When repeated refusals were met with silent resentment, the quiet comfort of his yard turned into a battleground of silent accusations and unseen trespasses. A missing car became the opening for unseen footsteps, and the line between neighborly goodwill and violation blurred into a painful lesson about the cost of standing firm.
Since Wednesday my neighbor asked if he could hide eggs in my (28M) yard as part of an Easter egg hunt they wanted to do for the kids coming to their bbq. Our yards are right nxt to eachother with only the pavement dividing it and no fence; which I’m thinking about setting up after what happened.
He asked 3 times and each time I said no because I don’t like the idea of a bunch of little kids I don’t know coming into my yard. Besides he wanted to hide most of them in my garden and I wouldn’t trust a 6 yr old to not step on my flowers or knock over a pot.
He’s been mad since I repeatedly said no and explained why. Their yards just as big as mine so didn’t see why they needed my space too.
Yesterday I was having some car trouble so I took it to my friend who’s a mechanic.
Not getting it back until Tuesday. So guess because my car wasn’t in my driveway they assumed I wasn’t home. Because in the morning I’m doing work in my basement and I hear footsteps nearby.
Checked my hidden security cam and I see my neighbor walking back to his house from my yard.
Right away I go outside to confront him and he looked panicked. Honestly no idea why the hell he thought it was a good idea to do that.
Like even if I wasn’t home at the time what made him think I wouldn’t get there say when kids were in my freaking yard??? I just was so pissed off. He told me to please let them do this since the eggs were already spread out and his family was gonna be home soon.
At that moment I was seriously mad so I told him either to take all the eggs back or I’m throwing them out myself.
Then he got mad and was calling me shit under his breath but he picked them up and left. I’m going out to check my yard to make sure he got all of them and his wife is giving me a dirty look too while he was talking to her.
They had their little party and Easter egg hunt in their one yard. I was out there just now watering my plants and they were cleaning up. My neighbor was still mad at me. He told me he hopes I’m happy with what I did.
Right now that I’m more calm and not mad at him anymore I’m kinda wondering if I was an asshole for making him pick his shit up and not letting them use my yard.
Honestly I was ticked off in the moment that he went into my yard after telling him no so I’m not sure.
Conclusion
The original poster (OP) maintained a clear boundary against allowing unknown children onto their private property for an Easter egg hunt, a boundary the neighbor repeatedly ignored and ultimately violated by trespassing onto the yard.
Was the OP justified in issuing an ultimatum to remove the hidden eggs upon discovering the neighbor’s unauthorized entry, or did the neighbor’s prior effort in hiding the eggs warrant a more lenient response, given the neighborhood setting?
Here’s how people reacted:
Literally today my parents agreed for the next door neighbors to have their grandkids do an egg hunt in their yard, ages 4 to 10. They have minimal landscaping in the backyard, and the kids stomped on EVERYTHING in the pursuit of eggs. And these kids are crazy well-behaved and polite.
You are well within your right to say who can stomp on your flowerbeds. The parents knew they were doing wrong, hence the guilty faces. But they are just trying to make you feel bad. Brush it off.
Youd have been better off just being neighborly and allowing it. If the kids ruined a plant you would have justification for saying no next time. But now, you look like a uptight ass and your neighbor hates you. Plus, you get to see a really ugly side of your neighbor.
Yes, you had every right to say no. But at what cost? Be a tight ass over a damaged plant? Stupid.
But, I mean, why was it so important for there to be eggs in _your_ yard that he had to ask repeatedly and then go ahead and do it against your refusal? Is there something about his hard that makes it difficult to hide eggs?
Part of me is suspicious that you’re leaving something out? It just makes no sense.
I’m debating about whether you’re also an asshole for not letting some little kids pick up plastic eggs for probably all of five minutes. Did he refuse to not hide any eggs near your flowers or the pots, or did you just deny him outright when he said that was his plan?
That said you do sound like a miserable sod.
It’s been a hard year for everyone and you you can’t allow some children half an hour of fun to go Easter egg hunting in your garden?
Plants regrow. Kids only get one childhood.
I wouldn’t want someone else’s kids in my yard unless I knew them really well, which I’m assuming you don’t.
Let me make this clear: I am parent. A lot of responses on this sub tend to be from adolescents, so I want to emphasize that even a grown-up parent of multiple kids thinks your neighbor was absolutely, 100%, in the wrong. That kind of entitlement drives me crazy.
NTA
So you told him no and he trespassed anyway? You have every right to keep them out of your yard. Lord forbid one of those kids get hurt in your yard and suddenly you’re responsible for it.