Obnoxious Neighbors!
@sapphirencotton (69)
United States
May 15, 2007 1:57pm CST
We moved into our new house in Sept and since then we have had a few run ins with the neighbors a few houses down. At first it was good, their 2 daughters were coming over to play with my 2 daughters that are the same ages. Then the mother came over to meet us. She is a foreigner and has a strong accent. That first day we met she saw that my husband has alot of DVDs. He has over 1000 in his collection. She asked if they could take some to watch and I said no, my husband did not like to loan them out. She didn't understand or didn't care, and ended up taking a movie with her when she left. I was so upset! Her son was there too though, and he brought the movie back later that afternoon. I told my husband about it still and he was pretty mad. Later on we took them to a school event because she does not drive. We hit it off pretty well that night and my husband said she could borrow movies as long as they bring them back promptly, but within the next few days she got mad at me because I could not drive her to the store. My youngest was home sick and I didn't want to drag her out if I didn't let her go to school. After that her girls stopped coming over to play. Then my youngest told me that her youngest was being mean to her on the bus. They had assigned seats and she was forced to sit next to her. So I wrote a note to the bus driver and she got her seat changed. For a while things were quiet, but the other day they came over cause we got a new puppy and she wanted to see her. While she was over, my husband was off work that day, she said to him, "Since you are off today, you come over and hang my ceiling fan." I was floored! Who the....What the....I told her no way, my husband works 5 12 hour days a week. His time home is his own, he needs to relax. I just thought she really had alot of nerve to even ask, though she didn't ask, she told him!
All this seems so mild typing it out here, but I am facing years living near this family and I'm worried what the future may hold.
I also recently made friends with a girl in the neighborhood a few doors down and she is having problems with her neighbor too. One day they were outside doing yardwork and had a radio out there. The neighbor called the cops on them. Instead of first coming out and saying "hey, our baby is sleeping can you turn that off for a while?" Apparently this guy has called the cops on a few neighbors before too and has been seen around the neighborhood taking pictures of things that violate the community rules.
Does anyone else have problems with neighbors like this?
Have you had a situation where you have had to call the cops on your neighbors?
6 people like this
9 responses
@makingpots (11915)
• United States
16 May 07
Oh, there is nothing as bad as feuding with neighbors. Home should be a worry free place to get away from the world.
I think you have no choice but to completely keep away from them. It is too bad for your girls since they may have been friends at one time, but you have to worry what they are learning when they are around her (that everyone owes them something, that they can just demand what they want???)
I don't know about the size of your community, but after awhile the cops will get tired of the petty phone calls from them. They will become 'known' around the station and everything will eventually backfire on them.
I'm sorry you live with this daily. It is an awful thing to deal with.
The only time we even thought about calling the cops on a neighbor was one year when a teenage party was happening on the fourth of July. We were at a party elsewhere and didn't return home until 1:00 in the morning to find them in the backyard, loud, screaming and shooting off fireworks. Fireworks are strickly prohibited in the city limits where I live. We had weeks of drought prior to that and everyone in the neighborhood was worried that these kids would catch our yards on fire. That family moved out not long after that.
3 people like this
@desertdarlene (8910)
• United States
16 May 07
I don't know what's wrong with some people. First of all, you're just neighbors, you're not family. I am sick of people thinking that you have to be friends with your neighbors like you would a family member. Most of the time, we don't choose who lives next to us. I don't know who used to live next to her before, but perhaps they were related to her.
This just makes me mad because I don't really like to associate with my neighbors beyond normal pleasantries. I often get pressured to get to "know" my neighbors, but I don't feel like I have to beyond respecting them and being nice when I see them.
2 people like this
@CarlyLaine (759)
• United States
16 May 07
Your situation is why I stay to myself-I never get involved with my neighbors except to say hello and small talk, but never to do what you've gone through. There are users and takers at every turn.
I would tell her to back off. When your kids became involved through no fault of their own that oooooo I so feel for you.
You owe this rude obnoxious neighbor nothing...she'd better back off from you.
GAWD! this annoys me. Be tough! Don't let her win and ruin your days. Just tell her.
1 person likes this
@sunshine4 (8703)
• United States
16 May 07
I feel sorry for you! This neighbor is obviously from a different culture than you and assumes that she is welcome to help herself to your possessions and expects that your husband should help her because she is your neighbor. Hopefully you can stay on her good side and not have her call the police on you.
My husband and I decided to build our home on 3 acres of land so we wouldn't have to deal with neighbors. Our neighbors are close enough if we need them, but far enough away to not know what we are doing in our home.
Good luck to you.
@worldwise1 (14885)
• United States
16 May 07
I would not like to call the cops on a neighbor unless it was absolutely necessary. That would make bad situation worse. My suggestion to you would be to avoid these people at all costs. You tried to be neighborly and it didn't work out. Even if it means telling your kids to keep their distance, sometimes it is for the greater good. When you have bothersome neighbors the best thing to do is ignore them. They will eventually get the message.
2 people like this
@aladnzane (154)
• Canada
16 May 07
Ms.Sapphirencotton. I'm sure that any one who has lived next door to anyone has had a problem or two. I once had a neighbor who liked to cut his lawn very late on a week night. About 10:30 or so he would fire up this gas mower and start mowing in very little light.
We had finally had enough and I gave him some of his own medicine. He was a night person who slept in every day usually because he did not keep a job for long and was unemployed more than he worked.
One morning I removed the muffler from my gas mower just in case he was a heavy sleeper. I wheeled it into position between our to houses and fired it up. The noise was so loud I left it running and went in for a coffee. While I was inside my wife told me she seen him standing in his yard in just his underwear and scratching his head.
I never had that problem again.
One last thing I must say *You can pick your friends but you can not pick your neighbors unless you got a lot of money to buy the properties around you*.
@ladymoonstone143 (1507)
• United States
16 May 07
That is what am afraid of when we move into our first home one of these days, the obnoxious neighbors. When we are checking possible places out...we drive in there during the day and during the night. We lived in the 2nd floor on our previous apartment and unfortunately, there was someone living on the 3rd floor. Our neighbors goes home late and take a shower around 2 or 3 am...and I always wake up because it seems like the water would fall on top of us. Even the flushing of the toilet..it was just so noisy. And they keep dropping things on the floor and my daughter during that time was just several months old. I was just happy that our lease was almost up and I refused again to live on a place where someone would be living upstairs from us.
With this neighbor you have, I think it is a clash of culture and probably language barrier. If her first language is not English, then that is where the trouble begins. I think she doesn't know how to use correct verb or how to put sentences together that she is using the most basic English that she knows and it will usually end up too direct. And probably the country where she is from, they tend to see neighbors as someone who would do favors for them.
Sad to say with this kind of barrier, you and her would be better of as not being close friends/neighbors. Just keep your distance. Until she learns the American way and how to be gracious with her fellow neighbors, things that she's been doing will always happen. Just say you are busy if they want to come over or you are going somewhere, etc. Your kids can have other playmates. If she is sensitive, she can get the hint.
1 person likes this
@mystic_0318 (937)
• United States
8 Aug 07
I do have a neighbor like that.She always comes over wanting me to take her here and there. ANd she is so rude to her kids and mine. ANd I can't take it.I have told her about it a few times. And when I get company she has to run right over.At times she don't even knock and it pi##es me off...There has been times she comes over here when I'm not home and gets on my laptop and I tell her not to be in my house when I'm not home...I feel like calling the cops on her but , I haven't...I don't know what else I could do than call the cops.........
@ellie26 (4139)
• Malaysia
16 May 07
Hi, I have problems with my neighbour too but not to the extreme of involving cops. The wife is a busybody that likes to go around telling everybody's story. The husband is very arrogant and so is the daughter. The neighbour thinks that they own the neighbourhood. At one time, my cat went over their backyard and I saw the husband took a cane and beat my cat. I just stood there without saying a word. I am not in communication with them for almost 10 years now and I think I will stay that way.
1 person likes this
