When Dealing with Difficult Neighbors, Did this Idaho Man Take Things too far?
A company called Waycroft did a survey in 2020 looking for the state with the loudest neighbors and Idaho got the #1 spot with 15.6% which is almost 3% ahead of New York which comes in #2. The main causes for the noise? The top answers involve children. Kids running, jumping, and screaming. Also Fur kids with barking and squeaking pet toys were regular answers along with loud DIY projects.
Some Idahoans don't mind admitting they are the loudest:
Karen F. says, "I am the loud neighbor LOL music and laughing"
Brittney Dawn says, "My husband and I are probably the loudest neighbors to be honest...lol We live around a lot of elderly... but we usually sit out back listening to music and talking and laughing...oops...lol"
Being loud isn't the only way to get on your neighbors nerves although it is a big one. Pets going to the bathroom in neighbors yards...
Unkept property is another major 'bad neighbor' complaint. Reddit has a whole section called "Am I the A**hole?" where people from all over write their stories and ask members on the website to give them advise and people vote if what they did was an a-hole move or not. One from Idaho came up and had a ton of reaction from all over the country.
The man wrote a more detailed description, but basically his neighbor's yard behind him was so out of control with uncut grass and weeds that were massively spilling over into his yard and he decided to do something about it. "I'm a short dude but some of them get as tall as me and start growing these weird flowers like noxious weeds. They don't appear to be disabled because we have seen them out and about and they have young kids who can't even play in the backyard because of how bad it is. So while putting Weed & Feed on my lawn the other day, I realized that I could just toss some over there too; hopefully it would help."
So did he take it too far by tossing chemicals (weed and feed) over the fence and onto the neighbors property? He felt justified but also admitted he had not tried to go over and talk to the neighbors about the problem. According to the majority of the comments and votes from around the U.S. He did the wrong thing and is the bad guy here.
Here are some of the comments:
(MyPotato2753) Your The A**- because instead of being an adult and saying, “Hey, your lawn is spreading weeds onto mine, can we talk about this?” You made a decision about what could and couldn’t grow in their yard. It’s not your property, you don’t mess with it.
(SnakesInYerPants) Your The A**- There are lots of animals who won’t have an issue with the weeds but will die or get sick if they eat the weed and feed. If they have a cat that you haven’t seen who goes out into that yard, you will be poisoning it. There are usually bylaws about weeds. Look up your local bylaws and report him for breaking the bylaws. These systems are in place specifically for a way to deal with these situations so that you aren't just tossing chemicals into your neighbors yard without their consent. Bylaws are about making the neighborhood peaceful and if you really can’t bring yourself to talk to them face to face, bylaw is the option you should be going down; not just doing whatever you want to their yard."
What do you think?