'My nosy neighbour complains about everything I do - it's payback time'
A man has admitted that the angry antics of his elderly nosy neighbour have caused him to exact petty revenge, causing him unnecessary ‘strife and stress’ instead as a result. The man, who told how he and his wife had moved into the neighbourhood five years ago, admitted the ‘annoying' neighbour seemed ‘nice enough’ at the start, but had been causing the duo continual problems over the years, which they had managed to ignore – until now.
After detailing her many complaints, including their outside lights being too bright (they changed the bulbs to accommodate), installing plastic chicken wire fences so no snow from their garden could get on her lawn (it never had), while also complaining that leaves from their garden were spoiling hers, he said that the couple had always been courteous to her demands, bending over backward to ‘ensure she was happy’.
He said: “One day I asked her why the plastic fence had been put up to be told: ‘Well you guys never clean up your leaves.’ I apologised and say we'll do a better job. Both my wife and I work full-time jobs and I'm disabled and constantly have trouble with my prosthetic leg. We pay a service to clean the leaves, so we call them back for further cleaning,” he said, before revealing she still kept the plastic fence up afterward, only taking it down in the springtime.
Read more: 'I took DNA test for a laugh - and accidentally uncovered my mum's devious past'
He continued: “In October the fence goes up again. My wife insisted I not say anything, until one day we were sitting in our living room and saw her blow leaves directly onto our driveway. I ran out there and confronted her, calmly at first and then could barely get a word in as she was unloading on me. Her fence is an eyesore. I’ve called the city and they told her she can have it, but has to take it down after winter,” he fumed.
Gales, snow and rain to batter country today with 80mph wind gusts
He also admitted that he has started to watch her rake leaves every day, while becoming increasingly infuriated when all of his neighbours leaves end up on his driveway because of her fence. “Some days I'll kick some leaves over to her side in anger,” he admitted, before asking Reddit readers how they would handle a difficult neighbour.
Many were quick to tell him to try and ignore her antics, with one commenting: “The more energy you put into this, the more you’ll tie yourself up in knots. Rather than watching her, maybe try pretending she doesn’t exist? Does it really matter what she does? Laugh about it – she sounds a bit silly.”
Another agreed saying: “The only way you're going to get through this is to not engage. Sometimes elderly people go that way and will find a problem with you because 'you're young and should respect every opinion of theirs' and they just have nothing else to occupy their minds with, so you're the issue.” Another garden lover said: “Put the bright bulbs back up and mulch the leaves into your yard (or have your service do it). She is killing her soil. Don't let her kill yours.”
One advised him to eliminate the lawn, creating a garden that encourages wildlife instead: “Not only does it look like pure chaos (and this likely to drive her batty), once established, it takes very little maintenance, as it's too dense for most weeds, smells amazing and the leaves will mulch and feed it.” Another offered some simple and sage advice: “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
