Moving into a new neighborhood is exciting, but sometimes there can be issues with the neighbors.
We never expect pranksters to necessarily be the problem, though, pointed out the “Am I the A**hole?” (AITA) subReddit.
Redditor Desperate_Lynx_427 discovered there was a kid behind the repeated doorbell rings, which they decided to put a stop to.
When they were called out for tricking the kid, the Original Poster (OP) wondered if they took it too far.
They asked the sub:
“AITA for throwing water on a kid who kept doing Ding Dong Ditch?”
The OP recently moved to a new neighborhood.
“Due to job opportunities, we recently moved into a new neighborhood.”
“While most things were going fairly smoothly, we’d at around 4 pm hear a couple of knocks on our door, and when we went to see who it was, to our surprise, there wasn’t anybody there.”
“It was only until a couple of weeks later that we thought there could be the possibility of someone playing Ding Dong Ditch.”
“We just never thought of it as everyone here seemed really relaxed, so Ding Dong Ditch never crossed our minds.”
The OP tried to make the game stop.
“As to not resort to any extreme measures, we put up a sign near the door saying to ‘Please not trouble the people inside by doing these silly pranks,’ which didn’t work.”
“Since it didn’t work, we resorted to asking people about it, but all I got was that it was some sort of tradition for kids in the neighborhood to do this to the new people in the area.”
“This kind of irked me as Ding Dong Ditch is really annoying so I set up a camera inside our house to capture who was outside our door.”
They finally found out who was doing it.
“After reviewing the footage multiple times, I was able to confirm it was some brat who was a couple of meters away.”
“I went to speak to his parents but they laughed it off, saying kids will be kids, so I decided that I’d myself do something about it.”
“After 3 days the kid came back, but I was hiding behind an unlocked door with a large water bucket.”
“As soon as he knocked and turned, I opened the door and splashed him with water.”
The parents didn’t appreciate this.
“I thought that was that but, the kid’s parents came not even 10 mins later, demanding as to why I soaked their kid in water.”
“I tried to justify my reasoning but to no avail.”
“I’m conflicted/feel like an AH as I myself used a petty way of getting that kid to stop annoying us.”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You’re the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No A**holes Here
Some were critical of the parents.
“NTA, and it’s interesting that NOW the parents suddenly care about misconduct.”
“They had a chance to address it and didn’t.” – 28Improved
“Unfortunately, the kid also understands that his parents will defend him and his awful behavior anyway.” – scheru
“Hope the family doesn’t escalate things and make OP’s life a living h**l. My hope is they leave OP alone. NTA, keep your camera rolling in case their shenanigans get out of hand in retaliation.” – lemmful
“This is honestly amazing. And it’s hilarious that the parents tell OP they aren’t going to do anything, and then are shocked when that’s not the end of it for OP.” – very_busy_newt
“Now they care, and all that happened was their kid got wet. Do they not realize just how much worse that could have turned out?”
“OP, NTA, and props offered for finding a safe shock to offer the unruly, undisciplined prankster.” – seamuswasadog
Others said the kid would learn about consequences.
“Now the kid understands, if you f**k around, you find out.” – veloxaraptor
“My friend told her kid this: ‘You can learn now from Mommy who cares about you and is telling you calmly, or you can learn from someone less patient who can punch you.'” – Kumquat_of_Regret
“This reminds me of my friend’s brother who had a workshop in his garage. A neighborhood kid kept coming in and messing with his sharp and expensive tools.”
“He addressed it with the parents and they shrugged it off. The next time he caught the kid in there he told him, ‘I see you in here again, I’m going to beat the snot out of you.'”
“The kid replied that his parents would call the cops. His answer, ‘Maybe so, but you’ll still be in a body cast all summer.’ The kid never came around again.” – FionaTheElf
“NTA.”
“You were civil. You tried.”
“Kid played stupid game won a stupid price.”
“They kept doing it after you brought it up.” – tacodorifto
“NTA. The kid got what he deserved. You should’ve soaked the parents when they came to complain.” – NUT-me-SHELL
“Just say, ‘Sorry, it’s a tradition where I’m from to throw water on uninvited guests.'” – TwistedIntents
“LOL (laughing out loud)”
“My parents would have laughed in my face and told me I got what was coming to me.”
“NTA” – stormy_dayz
“That event would have definitely been the talk of the next family get-together.”
“‘Hey, did you hear what your grandson did? This dumbass played Ding Dong Ditch on a guy so often he hid in the bushes and then used the garden hose to spray him down.”
“Trapped him against the door and just hosed him. He was so soaked his shoes were full of water when he came home!”
“HAHAHAHAHAH! Pass the potatoes, please.'” – Kiyohara
While the OP started to second-guess themselves for teaching the kid a lesson with water, the subReddit didn’t think so. The OP went to the parents first to try to straighten things out, and when that did not work, they decided to come up with a prank of their own.
As the sub pointed out, the situation could have turned out much worse for the kid than simply walking home wet.