It’s been said that good fences make good neighbors and, let’s be honest, truer words have probably never been spoken. But what happens when you don’t even have a fence in the first place? Well, less-than-ideal things, we’d imagine.
One person turned to an online community to share how their neighbor’s daughter had a nasty habit of driving across their yard to get to her driveway. After several polite requests that she avoid the yard went ignored, they decided to get their revenge.
You can choose your friends but, sadly, you can’t choose your neighbors
Image credits: The Yuri Arcurs Collection / Freepik (not the actual photo)
One person’s neighbor’s daughter was in the unfortunate habit of driving over their lawn to get to her driveway
Image credits: stefamerpik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Fearing for the flowers their mother had planted for them, the person politely asked the neighbor’s daughter to avoid driving over their lawn, but was met with nothing but smugness
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Having finally had enough of the rude behavior, the person set up some small spikes along the edge of their yard and patiently bided their time
Image credits: anonymous
When the neighbor’s daughter ended up with flat tires, she tried getting the cops involved, but they couldn’t lift a finger, leaving the person and their lawn untouched
The fed-up original poster (OP) finally snapped after their neighbor’s grown daughter kept cutting across their yard to reach the driveway. The problem? The edge of the lawn is lined with roses planted by OP’s mother before she moved back to Mexico, sentimental blooms that mean a lot, and that the repeat offender kept endangering.
At first OP tried keeping the peace, overlooking the daughter’s antics nearly ten times before finally adding small three-inch bricks as a gentle barrier. But the entitled woman drove over them anyway, knocking pieces loose. When asked to be careful, she just smirked and threw out a snide “don’t get your panties in a bunch”.
Fed up, OP went to the HOA to ask about reinforcing their yard’s perimeter and learned there were literally zero restrictions. So, the bricks came up, and new ones were molded, this time solid concrete with spikes pointing outward. It wasn’t pretty, but it was legal, and clearly the only language the reckless driver would finally understand.
Sure enough, the next morning she found both her passenger-side tires completely flat. She called the police, furious, but they quickly pointed out the obvious: the nails were on private property she had repeatedly driven over. Suddenly very cautious, she stopped cutting across the lawn and the homeowner finally got some peace of mind.
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Let’s be real here, the neighbor’s daughter left OP with basically no choice but to defend their property any way they (legally) could. Calling her an entitled jerk would honestly be putting it way too mildly. But what’s up with entitled people anyway? And what’s the best way to handle them without losing your mind? We went hunting for answers.
The experts at WebMD tell us that entitlement is a narcissistic personality trait. While it’s not fully understood how this mentality develops, it likely has something to do with social factors like the environment the entitled person grew up in, the way their parents treated them, whether adults solved all their problems for them, and how authority figures handled them throughout their lives.
In her article for SPSP, Emily Zitek writes that there are methods that can help you avoid reinforcing someone’s sense of entitlement. For example, when an entitled person makes unreasonable demands, it’s better not to cave, since that could convince them that their entitlement is justified. Further, take the time to explain to them why declining their request is fair, since feeling of unfairness can stoke their sense of entitlement.
If the neighbor’s daughter had had even a smidgen of empathy, there might have been room for reason and the whole mess could have been avoided. But some folks only learn the hard way, and OP turned out to be the teacher, fair and square.
What’s your take? Did OP go too far, or was the reckless driver headed for a fall anyway? Drop your thoughts in the comments!
In the comments, readers seemed to agree that the person wasn’t a jerk for protecting their lawn and said that the neighbor’s daughter got exactly what was coming to her
