Being friendly with your neighbors is all well and good until one of the neighborhood kids gets hurt. Then everyone's true colors shine through.
That was exactly what TikToker @s_hubby14 was worried about when the kids around her neighborhood kept trespassing into her backyard to play with her children's swing, backyard playset, and trampoline.
Physically crouching down and watching out her back window, the mother recorded a video of multiple children, and later their parents, playing in the private backyard.
The TikToker quietly spoke in the background:
"Okay, let me ask you a question, and yes, this is literally me crouched down, hiding in my own house."
"Do other people's neighbors do this?"
"We have an open backyard, which means that there are no fences, and we can't put fences up, because we don't have a pool."
"So our neighbors just come into our backyard and literally play on our structure."
"And they don't ask us. They just play like they f**king own it, like it's a communal backyard, just because we have no fences."
She had only recently realized what a problem this was turning into.
"At first, like the first couple of times, I didn't care, because I'm like, whatever. Like, I let my kids go out and play with them."
"But now it's just so weird to me."
"And it's like, they have a pool. What if they just came home, and I was just in their f**king pool? Like, this is so weird to me."
The TikToker was also experiencing a difference of opinion at home.
"My husband thinks I'm overreacting."
"But I work in a law office, and I'm like, this is just screaming liability."
"What if one of them gets hurt? Then our homeowner's insurance is the one that's getting sued."
She then asked the TikTok community:
"So, whose side are you on? Am I crazy, or is my husband just too nice?"
The TikToker then showed a large group of people leaving the yard after their dog did not get along with the TikToker's dog.
You can watch the video here:
The video immediately went viral with thousands of impassioned responses to the TikToker's situation.
Some reassured @s_hubby14 that this was absolutely not an okay situation to have going on.
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Others were deeply concerned about potential liabilities, as well.
The original TikToker was clearly conflicted in the comments, as she didn't want to ruin the relationship she thought she had with her neighbors, but she didn't want to have to worry about liabilities, either.
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Others questioned what the parents were teaching the trespassing kids through this experience.
Considering how many people were helping themselves to her backyard, it seemed like the parents might have been more interested in the free entertainment than the neighborly friendship.
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Some advised the OP to increase the security in her backyard, and maybe to get a pool just to be able to put up that fence.
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And, of course, some had to joke about sharing backyards and pools from now on to prove a point.
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It's wonderful when a neighborhood has a friendly vibe where everyone gets along and can spend time together, but if history has taught us anything, it's that injuries and other drama have a way of exposing people's real selves.
If one of those kids got hurt, the TikToker would find out very quickly how "friendly" those neighbors actually were, and like so many neighbors before her, the answer very well might be "not at all."
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@BillAckman/Twitter