If you need to retrieve something from your neighbour's garden, it is important to ask before popping over.
Nobody wants to find someone clambering through their hedges. Unfortunately, this is the exact scenario that comforted one keen gardener during the Easter weekend.
To make matters worse, the adult trampled on her flowers in his mission to gain access.
Understandably feeling 'riled', the homeowner took to Mumsnet to slam her neighbour's behaviour, before sharing her revenge plot.
Explaining what happened, she wrote: "Neighbours are having a party. With the sort of guests who don't think they're having a good time unless their laugh carries 6 doors. Fair enough, it's a sunny weekend."
However, her opinion quickly changed when she found a man trampling on her flowers, apparently looking to retrieve a ball from her garden.
"I'm just returning from the compost heap when I spot a man standing in my snowdrops, about to insert himself through a thin bit of hedge," she recalled. "I'm quite happy to throw balls back. I'm happy for someone to come and get their ball if they come in from the drive at the top, and keep to the paths. But to push through the hedge and trample the borders, that's not on."
Now, she's been left wondering if she should stop being so considerate when her neighbours clearly aren't. "I was looking at the lawn this morning thinking 'that needs a mow, but I can't do it on a bank holiday weekend when people are enjoying their gardens'. But now I’m not feeling so charitable," her post explained.
However, people reassured the mum she could and should go ahead with her plans regardless of the provocation.
"There is clearly an unwritten rule that has bypassed me. Mine needs a mow and if it is dry tomorrow it will be getting done as it is the only day I have got the time to do it. Just mow the lawn," read one reply.
Another pointed out: "My neighbours were mowing this afternoon and someone else was cutting their hedge at 6.30. It wouldn't be me but it doesn't bother me!"
A third suggested there's no problem so long as she doesn't start work 'too early.' "I wouldn't do it before 10.30," they added. The mum replied: "Oh, that's an idea! Before breakfast! That'll be a happy revenge for having my snowdrops trampled!"
However, she went on to stress she was only joking, as she won't go through with the plan.
"I won't, of course. I've vented my anger on here," she clarified. "So it'll be next week. It may not be accepted etiquette, but I'm not going to make loud antisocial noises on a bank holiday weekend if I don't need to."
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