 , after he’d give her , one.

[Deleted User]

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

I would have assumed the “clearing” of the front area around the house was to provide the owners with a nice view of the countryside without, the downside being the general public getting a nice view of within.

Yes, that's true. Also, building a house is expensive and landscaping is usually the last thing people can afford to think about.

I'm only referring here to a subset of people who do make a lovely effort with their gardens, but for some reason leave their place completely exposed to very unappealing regional roads. As complaints go, I realise this is only a minor issue, but some of these houses are a real blight on the landscape.

riclad

No one is on display, is there someone out there who pays rent or a mortgage but can't afford to buy cheap net curtains?
I don't understand why someone would want anyone watching them in thier front room all the time,
Please burglars look at my 4k 60 inch TV.
I understand very large windows in kitchens, front rooms
are in style at least according to any TV program
like grand designs etc

greenspurs

and you have no problem holding the camera in your left hand ? …………..
Is it not too shaky ?

[Deleted User]

The simplest explanation is usually correct, people have got used to living very close together and don't notice they are on view anymore.

[Deleted User]

There is a more serious aspect to this as well.

When my husband was working from home he was always conscious of closing the window even in the very hot weather we had, if he was having a meeting.

I have overheard what must be a confidential financial and legal issue being discussed by a neighbor who was working from home seemed to have forgotten they had the window open.