Neighbors, how do I treat them?

[TheFriskyIan]

So I was walking back home the other day when a neighbor from across the street was getting the mail, it was unusual though as he was like "Howdy Ian!" Now I still live with my parents and they converse with him every so often, but I have never actually talked to anyone in my neighborhood at all actually. So I didn't know how to respond to him other than a simple "Hello." and awkwardly walked away. It got me thinking about how I know who my neighbors are, but I don't actually really communicate with them at all. My house is sandwiched by two old ladies, but besides them and the guy across the street, everyone else is a mystery.

What's normal Neighbor interactions? How often do you guys talk with your neighbors? Am I supposed to talk to them at all?

[moonwolf2024]

This really depends on your personality and the type of neighborhood you live in. I haven't communicated with my neighbors since i was in high school. But after we moved to what was suppose to be a nicer area......man i had some crazy experiences. The family to our right proudly displayed thier confederate flag and the asian family across the street had large sexy parties every weekend.

We moved again in an effort to downsize.......and had to listen to the guy next door beat his wife. Mind you this is SUPPOSEDLY a nice and very expensive area.

After those experiences...i try my best not to interact with my neighbors. I'm not a total bitch and this is the south so I will say the friendly greeting, but thats it. I'm not a big people person anyway. They make me crazy

And so you know, my current neighbors get on my damn nerves. Once a month, like clock work, the police are knocking on thier door because they keep trying to kill each other.

[TheFriskyIan]

And so you know, my current neighbors get on my damn nerves. Once a month, like clock work, the police are knocking on thier door because they keep trying to kill each other.

None of them are crazy, I mean there is one where my friend used to live where keeps having parties every Sunday. However that's died down, we only had the cops roll around the place maybe once or twice since we moved here around 18 years ago.

[Rena]

My family moved house late last year.
When we first moved, both neighbours next to us were very friendly. One even came over with Anzac biscuits.

Now they completely ignore my family. We don't really know what we did. Everyone in the neighbourhood gets along, but nobody talks to us

[Lavinius]

How do I treat my neighbors? I don't.

[TheFriskyIan]

How do I treat my neighbors? I don't.

Well I think it's important that I saw Hello or something. It's just that none of them ever talked to me before until just now. I don't want to come off as that punk kid that gives everyone the death glare.

[MoroNoKimi]

Well let's see...I have thoughts about neighbors and why it's silly to think that because they're your neighbors, it's not normal if you're not friendly with them. (Which of course is not to say that you shouldn't be civil.)

The neighbors across the street from me, we're pretty sure they're drug dealers. We see shady-looking exchanges of cash in/next to cars pretty often even during the day (presumably this is under the assumption that it's so obvious that it's not suspicious.) It's a source of amusement for us and I don't think they know we exist. I don't interact with any of my neighbors because I have no need to and no interest in doing so.
In the modern world, no one should actually have a need to interact with their neighbors any more unless they want to.

Quite frankly I avoid interacting with neighbors; the mere fact that they live near me means absolutely nothing for whether they would share any interests with me or indeed whether we would get along in the slightest. I prefer to make friends that I know going in have some shared interest.

[Defectron]

It got me thinking about how I know who my neighbors are, but I don't actually really communicate with them at all. My house is sandwiched by two old ladies, but besides them and the guy across the street, everyone else is a mystery.

What's normal Neighbor interactions? How often do you guys talk with your neighbors? Am I supposed to talk to them at all?

Yeah I'm sort of like that except I don't actually remember the names of any of my neighbors. I dunno, unless it turns out one of them is secretly really interesting I'm pretty content with them just being those people I see sometimes but don't actually remember the names of.

[PolarisX]

I knew living on a house on a hill, in the woods, would pay off someday.

[Catamari]

To a spaghetti dinner, of course! Make such you pick up the tab, too.


More seriously, though, I would just ignore them. I only know the name of one of my neighbours, and I have five (Odd, I know, but that's how the subdivision is laid out).

[Paranoid]

I live in a small, three-story apartment building with only 6 apartments total. I have no choice but to deal with my neighbors, since I see them quite often. Plus, things like the company in charge of the building maintenance and such are decided upon by all of us, so once every couple of months there's a meeting.

It wouldn't be too bad, except I don't really like interacting with people in general. I'm also the youngest one by about 10-15 years. My neighbours are all in their mid-late 30s or 40s and most of them have children. Most of them are pretty nice, except the one who lives directly below me. She's a bossy, irritating bitch who keeps pestering me about every little thing and trying to blame me for things I didn't do. Her sister, who is also my next-door neighbour, is considerably nicer; except she and her husband have kind of monopolized the shared space on our floor, and they keep leaving their baby stuff and shoes out, sometimes blocking the elevator.

Still, I count myself pretty lucky. I'd much rather have to deal with these people on occasion than live next to a drug-dealer or an abusive household.

[moonwolf2024]

The golden rule is just to say "Hi" and "Bye".....thats it. Now I won't lie. I kind of miss the asian family with the loud sexy parties. They were loud, but they at least shared food. Awesome spring rolls!

[LeoXiao]

I have neighbors?

[NemZ]

I don't really know my neighbors either. Then again I live in an apartment complex in a college town so they keep changing every 6 months or so. I'm just glad the family that used to live above me finally left... several small children prone to throwing loud tantrums or just running/stomping around the place. Very annoying. Then again I keep weird hours and have been told I sometimes snore like a chainsaw so the feeling was probably mutual.

[The Eva Monkey]

I'm personally not terribly interested in being friendly with my neighbors. I like a degree of seclusion and like to be left to myself to lose myself in my own thoughts. When I'm taking a brisk walk to catch a bus or train or whatnot, I don't want to have to stop and smalltalk with people along the way. That said, while I'm not outwardly friendly, I do maintain a degree of politeness, but I prefer to keep people at arms length.

[Stillborn]

From polish satiric movie "The day of the wacko". Rough translation

When the night get down at last
Before I lay down my head on the pillow
Here I bring my prayer
To the God, Father, and Son
Beat that motherf*ckin' neighbor
I'm asking nothing for me...
Just f*ck him tighly, please
Who am I? Small Pole.
Small, envious and dishonourable
What's my sign?
Bloodshot eyes.
Here are my prayers
to God, Mary and Son.
Destroy that motherf*cker
My countryman, my neighbor
My enemy, this blasphemy
Make them burgle his garage
Make his wife to two-time him
Make them burn his shop
Make the brick hit his head
Make his daughter **** with a nigger
And generally... Make him feel bad
Make him suffer from AIDS and cancer
That's a prayer of a Pole.

Well good to have neighbours XD

[Fireball]

I'm totally bro with my neighbour.

[InstrumentalityOne]

You break into their house, set up camp in their bathroom and ask them if they want a back scrub when they get ready to bathe

[Quadhonk]

I live in an apartment complex. My only neighbors live above me and they consist of a drug dealer and his girlfriend. I actually knew him before I had moved in, but it was just coinicidence. Pretty sure he's weirded out by the stuff that goes on underneath him though, or at the very least is often confused. One of my roommates is a nudist, and she can be seen walking around naked from our windows. The other one, is a gun nut, and often cleans his guns on our balcony. I've lived in the complex for about 8 months now, and I've barely talked to anyone else. I think most of the other tenants go out their way to avoid conversation with the weird group in apartment 165.

[pwhodges]

From polish satiric movie "The day of the wacko". Rough translation:
stuff
Well good to have neighbours XD

You don't have to go to a film to find a string of curses; there's a service for Ash Wednesday in the Book of Common Prayer called A Commination which consists largely of a litany of curses.