Woman Rejected Friendship With Neighbor Who Then Got ‘Visibly Angry’ And Insulted Her

Jul 25, 2022 by apost team

They say you can choose your friends but not your neighbors, but what if you choose not to be friends with your neighbor?

This was the predicament one woman found herself in after a new family moved into her neighborhood. She took to Reddit in July 2022 to recount her first interaction with the family’s overly congenial mom and asked readers for their opinion on how she handled the situation. She wrote:

“My husband (36m) and I (29f) have lived in our neighborhood for about 5 years. Our house is towards the edge of the complex, and neither of us are very social, so we keep to ourselves. The rest of the people in our area tend to do so as well,” she wrote, adding that all she knew about the new neighbors was that they had young children and political signs displayed in front of their house that “indicated we were on pretty much opposite sides of the political spectrum.”

One day, the mom of the family showed up at her house. The woman elaborated:

“She introduced herself as the new neighbor and started talking a mile a minute. She told me that she had three children, was a SAHM (stay-at-home mom), was new to the area, and some other stuff that I don’t really remember. Then she started peppering me with questions and seemed to get more and more disappointed as I answered. She asked if I had children (no), did we plan on having children (no), do I know any of the social activities in the area (no), do I know any local mom groups (confused no), do I every (sic) babysit (hard no).”

After the unsatisfying answers to her bombardment of questions, the mom took things up a notch.

When the mom commented that it didn’t seem like the couple interacted much at all with the community, the woman suggested that she try going to the school closer to the center of the neighborhood as that was where it was more busy and social. But the mom appeared not to get the hint. The woman continued:

“She said she was hoping to get to know her close neighbors and told me to come over for coffee sometime and I could meet her kids and husband. I thanked her politely but was honest and told her it didn’t seem like we had much in common and I couldn’t really see us being friends, but that I was sure she could find a good mom group at the playground towards the center of the neighborhood.”

In asking fellow Redditors for their say on the matter, the woman closed her post with: “She got visibly angry and asked if my husband was as big of an a*****e as I was and I thought for a moment then said yeah. She stomped off. I might have been an a*****e because I was direct and didn’t give her much of a chance but I just don’t think we would have mixed well.” 

She also detailed later why it was she was so blunt. She said:

“I really didn't care that she was a mom. … But from her introduction she was very clear that was her whole thing and as someone without kids, I just don't have much to add to that. As for the political signs, they were concerning a very recent topic for women’s rights and health, and I, as a woman, don’t really want to be friends with someone who doesn’t think I should have rights.”

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The now-viral post has drawn more than 10,000 upvotes and 1,400 comments, with many saying the woman did nothing wrong by being unabashedly honest.

“She came to your house, escalated her questions until you were increasingly uncomfortable and called you an a*****e. Wtf? Terrible,” one user wrote.

“You have nothing in common and she was babysitter hunting. Best to cut her off before she even started,” read another comment. “You were perfectly reasonable. The new neighbor has an obvious sense of entitlement and when she didn’t get what she wanted from you she showed her true colors,” another user wrote.

Others, however, praised the woman for being honest but said she could have exercised some diplomacy.

“You could have been more polite instead of taking the nuclear option from the start, but if you can’t be neighborly at all to her, it’s better she find out now than invest any time trying to get to know you,” one person commented. 

“You were totally tactless. Sorry but how hard is it to be like thanks for the offer, nice to meet you, thanks for introducing yourself. You didn’t need to reject her. She was forward but not outright rude; just a little odd. The babysitting thing was reaching. But it sounds like she put herself out there, didn’t get much back, and was thrown off. Again she sounds highly unlikeable but I don’t think you needed to be quite so cold,” another user commented. 

For others, finding a middle ground would have been the best option. One user wrote: “It’s good to keep neighbors onside. You never know when you’ll need them. All you need to do is nod and smile and say something about the weather.”

What did you think of the woman’s reaction to her new neighbor? Are you close to your neighbors? Let us know and pass this on to your friends — neighbors and non-neighbors alike!