A RESIDENT was left offended after their neighbor took “invasive action” after complaining about their yard. The retired neighbor decided to assume the responsibility of doing yard work on the plaintiff’s lawn – the problem is no one asked for her help. An anonymous reader wrote to the New York Times to ask for advice […]
A RESIDENT was left offended after their neighbor took “invasive action” after complaining about their yard.
The retired neighbor decided to assume the responsibility of doing yard work on the plaintiff’s lawn – the problem is no one asked for her help.
An anonymous reader wrote to the New York Times to ask for advice on this issue.
The reader wrote that the neighbor had been sneaking into their yard to weed and do other work without permission.
“At first, we were confused by magically improved areas of our yard; we move and use a week whacker, but that’s about it,” the anonymous reader explained.
“The mystery was solved when I came home early from work one day and discovered our neighbor hard at work on our lawn.”
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They continued to say that once the neighbor saw that the reader was confused by the situation, the gardening go-getter explained that she “can’t stand clutter anywhere.”
The anonymous reader said that her behavior was “invasive” and comes with an “implied rebuke: You don’t care for your lawn properly.”
Philip Galanes, author of “Social Q’s: How to Survive the Quirks, Quandaries, and Quagmires of Today,” responded to give some perspective to the situation.
“You are absolutely right that your neighbor has been trespassing and violating your property rights,” Galanes said. “But what really intrigues me here is the weirdness.”
He went on to give a different interpretation of the neighbor’s actions and “I can’t stand clutter anywhere” comment.
To Galanes, the comment was “more as the confession of a neat freak than as a criticism of you.”
That being said, the author suggested the reader has every right to stop the neighbor but asked that they give the neighbor another chance to maintain a good relationship.
“Yes, she made errors in judgment, possibly caused by too much time on her hands or a controlling nature. But let her bounce back from this.”
“Tell her you’re talking to her about this because you value your relationships. You gentleness could go a long way,” Galanes said.
“After all, she’s still going to be living next door after your talk.”
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This comes as one person shared the war they had with their neighbor over a property line, and this included a list of 30 things they’ve done.
And this neighbor is facing multiple charges after throwing dog poop and explicit notes at this Russian man in Pittsburgh.
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