curtain twitchers

My niece says we are nosey parkers I say neighbourhood watch

I don't curtain twitch but I can sit in the study and watch our CCTV monitor.
It has been very useful over the years as police have been able to ascertain exact times of crimes and in some cases recognise the criminals.

I am and I hate it. We have lived in this house for 5 years and I hate it. We are in a cul de sac with a path at the end for a short cut for the people walking from the nearby roads. It is like living in a goldfish bowl as we are a row of 30s houses all facing each other and the road is quite slim. If I open the curtains I cannot help but see who has gone out if their cars not in the driveway. I find myself drawing the curtains in the morning and saying to DH so and so have gone out early or a delivery van just pulled up next door. We are desperatly trying to get our shrubs to grow to block of the view, at least downstairs. Sitting here typing this I have the curtains nearly pulled across because people taking a shortcut have a tendency to stare in as they pass. We moved back to the area from Somerset quickly when my GD was born from a lovely old cottage with beautiful views to a house back in town. Oh how I miss watching the sheep. I feel move number 6 coming on.

inishowen

Just last week we had shrubs taken away as they were obscuring our window. I fully intend watching what is going on in my street. I have many years to catch up on lol.

inishowen

There is a difference between people watching, caring that your neighbours are fine and being nosy and interfering.

DH's comfy chair and computer are near the window so he is more likely to give a narrative, and the dog takes up position in the front room and I usually go through to find out why she is barking. I do peer out of my bedroom window which looks over my neighbours house and try to decide if she is living alone or is her family living with her?

My small kitchen window is at the front and overlooks the road. I can see a little of what's going on but I am nicely set back from the road because of the useful car parking space. The best view is from the front spare bedroom where I have the ironing board set up permanently (I'm a patchworker) behind the net curtain (not that it's there for nosy purposes) and I can see people getting on and off the bus just a few doors away. Usually there's not much to see which is probably best. I like a quiet life.

I had my first DD at home and my MIL stayed over for the first few days. She knew more about my neighbours and comings and goings in the road than I did after living there for two years. Where I live now I can see very little as I’m surrounded by shrubs and trees. Consequently the only twitching I do is the birdie kind. Love it.

I'm not but live amongst many who are and mainly young. Only last week on out local FB network was a message posted about a man who was carrying a takeaway coffee cup and walking very slowly up a street. This person was apparently given a good stare by a resident as he walked past and deemed to be "sussing" out the place. Turned out the suspicious person was actually a resident! Pity so much attention isn't paid to the kids jumping on top of the litter bin, riding cycles through the planted areas and kicking balls in the no ball games area then running on to the road to retrieve them.

I take an interest in what goes on in our road. A few weeks ago I noticed that the house opposite had their bathroom light on for several days. We knew that someone lived there on their own, reclusive but not elderly, so after a couple of days we called local police. They arrived and found our neighbour collapsed upstairs. He is currently in hospital.We don't know him to speak to, but are so glad that we did the right thing.

Since lockdown, our community has tried to look out for each other, so I think we're more aware of comings and goings.

Being disabled I spend most of my time in my living room. I have a large window. No nets. I like to watch passers by. The children going to and from school. Makes me feel less isolated.
It works both ways. If my neighbour opposite should see that I have not opened my curtains she would know that something was wrong.

I live in a raised hall floor flat and overlook the front garden of the house. The basement/garden flat use the garden and I can only think they became quite obsessed with hearing us moving around and, I think, whether or not we were watching them. I put some low furniture in front of the overlooking windows to remind us to stay back but I noticed they still visibly flinched when I opened and closed curtains or windows. They frequently said we walked across out floors and made the joists creak which drove them mad, but they didn't hear us talking or playing music etc. Nothing we could do helped, including loads of under and above floor sound insulation.... They sent us a horrible email when they moved out, telling us how we'd ruined their lives We weren't curtain twitchers in the sense of deliberately watching these neighbours and, if anything, restricted our use of the windows overlooking their garden, so it was a bit difficult to know how to live in a way that didn't disturb them. In the end I felt that they spied on us due to their obsession with what we were doing. I've lived in a close community of small terraced houses in London where everyone was into neighbourhood watch and looking out for each other, gossiping, twitching the curtains, and it was lovely as there was a sense of real community.

Mum - "That woman across the road is always looking out of her window!". Me - "How do you know??" ??

Only our bedroom overlooks the road so the only twitching i do is if i am woken up by loud voices in the middle of the night

I'm not but my DH is. I call him the 'Neighbourhood Watch Patrol' He would love to be a Covid Warden if the opportunity arose.
I would not like that, imagine if he had to say something to one of the neighbours in the street or reported them, it could cause all sorts of issues later on. I tell him peering through the nets is enough!!!!

I do not twitch curtains. If I have to see what's going on, I go out in the balcony, and everyone can see me, as I can see them. But I rarely do, unless I need to smack the feather duster against the sill.

I think curtain twitching is becoming electronic in urban areas. In my current road which is long and wide, and in the previous street where I lived which was also long but narrow, the majority of residents are linked by an email group and anything suspicious or of interest at the end of the road is quickly conveyed to those elsewhere. Works well if the messages are short.

I live in a town which prides itself being nosy. When we moved here we had an extension built and folk would gather outside and openly discuss what we seemed to be doing. So I went out and joined in. An excellent way of making friends and meeting the neighbours.

We have a low burglary rate probably because its so difficult to do much unnoticed.

Yup, twitcher here. It is biogical. Whales and humans are the only species that have menopause. This is so they can pass their wisdom to younger generation while unencumbered with their own offspring. Their role includes keeping an eye on what's going on around to keep the family safe. So twitch away, I say.

Aha fluttERBY, that explains why whales spy-hop. They really are being nosy!

The term 'Curtain Twitcher' completely denigrates and trivialises a recognised and vital social activity - watching the antics of others is called 'Empirical Research' , and I am a lifelong Empirical Researcher. Twitcher indeed - how insulting!!

My neighbour opposite us is the nosiest neighbour we could have. He is a lovely, helpful man who keeps his eye on our house while we are away. He waters our plants, reports to our DS if anything is amiss Puts our bins out and brings them in. He must be looking out of his window all day. He loves to be in his front garden pottering and watching out for anyone walking by. We hear the same conversation a dozen times a day. BUT we wouldn’t be without him. ?

I do take some notice but not everything. The police chase that ended up almost outside in our usually quiet residential road couldn't be missed though!!

I used to be a bit of a curtain twitcher, but since new people moved into the house across the road I try not to. They sit outside under their car port a lot just staring at everyone and everything. Every time I try to look out of the window, they’re sitting there looking straight at me ( or that’s what it seems like). They remind me of Joe and Petunia from the public information films back in the day.