Although the phrase “love thy neighbor” sounds wonderful in theory, it is really challenging to put into reality. Particularly if you like to remain to yourself and happen to have very little in common. No matter how kind someone is, there are moments when people just want to be left alone. Read the story to know what happened between the neighbours and let us know how you would deal with the situation.
Source: Reddit
Throwaway
My husband (36m) and I (29f) have lived in our neighborhood for about 5 years. Our house is towards the edge of the complex, and neither of us are very social, so we keep to ourselves. The rest of the people in our area tend to do so as well.
We had someone that moved in down the street maybe a month or so ago. Didn’t really know much about them except I noticed when we drove by that it looked like they had young children and that they had some political signs out in front that indicated we were on pretty much opposite sides of the political spectrum.
Two days ago there was a knock on the door. I opened it because I was expecting a package, and it was a woman about my age. She introduced herself as the new neighbor and started talking a mile a minute. She told me that she had three children, was a SAHM, was new to the area, and some other stuff that I don’t really remember. Then she started peppering me with questions and seemed to get more and more disappointed as I answered. She asked if I had children (no), did we plan on having children (no), do I know any of the social activities in the area (no), do I know any local mom groups (confused no), do I ever babysit (hard no). You get the picture.
She seemed to run out of steam and almost pouted and said it didn’t seem like we did much at all. I laughed and told her that my husband and I preferred things quiet and kept to ourselves, but that the neighborhood seemed to get a bit more busy and social closer to the center of it because there was a school so maybe she could find something more what she was looking for there.
She said she was hoping to get to know her close neighbors and told me to come over for coffee sometime and I could meet her kids and husband. I thanked her politely but was honest and told her it didn’t seem like we had much in common and I couldn’t really see us being friends, but that I was sure she could find a good mom group at the playground towards the center of the neighborhood. She got visibly angry and asked if my husband was as big of an a**h**e as I was and I thought for a moment then said yeah. She stomped off. I might have been an a**h**e because I was direct and didn’t give her much of a chance but I just don’t think we would have mixed well. Did i go too far here? Please don’t be afraid to criticize. Thank you for your time in advance.
Here are a few comments on the story where it was originally posted:
