The best way to mind your own business is to keep your nose out of other people’s – advice a nosy neighbor has followed after accusing a woman of running a brothel from her home.
In a post shared on Reddit, the woman, 41, believed to be American, explained that she has been married to her husband for 20 years and is “still madly in love.”
“Due to mental illness, my husband cannot work, so I am the breadwinner for our family,” she explained in a post on the Am I the subreddit asshole?
“This works well, I have a well-paying job, I don’t have overtime and I work mostly from home,” he continued. “My husband is our housewife and, seriously, she is very good at it.”
The woman and her husband moved to a new house, which came with the advantage of having a nosy neighbor (file image)
Last year, the woman was able to buy a new house with a large garden, and she noticed that it has a high fence, so it is not easy to look inside her house.
“You would have to stand on tiptoe to get over the fence,” he said.
While the family is happy in their new abode, they arrived with an annoying new neighbor, who, the woman notes, is “incredibly nosy.”
“When we moved in, she was the first to show up, not to help, but to gossip about other neighbors and warn us not to trust them too much and things like that,” the woman explained in the post.
Two months ago, the woman’s husband’s best friend lost his job and shortly afterward his wife left him.
“The poor guy struggled mightily with bills, divorce, and an upcoming depression,” he shared. “So my husband and I decided to get him out of this situation.”
The couple decided to let their friend live in their guest room rent-free until he recovers.
“Divorce is unpleasant enough, the poor man doesn’t need any more stress,” he said. “He’s a very nice guy, he doesn’t demand anything from us, he’s just happy to have a safe space to heal and recover.”
The neighbor was spreading rumors about the woman after ‘snooping’ around her house and noticing two men living in her (file image)
Most users assured the woman that she was not wrong, and many even suggested that she was too nice to the nosy neighbor.
The arrangement had worked well for all of them, but one day the woman began to notice that her neighbors were looking at her strangely while shopping and decided to confront them.
‘It turns out that, [the neighbor] “He had been snooping around our house and spreading nasty rumors in the neighborhood,” she wrote indignantly.
The neighbor had reportedly been openly telling the neighborhood that the woman lives in a “white house” because she lives with two men.
“In the neighborhood it was spread that I had to earn my money at my expense, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford such a nice house,” he became furious.
“I became furious and told my neighbors what the case really was and then left too nervous to concentrate on the purchase.”
However, when she left the store, the woman saw the nosy neighbor in the parking lot and turned red.
“In my fury and rage, I attacked her and started yelling at her,” he admitted.
“I told him, whoever I invite to MY house is none of his business and to stay away from us, my family is none of his business and if he ever talks bad about me again, that won’t go well.”
The defiant woman stated that she doesn’t feel like she overreacted and noted that she was protecting her family and friends because “gossip can hurt a lot too.”
“Now some of my friends think I grossly exaggerated,” he said. “So I am here to receive the final judgment.”
But most users on the discussion forum assured the woman that she was not wrong, and many even suggested that she was too nice to the neighbor.
“NTA: There’s always a risk that the rumors didn’t start with her, but if she was the one gossiping, you’re not an AH to scold her,” one user responded.
‘NTA’. You need a hobby that doesn’t involve spreading lies or gossip. You weren’t too harsh. “She deserved to be called that in public,” said another.
“No, you didn’t react too much,” someone else assured. ‘She overstepped her limits and had to suffer the consequences. Maybe it will teach him not to meddle in other people’s affairs in the future.