When you are in the right.

It is everyone's nightmare. Bad neighbors. I recently had a discussion with a relative who just had some bad neighbors move in just across the street from them. Due to the fact that they live on a dirt road that is basically a driveway, their houses are closer to one another than they would be were it a typical street. This couple has no children but everyone else in the neighborhood does.


It is not very often that my relative and her daughter go outside. They are so busy! However, when they are at home, they both love to be in the front yard a great deal. The daughter is quite popular with the other kids in the neighborhood. When she does come out to play, there are about a handful of children in my relatives yard. They play tag, kickball, and stand around and have typical girlie chatter. This drives the new neighbors absolutely insane. Mind you, it does not bother them when it is other children. Just my relative and her daughter. Every time this neighbor sees my relative outside, she tries to start arguments and yells obscenities at her. At first, the relative was trying to have a conversation with her and even yelling back. This did not work so my relative would sit on her porch and just let it happen. It was fine until the neighbor started calling her inappropriate names in front of the children. It has even gotten tot he point to where the cops had to come out and tell the new neighbors to stop yelling obscenities at people. While the cops advised both parties to get along, my relative does her best to say nothing at all to the new neighbor and keeps her children away from that side of the street at all costs.


Since the relative has been doing everything right, the new neighbor continues her assault of screaming and making rude gestures toward the relative every chance she gets. This is not fair to the relative and when incidents do occur, they are very taxing. The relative is usually thick skinned but is unable to handle such an unhappy human being hurling offensive assaults at her every chance she gets. Everyone on this street either owns the homes or is there for a term of longer than a couple of years. My relative has a beautiful home and she loves it very much but she is considering taking a loss on the home and moving away because of this neighbor.


From my point of view, this is unfair for someone to make a persons life THAT miserable when they are not even part of the home. What right does the new neighbor have to take out her frustrations on my relative when there is no issue at all. My relative has even went so far as to mark off the corners of her property to let her daughter and daughters friends know what the boundaries are when it comes to the neighbors and to eliminate any accidental trespass by her daughter. Why should someone have to go that far. The incidents where the new neighbor does her screaming have become more frequent and occur about every three days now. As a result, the relative is on medication for stress and depression. The Dr advised that she just needs to stay in the house when she sees the neighbor come outside. The only thing is, the neighbor ONLY comes outside when the relative is there.


What would YOU do in this situation?