This is a lighthearted and funny thing that happened to my spouse (28M) and I (27F), but it has me feeling kind of guilty. My spouse and I moved into a nice family friendly neighborhood a few years ago.
We rent, the price of housing is...woof. Our neighbors are mostly elderly couples and families. During election season, we were getting political canvassers several times a DAY.
I work from home and it was incredibly distracting, especially because our dog would bark whenever they would knock or ring the doorbell. I am constantly on the phone and in meetings.
To deter people coming up to our door and interrupting all day, I put up a sign on our door asking to please not knock, as I work from home. This worked for the most part, but some people would still yell "HELLO?" through the door or would still come up onto the porch, which our dog could hear and would then proceed to bark.
I then took the sign down, and put up a new one that read "POLITICAL SOLICITORS: We are confident in who we are voting for and appreciate your great efforts in what you do.
Please DO NOT ring the doorbell or knock. The dog WILL bark, waking the baby and interrupting my workday. Thank you and happy canvassing!" After that, people only left flyers and there were no further distractions.
Since the end of the election, I have since taken down the sign and life has continued on as normal. We live in an area that gets a lot of snow and since the beginning of winter, our neighbors are always snow-blowing and shoveling each other's sidewalks and driveways, including our's.
My spouse and I are literally not even given a chance to shovel our own sidewalk or driveway, or our neighbors', as by the time we are both off work, it is already done for us! I really appreciate this gesture, but spouse and I want to return it to our neighbors. I've even tried figuring out which houses are responsible, so I can bake them some goods or get them gift cards.
Finally, the other day, my spouse is just getting home and sees one of our neighbors snow blowing our driveway. My spouse goes up to the man and tells him we've been trying to catch him and thank him, and tries to give him some cash.
The man adamantly refuses and tells us to "save it for the baby" and that's he's happy to help out all the neighbors. My spouse is so confused, so much so that he felt stunned and didn't know how to correct our neighbor.
My spouse later tells me what the neighbor said and we realize that our entire neighborhood probably thinks we have a baby because of the sign I put on our door. We kind of laugh, but then I feel horrified.
What if they've been helping out so much because they believe we have a newborn? It is funny, but I also want to give back some way and show that I appreciate their efforts and want to help our little community. So AITA?
When the weather is warmer, host a neighborhood BBQ in your yard. The best way to repay your lovely neighbors is to build community and friendship. (A hidden benefit will be to come clean about the baby.)
Warm weather means BBQ time! Let’s build community and friendship and by that, I mean let’s see who can flip a burger without burning it while dodging questions about my baby!
Tell them you were watching your friend’s baby for a few weeks while she worked. A made up baby sounds a bit weird.
NTA. Welp. Time to either adopt or borrow a baby a few times year.
Aw. This is so innocent and sweet. You tried to ask for the silence and it wasn’t given. You took matters into your own hands and your guilty conscience is eating away at you. I suggest playfully explaining the reason behind it all while handing over the baked goods.
NTA but say you were babysitting in that period for a someone and that you appreciated the gesture.
Just roll with it. Own it, but finesse it. “Oh, I’m so sorry that word spread like it did. It’s just that we were getting so many interruptions during work, that we were afraid for our jobs. Some people would not respect our request, so we had to go up a notch.”
This implies that you assume the good natured helper neighbors were OF COURSE NOT the selfish asshat neighbors who ignored your needs over their wants. What are they going to do?
They accept your “polite fiction” and return one of their own: “Oh yeah, I was not the person who had no problem interrupting you both all day, risking your careers and upsetting the dog u til you put the note about the baby.” It’s positively Victorian.
This is hilarious, NTA- bake some cookies and let them know you were babysitting a family members baby that has since gone home, and get out of that one before they realize your lie.
They sell signs, I bought one that basically says no soliciting, and it names off a list of the most usual solicitors, mine is stuck to the door so they can’t say they didn’t see it. Stops them in their tracks before the knock.
darklipstick686 (OP)
We've been laughing about it since! We're going to say we babysat a friend's baby and apologize for the mistake. I would get a no solicitors sign, but we had never gotten any solicitors before election season and have not gotten one since!
I’d go and speak to that neighbor. Say you are sorry for confusion but the doorbell and solicitors were so intense, you had to do something about it and that’s the only thing that worked. Say you’d like to buy them dinner as a thank you for his help.