Being neighborly is never a bad thing, but sometimes we get the misfortune of living next to what can only be described as pure wackadoodles. A dad on Reddit shared recently he gained one of those neighbors and found out (rather quickly) just how "weird" it was going to be living near them.
As he and his 7-year-old daughter were getting groceries into the house, they took notice they had new neighbors and introduced themselves.
"Five minutes later there's a knock at the door. It's new neighbors– mom and her five year old daughter asking if my daughter can come to their house," he claimed.
The dad was seriously weirded out because for one, he literally just met them and for two, we're in the middle of a health crisis.
"But I played it off and said we were going to the pool they could play some other time," he continued. "So we go to the pool and here comes five year old new neighbor in her bathing suit. No mom, no dad, just the kid."
With zero hesitation, the 5-year-old jumps into the pool, and the dad is very uncomfortable with the whole thing.
"So I grab my daughter and dry her off and we go home," he wrote. "I wiped my hands of the situation as soon as that child jumped in. My partner drops five year old new neighbor off at her home. Cause I want nothing to do with it."
So now the dad wants to know if he is totally off base to just up and leaving the kid.
"Is it incredibly negligent to send your five year old to play in a pool with neighbors you've known for 45 seconds," he asked. "And on top of that not asking us to watch said kid. Just assuming we would take care of her. My partner and I are expecting more awkward run ins like this, if they are STARTING OFF like this."
Redditors agreed that the neighbors were way out of line.
"Oh my god," one flummoxed user wrote. "Only a neglectful mother would do that. She's got no idea who you are… It's very good that you put a stop to that one. You'll need strong boundaries with them. Good luck!"
"They put you in an awful position," another commented. "It was negligent to leave their daughter in the company of a stranger, and to do so in a pool is insane."
Others noted that this incident might even be worth calling the authorities over.
"What if she hadn't made it to your door," posited one reader. "What if you were a kidnapping psycho? What if she wandered off and got lost/kidnapped? What if you weren't aware of the situation/weren't a good person and didn't watch her at the pool and she literally drowned?…I think the parents should be reported, they are being negligent by placing their child in high risk situations and this little girl is not being taught standard self-preservation or danger awareness."
The dad responded that he did consider reporting it, but since this was a first time offense, he said "no harm no foul." But should it happen again — all bets are off.
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