I live in a duplex. My neighbour has a son the same age as mine, they attend the same school. When we first moved in, she was initially friendly. Gave us a bottle of wine and introduced herself. The boys did not hit it off. They had a run in at school (my son’s only, her son has since had issues with several children). The school dealt with it and didn’t even notify me. I only know because she came over to tell me that her son wasn’t interested in playing with mine or having him over to visit because of this. They were 6. We haven’t had an issue like this before and I was horrified, made my son apologise, he baked them biscuits. She sent me a message asking if they could meet at the park, my son did not want to go. So I made a polite excuse. This was 3 years ago now, nothing further has happened between the boys.
Our front doors are side by side and one day, she just started to pretend she didn’t see us. When we said hello (including my 4 year old daughter) she would ignore us. It’s obvious she’s also told her children to do the same. BUT her husband is friendly! Comes over to our side for a chat. Leans across her to wave! She started to do the same to our lovely neighbour on the other side at the same time. They also have boys the same age, our boys are friendly and play together. We are all nice people, it’s so strange and unpleasant. If she sees me outside she runs inside. It’s been like this for a couple of years now, I have no idea why.
It’s now escalated that she seems to really actually hate us. She drives a sports car and we left for the school run at the same time two weeks ago. It was very clear that she was driving very aggressively in order to get in front of our car!! I was driving at the speed limit and she was cutting out around me in school zones to get in front of us. It was so crazy, I can’t believe it was happening. I still can’t, we all had children in the car?! She allows her dog to poo in front of our letterbox. So technically not our property because it’s the nature strip, but we need to walk there. She only picks it up on her side. It’s quite an aggressive thing to do.
She’s become friends with a group of school Mums that Id describe as the cliquey school Mums, and she’s been gossiping about me to them, it’s gotten back to me indirectly. Stupid inane thing like I have a cleaner even though I’m a stay at home Mum. Just dumb stuff like that. The other Mums aren’t mean, but they do gossip a lot, and socialise together (during normal times) and I haven’t been interested in this, but am always warm and friendly when I see them at birthday parties, I’ll have a chat. I realised the gossip was happening because they all knew we got a new car... neighbour has to have told them.
It’s all just so weird and uncomfortable and awkward for me son. He’s befriended a kid and wants them to come over. But the Mum is close with my neighbour and it would just feel so awkward having them come next door? But I also don’t want to feed into this craziness.
We are good neighbours. We keep to ourselves, our home and garden are tidy. We are quiet and go to bed by 9 (we have a baby). We also have a dog but it lives inside, so we don’t disturb them. I could ignore it, but for the fact that it’s unpleasant every time I come home wondering WHY she’s acting like that, it’s beginning to impact my son’s social life, and it’s turned from rude to more aggressive with the driving and the poo.
Our other neighbours fee the same as us- just baffled and awkward.
Should I say something? Can I? Or is this just inviting drama and unpleasantness. I’ve been hoping they will just move. It’s not a serious bad neighbour situation but it’s just crap, you know?