“He Just Wanted to Welcome Them”: Neighborhood Heartbroken After New Resident Banishes Old Man’s Gift
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Imagine moving into a new house and getting a welcome to the neighborhood gift from one of your neighbors. If you didn’t actually like the gift, would you be honest or pretend like you like it to be nice?
In this story, one woman is in this situation when a new neighbor gives her a garden gnome. She doesn’t like garden gnomes, but she can tell by the neighbor’s yard that he’s pretty obsessed with them.
She’s nice about it and says “thank you,” but that’s apparently not good enough for the neighbor.
Now, she’s wondering if she really did do something wrong.
Keep reading for the whole story.
AITA for not putting a garden gnome on my lawn?
26F here. I recently bought my first house in a cute little neighborhood. There’s 12 houses in our street, no HOA, no rules about lawn design, only a rule that the roofs can’t be black. Cool, whatever.
My neighbor (we’ll call him Mr. Thomas, 65ish?M) right across the street has his garden stuffed, and I mean STUFFED, with garden gnomes. They’re everywhere, they climb up the water drain, they’re on the porch, on the grass, it’s a whole thing.
Not my style, but fine.
The neighbor was trying to be nice.
I moved in the first week of March and the day after Mr. Thomas came to say Hello, introduce himself and bring me a garden gnome as a welcome gift.
I thought it was absolutely hideous but I thanked him and then put it in the shed after he left.
The following day I brought all neighbors some self-made cookies, Mr. Thomas and his wife got some too and they seemed happy about it.
Mr. Thomas wondered where the gnome was.
Two or three days later I was walking my dog and Mr. Thomas stopped me and asked why I hadn’t put my gnome in my front yard.
I didn’t tell him I hated the gnome, I just told him I had something else in mind for my garden which I just hadn’t gotten around to yet (true) and the gnome was doing a formidable job guarding my tools in the shed.
He got really upset and snappy with me and told me that he’s been living in this street for 30 years and every neighbor gets a gnome as a welcome gift and every neighbor puts them up in the front yard.
I hadn’t really paid it any mind up until that point but once he mentioned it, I noticed that there was a garden gnome in every front yard.
She offered to give the gnome back.
He mentioned how “it’s a tradition” and “everybody’s gotta do it”.
I asked him if he wanted the gnome back if he didn’t like where I put it.
He said No.
So I just calmly told him that I most likely wasn’t going to put the gnome on the front lawn, thanked him for the gift again, wished him a nice day and left.
Apparently, a lot of the other neighbors don’t really like this gnome tradition either.
Ever since I noticed that a handful other neighbors have let their gnomes disappear and now Mr. Thomas hates me.
I get a stink eye every time we spot each other and my neighbor next door (the sweetest old lady, bless her heart) told me he’s apparently complaining about me on the regular.
I told my friends this story and one of them said I should’ve just put the gnome on the front lawn to make the old man happy. AITA for not doing so?
If someone gives you a gift you don’t like, you shouldn’t feel obligated to put it on display.
Let’s see if Reddit agrees.
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This is my favorite part!
Another person thinks the situation is funny.
He really does sound like a bully.
If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about neighbors who intentionally tank an open house sale because they want to buy the property themselves.
It definitely sounds like the neighbors are grateful.
While she made one neighbor mad at her, it sounds like a bunch of her other neighbors are following her lead. Nobody appointed the neighbor leader of the neighborhood. He doesn’t have the authority to dictate what anyone puts in their yard.
He can have a tradition of giving new neighbors a gnome, but that doesn’t mean he can tell the neighbors what to do with this gift.
She took a stand without even realizing it, and now her neighborhood is better than ever. Good for her for not letting a grumpy bully tell her what to do.
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