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Woman Plays Concierge With Neighbor’s Guests, Acts Offended As He Politely Asks Her To Stop
If you remember the old movie The Cable Guy starring Jim Carrey, you probably know that the person who considers you their best friend isn’t always the one who actually is. If you haven’t seen the movie (or even that funny Super Bowl LVI commercial), just watch it, please! But read this story first, for sure.
So, our narrator today has an incredibly friendly neighbor who, by all appearances, considers their hallway a kind of shared social checkpoint she’s supervising. Otherwise, how can you explain that whenever someone comes over, the first person they see is always her?
More info: Reddit
RELATED:
Turns out, sometimes, overly friendly neighbors can be even worse than the mean and hostile ones
Image credits: Wavebreak Media / Freepik (not the actual photo)
This guy lives in a small apartment building, and his closest neighbor is an elderly woman
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The woman has a habit of greeting all the author’s guests and visitors even before he answers the door, and sometimes makes quite inappropriate remarks
Image credits: Wavebreak Media / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The poor guy tried to open the door first, but she perhaps had some supernatural skill of sensing his guests and then teleporting
Image credits: HushPavilion77
After the man politely asked her to stop doing this, she took offense… but kept opening the door first anyway
The original poster (OP) lives in an apartment building, and his neighbor on the same floor, an elderly woman, actually freaks him out. No, if you suddenly thought this was one of the many representatives of “nightmare neighbors,” you’re wrong. This lady is quite friendly and polite. The only problem is that she extends her friendliness beyond what is reasonable.
Whenever our hero has guests or comes home himself, the first thing they see is a neighbor standing at her door, greeting them with some phrase. Not always appropriate, by the way. For example, when one of the author’s friends dropped by, she said something like, “He has more people over than you’d think.”
The author tried to get ahead of her, tracking his guests so he could be the first to open the door, but to no avail. This woman likely possessed some kind of supernatural sense of approaching people and the ability to instantly teleport to the door. The OP can’t explain it any other way. Well, her exaggerated friendliness also prevented him from calling her out.
When the guy finally tried to reason with her, politely explaining that he didn’t like her behavior, she only took offense, declaring that in a building like that, “Neighbors should know each other better.” By and large, nothing has changed since then – only now the neighbor greets the original poster and the people who visit him with a much less welcoming face…
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Let’s start with the fact that Americans, in general, aren’t very connected to their neighbors. A recent Pew Research survey shows that only 44% of respondents trust most or all of the people in their neighborhood, while 9% actually trust no one. Moreover, trust has only decreased over the years – for example, a similar survey in 2015 showed 52% trusting their neighbors.
At the same time, apartment buildings, with their thinner, often unsoundproofed walls, create a rich source of various conflicts and disputes. But disputes are actually ineffective. This dedicated article in The New York Times strongly recommends that if your neighbors are bothering you, you should gather evidence and file a complaint with the landlord or the board.
The concept of shifting conflict from a personal to a legal level, methodically documenting violations and invoking house rules (if they exist), has proven its effectiveness over many years and decades, the source says. Perhaps this is exactly what the original poster should do, especially since the neighbor has now become unfriendly towards him.
People in the comments noted, on the one hand, that a friendly neighbor is always better than a hostile one. On the other hand, such behavior can indeed be quite disturbing, especially given the neighbor’s numerous inappropriate remarks and questions. Many responders even urged the OP to resort to petty revenge. What would you recommend?
Some commenters urged the guy to resort to some kind of petty revenge, and others recommended that he complain to the landlord or the board
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What do you think ?
sweet emotion 2 hours ago
The last one. Definitely. Tell everyone loudly, even the doordash guy, that she is just one of the annoying aspects of apartment life and you hope to be out of there soon. OR - just thought of this - give her address to the local chapter of "religious young men in white shirts and ties who carry bibles". They'll keep her company for hours!
CommunityMember 35 minutes ago
I went through this for 4 years. The last straw was when she saw a flower delivery outside my door while I was at work. She opened the box, put the flowers in a vase. Then looked up the phone number where I worked and called . I worked in a school cafeteria. I was called to the office for a phone call. It was the neighbor. She told me about the delivery and said not to worry . She explained she had taken them in so they would not wilt and put them in a vase. She then proceeded to read the card to me. I was speechless. I was also incredibly embarrassed to be called to the school office for a phone call . I spoke to her in anger when I got home and it was like talking to a brick wall. I have never met a noisier person in my life. The flowers were only one of dozens of instances. I complained to building management who did nothing.
Ali 1 hour ago
Just a thought, but it sounds like OP is a young single woman. It is just possible that the older lady thinks she is helping by checking out the guests to keep her safe. The man living opposite my parents pops over whenever there is a visitor. My parents are rather elderly, I'm fairly sure he does it to look after them. He tends to just wave and shout hello at visitors he knows, and if me or my sister is there he doesn't bother, but any stranger to the house, he inserts himself in to a conversation. I'm sure he means well, I like the fact neighbors keep an eye on each other. Obviously the op has every right to object to this, but I wouldn't conclude her neighbour is strange, creepy or lonely from this behaviour (could of course have zero respect for boundaries, just floating a different idea)
Sean Of The Spiders 46 minutes ago
It says he's a 31 year old man at the start of the description....
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sweet emotion 2 hours ago
The last one. Definitely. Tell everyone loudly, even the doordash guy, that she is just one of the annoying aspects of apartment life and you hope to be out of there soon. OR - just thought of this - give her address to the local chapter of "religious young men in white shirts and ties who carry bibles". They'll keep her company for hours!
CommunityMember 35 minutes ago
I went through this for 4 years. The last straw was when she saw a flower delivery outside my door while I was at work. She opened the box, put the flowers in a vase. Then looked up the phone number where I worked and called . I worked in a school cafeteria. I was called to the office for a phone call. It was the neighbor. She told me about the delivery and said not to worry . She explained she had taken them in so they would not wilt and put them in a vase. She then proceeded to read the card to me. I was speechless. I was also incredibly embarrassed to be called to the school office for a phone call . I spoke to her in anger when I got home and it was like talking to a brick wall. I have never met a noisier person in my life. The flowers were only one of dozens of instances. I complained to building management who did nothing.
Ali 1 hour ago
Just a thought, but it sounds like OP is a young single woman. It is just possible that the older lady thinks she is helping by checking out the guests to keep her safe. The man living opposite my parents pops over whenever there is a visitor. My parents are rather elderly, I'm fairly sure he does it to look after them. He tends to just wave and shout hello at visitors he knows, and if me or my sister is there he doesn't bother, but any stranger to the house, he inserts himself in to a conversation. I'm sure he means well, I like the fact neighbors keep an eye on each other. Obviously the op has every right to object to this, but I wouldn't conclude her neighbour is strange, creepy or lonely from this behaviour (could of course have zero respect for boundaries, just floating a different idea)
Sean Of The Spiders 46 minutes ago
It says he's a 31 year old man at the start of the description....
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