A man has been left baffled after his new neighbours told him they’d like him to be more ‘friendly’ than the previous homeowner – but his plan majorly backfired
Having a good relationship with your neighbours can go a long way.
When you move into a new house, getting to know your neighbours can go a long way in making you feel like part of the community. They can offer valuable insight into things like what day of the week your bins get collected, what the roadside parking situation might be like, and even fill you in on any neighbourhood gossip you might need to know.
But one man’s attempt to be “neighbourly” to the people living next to him majorly backfired, and now they don’t want to speak to him – despite being the ones who complained about their last neighbour.
In a Reddit post, the man explained he recently moved into a new home next to a couple whom he estimated were around 60 years old. They were friendly to him at first, and told him that the last person to own his house “never talked to them”, so they hoped he wouldn’t be the same.
After going above and beyond to be a good neighbour, the man extended an innocent invitation to the couple, but it didn’t go down the way he intended – and left the couple unwilling to speak to him at all.
He wrote: “One thing with each of these conversations is the neighbours have talked about how the last neighbour (previous homeowner) wasn’t ‘neighbourly’ and never talked to them. Also said that he would go to work and go straight inside. So I’ve tried my best to kind and talking with them.
“Well, one day after some yard work I was going to go in for drinks and noticed my neighbour finishing up as well, so I asked him if he wanted to have a couple of drinks. This made my neighbour visibly mad I guess, and he said that he didn’t want to be ‘that neighbourly’ and ‘he only drinks water’. I noticed his tone change like he was offended when I asked. Again, I was just trying to be nice.”
The man believes his neighbours may follow a religion that doesn’t drink alcohol, but he maintains that he never specified what the drinks would be, and he would have offered tea or lemonade as an alternative. However, he didn’t get a chance to clarify before his neighbour went back inside – and now the couple never speak to him.
He added: “I just feel like they hate me and have not talked to me since. They’ve made sure they’re always inside when I go to mow. I realise that I was most likely wrong to ask but I’m not sure how to stop being stressed and anxious by this happening.”
Commenters on the post told the man he didn’t do anything wrong by extending the invitation and said the neighbours were unnecessarily rude for their reaction as they could have politely declined the offer.
One person said: “You weren’t wrong to ask. If they don’t drink or didn’t want to take you up on the offer all they had to say was ‘Thanks for the offer but I’m afraid I can’t right now’ and leave it at that.” As another added: “You offered a nice invitation and your neighbour reacted like a jerk. You’re not overreacting and there’s no excuse for neighbour’s rudeness.”
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