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Some neighbor disputes fade with time. This one only escalated, and one homeowner has spent seven years absorbing the fallout.

From the moment she moved in, her neighbor treated her with nothing but hostility. He’s yelled at her for everything from her young daughter glancing over at his yard to threatening her calm, well-trained dog.

The tension never let up. His wife once asked her to confine her child and dog to their own porch for hours, just to keep their own dog from getting worked up.

So when he came at her again over nothing, she finally snapped and did something she now regrets. Now she’s wondering if losing her temper after years of provocation actually makes her the one in the wrong.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for flipping off my long time neighbor?

I (32F) have lived in my house for the past seven years. I have found this home, adopted my dog here, raised my child here, live with my husband, so this is not something new.

Since the day we moved in, my daughter was about four years of age, and in my backyard is a hill, so if you walk to the top of it, you can see the next-door neighbor’s yard.

She didn’t exactly get a warm welcome from her neighbors.

She did just that the day we moved in, and my neighbor very loudly yelled to get lost.

That’s where this whole saga starts.

The neighbor seems to have a big problem with her dog.

Over the year, he has threatened to pepper spray my dog, who has had training, does not bark at people, does not growl.

Just because he watches you from 50 feet away does not mean he’s going to attack you, according to my neighbor.

This neighbor has gotten pretty nasty.

He has threatened to call the cops on me for my dog. Once I was on a walk with my child and she tripped and fell, obviously her being so little it took her a second to get back up, but less than maybe 20 seconds after she fell, he came out yelling and screaming that we need to get off his property.

Mind you, we had not touched his yard, once we were on the sidewalk.

So the homeowner soon started fighting back.

I said, “You don’t own the sidewalk, so back off.” At the time my husband was at work, so obviously I felt very threatened, having my child with me.

The wife of the neighbor is slightly nicer, but still unreasonable.

Anyway, this man has had his wife ask me on one of my walks if I could bring my dog and my daughter up on my porch, which has a gate, they let their dogs out so that their dog doesn’t get mad at mine for being outside.

Mine doesn’t bark, but theirs goes completely psychotic. So no, I’m not bringing my child and my dog up on the porch so that you can be happy for the next two hours while your dog stays outside.

Finally, the conflict came to a head.

Fast forward to now, after a few more threats over the past few years, he threatened to kick my dog because he walked into his yard for half a second while I was checking the mail.

So I flipped him off, said “forget you,” and went inside.

AITA?

Sounds like this neighbor deserved a little heat after years of mistreatment.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter would have taken things a lot farther.

It’s best to start documenting now before things get even worse.

This user shares what they would do if they were in the homeowner’s position.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a student who did the math and figured out he was better off skipping school than serving detention if he forgot his ID.

This homeowner has just about enough for a full police report.

Years of documented hostility, threats against a trained dog, screaming at a small child, confronting a mother on public property. None of this is the behavior of an emotionally stable man.

Ultimately, this woman didn’t escalate this relationship; she simply survived it. And as many other Redditors stated, the flip-off was less an attack and more a release after years of being the one absorbing his outbursts.

Keeping your cool isn’t always a realistic approach.