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If you are lucky enough to have a garden, you’ll know how pleasant it can be to spend time out there when the weather is nice. It’s like having your own mini vacation spot to relax in. And whether you like to spend your free time in your garden sunbathing, playing in a pool, tending to your plants, or – like the guy in this story – barbecuing, it’s your space and your rules.

However, unfortunately for this particular family, their neighbours aren’t a fans of the way that they relax in their yard on the weekends. In fact, they’ve explicitly asked the family not to cook outdoors, not to have folk round to chill in the pool – and really, it seems like they’d rather that they have absolutely no fun at all.

Read on to find out what happened here.

Turns out I am the bad neighbor because of my BBQ and my pool

I have been at my current place for almost ten years. It is a nice neighbourhood, on a dead-end street and with houses spaced pretty far apart.

I get along very well with the neighbours on my street and don’t pay to much attention to the others opposite my fence, but I’ve been friendly when we have had to engage.

In the summer time I like to smoke/bbq. Since I am usually at home on the weekends because of the pool, I will cook meat for the week or for a get together.

It’s nothing over the top, just some ribs or a brisket or pulled pork.

However, this is a fun-loving family.

We do have Sunday Fun day though.

It is an open house to swing by and chill at the pool, have some drinks. It is very mild and nothing crazy. Sit in the pool and drink.

The neighbors on the street are invited and some do come, but pretty much everyone on the street has a pool. It usually goes from 1pm to 6pm and wraps up pretty quickly.

Its always been quiet, and to date no one has said anything.

But now, things are changing in this neighbourhood.

New people bought the house to my right, on the other side of the fence back in late June. Their house is probably 100 feet from the fence.

Aside from a wave and hello, I have not had much interaction with them.

The fence, which is a few years old and paid for by myself, had a couple of slats pop out from a storm and needed to be secured. So I walked over and knocked on the door and asked them if I could go across the grass to fix it.

The husband was fine and said go ahead, but was a little off. The wife just gave me a blank look. I fixed the slats and turned to walk back and the husband and wife were behind me.

Just as he got finished, he felt the mood change further.

I then got a lecture from the two of them about the smoke smell and the excessive parties preventing them from enjoying their backyard.

I just sat there and listened to them, and kept my mouth shut. I thought they were being a little hypocritical since they have three kids who were pretty loud over the summer, but I let them go on and on and on until they ran out of steam and eventually stopped talking.

They looked at me for an explanation, or an acknowledgement or something. I shrugged my shoulders and left.

My wife told a few of the neighbours about the interaction and they all got a kick out of it, no one seems to think it is a problem or disturbance. And I do not plan on stopping.

Everyone enjoys their own back yards in different ways, and it’s clear that this is a fun, welcoming family.

They’re not making noise late into the night, nor are they cooking at unsociable times. They’re just enjoying their lives, in their space, in the way that they want to.

If the neighbours have a problem with that? They’re just going to have to figure it out for themselves.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person agreed that they weren’t doing anything wrong.

However, others thought that by not even considering their concerns, he was the bad guy.

Meanwhile, this Redditor thought he could at least make it look like he was showing some concern.

It sucks that unlike the rest of his neighbours, the folks who have moved in next door to him don’t seem to be the fun-loving types. In fact, they’ve barely made any effort to get to know their neighbour before accosting him and accusing him of ruining their time in their own garden. All while he was fixing their shared fence. It’s not very neighbourly behaviour.

If the smoke and the folk having fun really was bothering them, they needed to find a better way to bring it up. Or at least, they needed to speak to him earlier, or a bit more tactfully. Because all he’s doing is relaxing in his garden, with an open invitation to other folk in the neighbourhood, on a Sunday afternoon. It’s his yard and so long as he’s not breaking any laws or ordinances, he’s doing nothing wrong.