First impressions in a neighborhood tend to stick, and this one involved a grown man having a meltdown over a rock.

A homeowner whose contractor accidentally moved a neighbor’s rock during some work on the house got an earful from the grumpy older man next door before she’d even had a proper introduction.

She stayed calm, apologized, and told him she’d appreciate not being yelled at for something she didn’t know about. Needless to say, he didn’t exactly win her over with this whole charade.

When he came back later with a calmer complaint about soil erosion from her splash block, she handled it professionally and resolved the issue.

But her mind was made up: she still didn’t want anything to do with him. Being civil when you need something isn’t the same as being a good neighbor, and she’s clear on the difference.

Keep reading for the full story.

I don’t want any relation to my neighbor

My neighbor is a grumpy old man who spends his weekends working on his house and car.

They didn’t exactly get off on the best foot.

My first interaction with him was him having a meltdown and cussing me out because apparently one of the contractors working on our house “moved his rock.”

At first, she tried to save face.

In his tantrum, I calmly apologized and told him I was sorry, that I wasn’t clear on which rock was his and had no idea, and that I’d appreciate it if he didn’t yell at me for something I knew nothing about.

Fast forward to today — it’s raining outside and apparently our splash block beneath the water spout cuts into his property line and is eroding his soil.

This time, her neighbor seemed to have a bit more patience.

He actually explained this pretty calmly to me, and while annoying, I told him we’d get it sorted and apologized for the soil erosion.

I came back to ask some clarifying questions and he asked me if I wanted him to do it, and I said no.

I don’t like this guy from our first interaction, nor his general demeanor.

She still has some major problems with how this guy handles his social interactions.

While I appreciated the change in tone, that’s not enough for me to extend the olive branch — it’s actually the least you can do as a human to speak respectfully to someone else.

Just ranting.

I don’t want this guy’s help for anything.

She’s pretty much done chatting with him unless it’s absolutely necessary.

If he wants something actually affecting him or his property changed, we’ll do it ourselves, and then I don’t want to hear from him until the next issue he comes up with.

We never talk to him otherwise.

Bleh.

Bad first impressions really can ruin a whole relationship.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a couple whose new neighbors’ construction noise is ruining the whole neighborhood vibe.

What did Reddit have to say?

Maybe being close with your neighbors isn’t as great as it’s made out to be.

A few neighborly spats here and there are to be expected.

Maybe this is some kind of generational habit.

A little grumpy never seriously hurt anyone.

If this neighbor really wanted a friendly relationship with the homeowners nearby, he should have thought about that before throwing a petty tantrum over something inconsequential.

Once you form an opinion of someone, it can be hard to change it, especially when your first impression was so undeniably negative.

There’s plenty of things in life worth getting angry about, but a displaced rock isn’t one of them.