Anyone who has had a terrible neighbor can attest to how frustrating it can be to come to a solution, especially when it comes to boundaries, loud noises, and other nuisances.
Sometimes the easiest solution seems to be to one-up each other, admitted the members of the “Am I the A**hole?” (AITAH) subReddit.
Redditor SpecialShake6702 was sick of being woken up every morning by his neighbor’s kids, who went outside to play loudly every single morning.
To prove a point, the Original Poster (OP) started mowing his lawn even earlier than when the kids played to see how the mother next-door felt about it.
They asked the sub:
“AITAH for mowing my lawn early in the morning because the neighbor’s kids keep waking me up?”
The OP’s neighbor did not respect their work and sleep schedule.
“I work late nights and sleep in every morning. My neighbors right next door have three little kids who scream and play and bang and ‘ahhhhh!’ in the backyard at 7:00 in the morning every single day.”
“I mean talking yelling, running, loud toys, pounding, whatever they can do to make noise.”
“I know. Kids are kids. But every morning? Weekends too? No. Just… no.”
The OP tried to talk to his neighbor about it, but to no avail.
“I nicely mentioned it to my neighbor a few weeks ago.”
“She laughed and said, ‘Oh, they’re early risers! You’ll get used to it.'”
“No apology, no effort to quiet them down.”
So, the OP decided to give his neighbor a taste of her own medicine.
“The other day, I set my alarm for 6:00 AM and mowed my lawn. Right up against their yard.”
“Then I used my leaf blower, for added punch.”
“My neighbor came outside in her jammies, all p**sed off. ‘Why are you being so inconsiderate?'”
“I smiled and said, ‘Oh, I’m an early riser! You’ll get used to it.'”
“Now she and some other neighbors are saying I should have just ‘dealt with it like an adult.'”
“But I feel like I just gave them a taste of their own medicine. Those kids need to be considerate too.”
“AITAH?”
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 pointed out the OP’s actions were petty, but they understood why they did it.
“NTA, very petty, but she’ll get used to it.” – One-Awareness3671
“I love it! You even used her own words. Top notch petty revenge. NTA.” – PortiaPotty2
“Love it. No actual damage was done, and you said exactly what she said to you back to her. Well executed. NTA.” – Houlichick
“Some people can’t comprehend their effect on others until they feel it themselves. This approach is almost perfect symmetry. ‘You’ll get used to it,’ lol.” – Muschina
“No, no, no, petty is finding out the noise ordinances and blasting death metal after her kids’ bedtimes but before any possible cutoff. Or after the cutoff, but no more than once a week and using directional speakers pointed at her house.”
“THAT is petty and effective, especially if set up on a timer like an Annoyatron. NTA.” – Mueryk
“Where I am, 7:00 AM is the time you’re allowed to start making noise, like construction, mow lawns, etc.”
“I have a noisy obnoxious ahole neighbour who only ever has his kids once a fortnight but 7:00 AM, they’re bouncing the basketball in the driveway and yelling. I could live with that, but he makes more noise on his own at 4.30 AM. The other day he was standing outside having a very loud phone call until I told him to shut the f**k up and he went inside.”
“The problem I have is, the lawnmower annoys other people than just your targeted neighbour. Sure, the kids probably annoy them too, but now you’re the one p**sing people off, and it’s even earlier. I can hear a lawnmower a good four or five houses away, especially on a quiet morning. Now your other neighbours get to put up with you two having a noise war.” – bigschnekin
“It’s obnoxious, but at 7:00 AM, that construction and leaf blowing is starting, and there’s not a d**n thing you can do about it. 6:00 AM is a whole different level, and that was an a**hole thing to do to the other bystanding neighbors so I’d say to OP, YTA.”
“I’d love it if the norm was 8:00 AM or even 9:00 AM, but I gave up on that ages ago. Practically, if you want to live in the city and sleep in you gotta get ear plugs, white noise machine, whatever it takes.” – RobertDigital1986
“How late do you come home after work? If it’s late enough to bother her/wake her kids, it might be a good time to make a little noise. Not enough to annoy the rest of the neighborhood. Just her.”
“If she complains about that, just say, ‘Oh, I get in late at night. You’ll get used to it.'” – babbsela
Others empathized with the OP about having neighborhood drama.
“I aspire to this level of pettiness. I have neighbors like this but it’s not just early mornings. It’s ALL the time. They have a couple of little kids and a dog.”
“They leave the dog outside barking constantly for HOURS. The kids are so loud and obnoxious that my own kids complain. I’m glad I don’t have babies trying to nap anymore bc these people are SO loud.”
“And like I said, I have kids so I get that kids are loud. But when my kids were little and outside a lot, I actually supervised them and told them that laughing and playing are fine, screaming for no reason is not.”
“We have neighbors. My neighbors, however, don’t give a f**k about how loud they are. I swear they just toss the kids and dog outside so it’s not as loud in their house. People suck. OP is NTA.” – TA122278
“I love this kind of petty with parents and kids like this. I am not a religious person, but dear God and Jesus in heaven, I thank them for putting the fuel in the atrocious downstairs neighbors my mom (mostly) and I had to deal with for 11 years.”
“I mean, it’s really sad when our little area of the whole apartment complex looks like an absolute trash hole because of one family. What should be light colored concrete stairs are a dark gray because of the food left behind and other s**t.”
“The kids literally setting up a fort in front of my mom’s door and leaving their garbage there. It’s midnight and kids that are 8 to 11 years old are slamming doors and being loud and swearing. The parents yelling awful things to them. I am so thankful they’re gone.” – kush_babe
“I know I’m old, but we were never allowed to go outside to play, or make personal phone calls before 9:00 AM. We hated it, but we’re told that if someone has a day off, they should at least be allowed to sleep until 9:00 AM.”
“I stand by that decades later. This should be a law. We have enough other petty laws. What’s one more? Lol.” – williwife
“Growing up, the neighbor opposite was a postie, so early to bed as they normally (well, used to anyway) would be in the sorting office about 5:30 in the mornings. So either no playing outside the front past 8:30 PM or we would go elsewhere.”
“Just, you know, common courtesy! (This was many years ago! But when we had our own kids, there was no playing in the back garden until about 9:00 AM or so too, kids are noisy!)” – fionakitty21
“This is funny stuff. Yeah people don’t like it when they get a taste of their own medicine. I had a lady once who came to my door because my beagle barked in reply to other barking dogs on a weekend at 9:45 AM. He barked for, ummm, maybe five minutes before I could get him back in the house.”
“He wasn’t a yappy dog at all. He only barked if he saw rabbits, squirrels, or if other dogs were already barking.”
“She came over and when I opened the door she stood there going on about how she and a cop in the area worked nights, and my dog was waking them, and she has a friend who worked for the city bylaw department and I just stood there not saying a word until she started barking at me saying, ‘You like this, huh, you like this?’ in my face, in my doorway.”
“I said nothing until she shut her piehole. Then I just replied, ‘Do you feel better now? You sort of lost your mind there, huh? As for bylaws, my dog is barking after 8:00 AM and for under 15 minutes and you need to log his barking to prove it’s a regular occurrence and that he’s a nuisance dog. He’s not doing that and you have nothing to go on.'”
“‘As for how to shut him up, well, what do you think is fair? Should I get him a nice painful shock collar so you can get your shuteye? For five minutes of barking?! Aren’t you just a piece of work.'”
“She snapped her jaw shut and said, ‘Well, we don’t have to get off on the wrong foot like this,’ and I replied, ‘Too late, lady. You’re wrong foot is already in your mouth and my right foot is about to kick your a** out of my house,’ and I slammed the door.”
“I never spoke with her again. Kids are kids but common sense is don’t let them scream outside at 7:00 AM. That’s just rude. As for the lawnmower and such; that’s exactly what I would have done. Bravo!” – BraveCommunication14
The subReddit could understand where this was walking a line, by mowing the lawn at such an early hour that all of the neighbors could hear, but they understood how this would prove a point, and fast.
Hopefully the neighborhood mom would take a hint and work something out with her children, so that they could coexist in the future without having to wake each other up with loud machinery and outdoor toys.