Imagine moving into a house where one of your neighbors is a very friendly child who thinks of you as their new friend. Would you be happy to hang out with the child, or would you want them to stay away from your house?

In this story, one homeowner is in this exact situation, and he and his partner have completely opposite feelings about the situation. Now, he’s left wondering if he’s the bad guy.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA For not wanting the neighborhood kid around

My partner and I (late 20s) recently moved into our first house and we were happy to find our neighbors very friendly.

One person in particular, the 9-year-old across the street, is a bit too friendly. He and my partner are “buddies” and he comes over looking for her all the time.

I’m not thrilled about this because 1) I’m a private, not super social person, and 2) I am not good with kids and feel awkward around them.

His partner has a completely different perspective.

My partner feels that when we moved to this neighborhood, we said that we would be open and willing to be part of the community. And also that I’m being selfish, since this kid is stuck at home and bored out of his mind.

I hear that, but I just don’t like this kid being around!

This is kind of a separate problem, but the kid also has some behavior issues that we’ve talked to his mother about.

Locking the door would solve one of these problems.

He doesn’t seem to understand boundaries – for example, we generally don’t keep the door locked during the day, and today he just snuck into the house and scared the living daylights out of me.

He has also broken one our windows when he tried throwing palm tree nuts at the window to get my partner’s attention…

We’ve talked to his mom about this, who gave him a stern talking to that I thought was really good.

They weren’t exactly “good.”

But he still did the whole sneaking into our house thing today…so another talking to is clearly in order.

But assuming this kid can clean up his act and be a respectful guest in our house, AITA for STILL not wanting him around?

I feel super guilty and curmudgeonly.

I think they should start locking the door and set boundaries. Surely there’s a happy medium where the partner can hang out with the kid when she’s available.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this situation.

This is good advice.

Here’s a vote for boundaries.

This person finds the boy’s behavior “disturbing.”

I assume the mom thinks of it as free babysitting.

This boy’s behavior isn’t exactly what I would describe as “friendly.”

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