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averygoodun42My neighbor, the lady, is paranoid. She keeps her house completely spotless for fear that their place will be over-ridden with mice and roaches otherwise. Given that she has lived through those conditions, it is an understandable paranoia, but, well... She's also deathly afraid of cats because where she lived before was overrun with feral cats, probably due to the mice.
She freaks out whenever she sees evidence of mice, including when dead mice appear in the yard, thanks to our mutual neighbor's cat. And if any cat ever comes close to her children, watch out!
She is also paranoid in regard to her husband. The other year she called us from Brazil, where she was visiting her family, to have me go next door to check up on him, just to make sure he was there. And another time she called to make sure that his son wasn't.
She's paranoid about his son (aged 20-something), and has basically forced her husband to choose between her and his son.
And now she is paranoid for their children. Whom he dotes on, by the way. She called me today from wherever she was to go over and check to make sure that the door to her room was open so that he would be sure to hear the baby crying if he was asleep.
o_0
Now, I wouldn't label that as paranoia except that the wall here are pretty thin, as are the doors. I wouldn't label it as paranoia if he had shown any signs of being anything less than a responsible adult where his children were concerned. I wouldn't even label it as paranoia if he'd just come home from a long, hard day at work, which is manual labor.
But, well...
So I did what I thought was best. I lied. I offered her assurances so that she would calm down, and gave him the respect of the benefit of the doubt. I'm thinking it was the right thing to do simply because I see that he and the baby are now outside, happily playing in the kiddie pool. Everyone survived and no one is apparently the worse for wear.
Hopefully Neighbor Lady won't ask him whether I came by, but even if she is so silly as to ask... There's nothing I will do. I will not let her paranoia put me in a situation that is both awkward and embarrassing for me. Being neighborly only goes so far, after all.
She freaks out whenever she sees evidence of mice, including when dead mice appear in the yard, thanks to our mutual neighbor's cat. And if any cat ever comes close to her children, watch out!
She is also paranoid in regard to her husband. The other year she called us from Brazil, where she was visiting her family, to have me go next door to check up on him, just to make sure he was there. And another time she called to make sure that his son wasn't.
She's paranoid about his son (aged 20-something), and has basically forced her husband to choose between her and his son.
And now she is paranoid for their children. Whom he dotes on, by the way. She called me today from wherever she was to go over and check to make sure that the door to her room was open so that he would be sure to hear the baby crying if he was asleep.
o_0
Now, I wouldn't label that as paranoia except that the wall here are pretty thin, as are the doors. I wouldn't label it as paranoia if he had shown any signs of being anything less than a responsible adult where his children were concerned. I wouldn't even label it as paranoia if he'd just come home from a long, hard day at work, which is manual labor.
But, well...
So I did what I thought was best. I lied. I offered her assurances so that she would calm down, and gave him the respect of the benefit of the doubt. I'm thinking it was the right thing to do simply because I see that he and the baby are now outside, happily playing in the kiddie pool. Everyone survived and no one is apparently the worse for wear.
Hopefully Neighbor Lady won't ask him whether I came by, but even if she is so silly as to ask... There's nothing I will do. I will not let her paranoia put me in a situation that is both awkward and embarrassing for me. Being neighborly only goes so far, after all.
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Date: 2009-05-21 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 10:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 04:18 pm (UTC)Seriously - this man must be a saint. I can't see my Drone putting up with such behaviour.