Rules are rules, people!

And if you’re not gonna follow the rules, well, you better be prepared for the outcome.

Imagine knowing there is a certain time for an event to take place, but a neighbor shows up two hours after the event is over and blames you that her kids can’t participate.

That’s what this Reddit user was dealing with. Read the story below, and see if you think she treated her neighbors badly or not.

AITA for not giving the neighbor’s kids candy?

“I, 21f, live with my parents in the Netherlands. Here we have a tradition on November 11 called Sint Maarten.

It’s where kids make their own lanterns, go door to door, sing songs for candy. Kinda like trick or treating.

In my neighborhood we have the rule that the kids (and their parents) can only come to the door for candy between 6 and 7 pm. No sooner and no later.

It’s also a rule that the houses who participate, need to have a candle outside next to the door. No candle means no songs/candy.

Enter the new neighbors.

Now we have new neighbors (they moved here 6 months ago, but this is the first time they participated here), with 4 kids between 9ish and 15-ish so of course they were welcome to participate.

I was home alone during Sint Maarten, because my parents were with my aunt, who’s really sick. I was really busy with my projects for college, but between 6 and 7 pm I happily put a candle next to the door and prepared a bowl of candy.

Many kids came to sing songs and it was adorable.

At 7 pm I blew out the candle, grabbed the rest of the candy to snack on (there were 3 pieces left) and went back to my projects (I had a deadline that evening).

It was two hours later when the neighbors showed up.

Around 9 pm the bell rang.

I opened the door and there were the new neighbors. The kids immediately started singing songs.

I didn’t know what to do and when they were done I politely told them that the planned hour for Sint Maarten was already over.

The mom said that they couldn’t participate then, because absolutely couldn’t miss her TV how and that her husband was grocery shopping.

It’s not like the new neighbors didn’t know the rules.

Now I’d like to point out that we have a group chat with all the adults in the neighborhood and each year the rules are repeated. These new neighbors are also in this chat.

I told them that it wasn’t my fault that they had other priorities and that I didn’t have a candle outside.

The mom told me that because I had the decorative lights above the front door on, they assumed that I was still participating.

I explained the rules again and told them that it had to be a candle outside the door to prevent confusion.

She asked me if I was really going to deny her kids candy after they sang me a song.

I told them that we didn’t have anything left and she got even more mad. I pointed out that even if I had any left, I wouldn’t have had enough for all her kids.

This lady is nuts!

She demanded that I go find candy for her kids.

When I told her that the best that I could do was some fruit. She scoffed and said that I had ruined Sint Maarten for her kids.

The kids started whining for candy and the mom told them that I didn’t have any for them

In the meantime it was almost 9:30, my deadline was for 11 and I still had a lot to do. I was tired, stressed and had a headache, so I was grumpy. I still tried to be as polite as possible and told them that I had to get back to my project.

The next day there was a message in the group chat from the mom saying that her kids were disappointed that they couldn’t participate and that she expected better from a neighborhood with so many kids.

AITA?”

The mom knew the rules but assume there wouldn’t be consequences for breaking them. Hopefully she’ll know better next year.

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person said she’s NTA.

Another individual agreed.

This reader shared their thoughts.

Another Reddit user weighed in.

And this person spoke up.

You snooze, you lose!

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.