His Neighbor Was Becoming a Total Jerk, but His Parents Demanded He Keep the Peace—Until He Finally Snapped and Blew Up at Him
Shutterstock
When you have a neighbor who is always grumpy and causing problems, it can be hard to put up with it.
What would you do if your neighbor was always playing loud music, being grumpy, and just generally being a jerk to everyone around you, but your parents told you to just ignore him?
That is what the young man in this story was told, but one day he finally lost his temper and yelled at his neighbor. Now his parents are upset with him and demanding that he apologize, which he refuses to do.
This is a perfect example of an immature kid thinking he knows everything. He should apologize and move on. Read through the full story and see if you agree.
AITAH for yelling at my neighbor?
I (18m) currently live with my parents.
Grumpy neighbors can be a hassle.
We have an older (late 60s) next door neighbor, who has kind of always had a reputation for being a bit curmudgeonly, but for the past 6 months, he’s been openly hostile to us.
He got into a (one-sided) dispute about trash with my parents; apparently, when I went to take the trash cans out, I left one of the recycling bins on what was the edge of his yard.
What is this guy’s problem?
His response was to knock on our door and threaten to beat up my dad over this. My dad, for his part, defused the situation (he promised it wouldn’t happen again and immediately moved the bin).
The next morning, we found that he had literally taken all of his cans and bulk trash and put them right in our driveway. When we moved it back, he came out and screamed at us.
It seems like he might be having some mental health issues.
I haven’t really had many interactions since; if I see him around, he pointedly ignores me. My parents have told me to not provoke him any further, as they didn’t want to escalate the situation, which until now I have listened to.
However, recently he has been staying up late (up until 3-4 in the morning) and just blasting music on his patio, and occasionally letting out a “woooh!” every few minutes.
He is trying to be nice.
It’s been going on every night for the past three nights. Given that my room is located right by it, I can hear it loud and clear. Yesterday morning, while I was walking our dogs, I saw him working in his yard.
I asked him, politely, to please keep it down at night. He acted as if he didn’t hear me, so I repeated myself. He glared at me, clearly having heard me, and then just turned around to walk inside.
The kid shouldn’t have been disrespectful like this.
I got pretty incensed by this and called him “either chicken or senile”, before turning around and continuing to walk the dogs.
When I got back, my parents came over and told me that he had come over and accused me of “harassing him” on his property (I was technically standing in his driveway) and demanded an apology, or he would get the police involved.
It is no surprise that the parents are upset.
When I told my parents my version of the story, they told me that while he was being a jerk and his threat was probably empty, I had escalated our situation with our neighbor, which is exactly what they wanted to avoid, and should go over and apologize.
I refused, and while he didn’t call the cops, he turned up his music even louder last night, which I believe was just to spite me.
The parents are right. They have to live next to the guy, so placating him is smart.
My parents are angry at me, as they don’t want to get dragged into anything with him again because of something I did.
AITAH?
His parents were trying to avoid unnecessary conflict with an already troublesome neighbor, but he ruined that with his bad temper.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.
This commenter says his parents are right.
His parents will have to deal with the fallout.
This is a smart way to handle it.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who sees the chance for revenge after a neighbor who refuses to share wifi needs help with a parking issue.
The neighbor likely had mental health issues, according to this commenter.
He should apologize and try to keep the peace. If nothing else, he should do this to protect his parents’ interests for years to come.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
