You're not supposed to take things that aren't yours—this is something that is ingrained in us from a very young age (or at least it's supposed to have been.) We were all taught that taking Little Jonny's red ball out at recess without his permission wasn't ok. Although we might still hold a grudge against Jonny for being a tattle tale (we were going to give it back), it doesn't change the fact that some valuable lessons were learned. These lessons and new-found boundaries should have stayed wi…

When you're facing up against power and authority, it's easy to feel helpless and like you don't have any options, feeling like the only thing you can do is try to mitigate the fallout they're causing by trying to keep peace with them. The thing is, they're counting on you thinking and feeling that way; a lot of times, petty authority and controlling behavior rely completely and wholly upon silence. It's difficult to do, but if you ask around enough, you're likely to find there are others with…

When your neighbor complains to your mother about how you need to mow your grass, you might have a situation on your hands.

The best part about finally owning your own home is that you can do whatever you want with it—within legal limitations and logical reasoning. Of course, you'll quickly come to realize that this isn't necessarily the case, as you'll also be contending with nosy HOA members poking around looking for a single blade of grass out of line. You'll also be subject to the opinions of your neighbors, who will be more than happy to share them with you as though their judgement is law. This homeowner bough…

Parking is one of those things that is always going to cause issues when limited spots are of any concern. People just don't know how to behave rationally when scarcity of resources is at hand, and the monkey part of their brain takes over. Still, when you have your own driveway, even if it's shared, you'd sort of expect that your side of it would remain accessible to you (and you alone) without issue—unfortunately, inconsiderate neighbors mean this is not always the case. In this case, these n…

All bark no bite

Patience is a virtue.

It's not always fair to blame parents for the actions of their children, people are psychologically complex and each child is different and wildly unpredictable in their own way. Even the best of intentions and good parenting doesn't always yield the best results, plus—well, mistakes are just part of growing up and even adults are all still just learning as we go. Still, if you work with kids and meet the parents of a problem child, it becomes immediately clear when the problem is the parents.…

Buying or selling a house is a pretty stressful experience, there's a lot on the line and a whole lot of things need to line up for everything to fall into place. Plus, there's plenty of opportunities for someone to screw you over from the realtor to the seller/buyer themselves, so it's pretty easy to be on edge and understandable, at least, to want to control every aspect of the situation. Still, as with anything in life and especially in stressful situations and negotiations, approaching thin…

Assigned and paid for parking spaces are one of those things that will drive even the most sane and level headed among us to the brink—and we're not claiming to be even the most sane and level headed. The fierce competition that emerges for the limited parking spaces—with high costs associated—is intense driving tenants to extraordinary lengths. This exacerbated by the fact that apartment complexes with inbuilt garages never have enough spaces for each unit in the building often meaning that th…

There are few first-world problems that will drive you as intensely mad as low water pressure. For those of us longing for a hot shower after a long day, there's nothing worse than stepping into the steam-filled room and being met with the pitiful trickle of water that isn't even sufficiently powered to blast the shampoo out of your hair. You've probably encountered this at accommodation while traveling. There's nothing like splashing out for a BnB or hotel suite only to realize that the shower…

Your property is, well, yours—and that's kind of the whole point of owning it. Invite as many or as few people over as you like—heck, put up barbed wire fencing around the entire thing (HOA permitting) and never speak to anyone again if that's your thing. You can say and do as you please with it, within legal bounds… just don't go doing any mining under your suburban house without knowing what you're doing or the proper permits. But, as it turns out, your property—and specifically your backyard…

Don't mess with your neighbor's hobbies. For most of us, our after-work hobbies are the things that keep us going week-over-week, so when this entitled mother decided to make her familial problems into the entire neighborhood's problem, one man had to push back.

It's not a given by any stretch that you'll get along with your neighbor; after all, there's no basis for selection other than that you lived or were interested in living in the same area—and happened to buy property adjacent to each other. Then you spend every day next to that person, sometimes keenly and overly aware of their comings and goings. So, it's no surprise when personalities clash between neighbors who share nothing in common other than the adjacent boundary of their properties. Som…

When you're looking to buy property you're classically given advice by your older relatives that you should go around the neighborhood knocking on doors and asking people who live there what they think of the area. While sound advice it comes from an era long past where community was a staple part of everyday life. Nowadays you can go years without ever meeting the people living across the street so you probably don't care what they think of the area and, besides, who is honestly going to tell…

The best petty revenge is self-inflicted.