I swear, I hate living in the suburbs. I’m out this evening weed eating and trimming for fear of getting another knock at my door from a neighbor asking when I’m going to cut my grass. This evening the guy (mid 70s) across the street asked me if I needed help using the weed eater. I said no thanks but he kept going and asked again. I declined. He ended up with my weed eater in his hands and insisted he show me how to use a weed eater and how to use the trimming function.
Then I had to demonstrate before he would leave. Guess what? I’m now sitting in my garage and no longer finishing my yard work. When he asked if he could help the second time, I said “yes by pretending you don’t notice and looking away while I figure this out for myself!”
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Yeah some of my neighbors are TOO much.
I swear most of the weed whackers are made for someone that’s like 5’8” or taller.
Mine is adjustable to an extent but man, I’m a short person and it does make it more difficult.
Check out Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t on YouTube and kill your lawn (if you’re not suffering under an HOA). That oughtta shut em up 🙂
I don’t want to tell you how to do your thing… but as a random stranger I feel the need to suddenly teach you that it’s weed whacker..
Don’t take this the wrong way but old retired people love to help and feel useful too.
Wow how did you hear him over the noise of the weed eater. Cause you don’t need to turn it off just cause he’s blabbing at you.
Lots of people have dementia to varying degrees, diagnosed or not. But once you know what it looks like you can’t unsee it.
That being said, a fantastic crowd control command, that I use at work, is “if you could stand over there, that’d be so helpful…yes just a little further back, another 10ft to the pavement, yes perfect thank youuuuu”!!!
Next time, once it’s in his hands, walk away and let him finish the whole yard. 🙂
I was changing my bike tire out in a driveway and some 50-60s dude comes over… Asks if I need help..I say no… Then proceeds to tell me he has all the tools and tubes if I need them …. ☠️☠️ What an asshole. I literally had everything I needed right there…. Can we just assume a woman isn’t helpless for once. 🙄🙄
Decorate all of your yard tools as girly as humanly possible.
My mid-70s M neighbor is an absolute lawn Nazi! He literally has a wooden ruler that he uses to measure the height of his grass in various spots. Daily!! And Heaven forbid we have a busy week or lots of rain and can’t get the mowing done!! I thought one time he’d have a stroke because I was in the hospital, comatose, for a month 😳
Yep give it to him to do while you go inside and have a Sangria😆
Should have walked away and let him trim your grass.
Well, you see, you’re a woman and thus ruled by your emotions plus there’s no way your feeble little ladybrain could know how to do something so challenging like operating a weed eater so just be glad a manly man like your neighbor came over to take the hard work off of your hands.
/s
I absolutely hate when I get unsolicited advice or help on something I don’t need help with. When I was in my early 20’s I had a spark plug go out and I headed to the auto parts store to buy a new one. The guy asked me if I’ve ever done it before but I’m not new at doing some mechanic work since my dad was a mechanic growing up. I assured him I was fine and he kept asking me. 😒
Last month I went out of state to visit my great aunt with my dad to replace half the roof on her carport/shed. I’ve done roofs before. I built a cabin with my husband, outhouse, sheds, chicken coops. My dad told me he didn’t need help but it’s a big roof and my dad is in his 60’s. I told him I was helping him and he said, “no, you just visit with your great aunt”. Well I forced the help and after it was done he was so grateful and told all the family that if I wasn’t there to help it would’ve taken him more than twice as long to do it alone. 🙄 duh lol.
Oh and my dad fell through the roof plywood too.
I went to Home Depot to buy some lumber to replace some rotted ones and before I even picked one up off the shelf, a guy walking past says in passing, “make sure it’s straight.” That just triggered me so hard because I am not new here and just because I am a woman and 4’11” doesn’t mean I have no clue! I lifted the 90 lb rolled roofing into the truck by myself and I don’t need these random men questioning my abilities or assuming I have none!
You can generally scare off old dudes by telling them you are a Satanist.
I had a creepy neighbor like that. He used to peek in my windows, and tried to stop me building a fence, and use to walk in my yard and tell me how to do things or live. He busted in my yard once while I was smoking a cigar and having a rum and coke on my back porch and he told me it wasnt very Christian of me. I told him I was a Satanist. He never once came back again.
Did the same thing with JW. Never seen boys run off so quick LOL.
I have awful neighbors too. He told me how far apart I needed to space my garbage bins. I also hate him blasting his stupid old music when he works in his garage. But if I phone in a noise complaint, he would know it was me even if it’s anonymous.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but this happens out in the sticks too.
I live on a shared private road with only 2 houses past mine, so the only traffic is neighbors and delivery drivers. I STILL get people pulling up beside me while I’m doing yardwork to comment on what I’m doing.
It’s always the men. They seem to not understand that a woman is capable of all things yardwork / forest management – mowing, weed whacking, tree trimming, log splitting, brush burning, road repair, etc. I’ve had men warn me about snakes, as if I haven’t maintained this property (30 acres) for nearly 4 years almost entirely on my own. Of course I have seen snakes! I get along with them (the snakes!) just fine, thank you very much!
Men also seem baffled that I am capable of and willing to push mow about 3 cleared acres with a battery mower and use a battery weed whacker. They seem offended that I don’t have a gas riding lawn mower. I think they’re covering for their own laziness.
At first my husband didn’t believe me when I said I would get interrupted every time I did yardwork by a guy driving by. Now he does, and even another neighbor (down another shared road) has said she wears sunglasses so she doesn’t accidentally make eye contact with passersby who want to comment on her yardwork.
I mean….IT’S A WEED WACKER. You wack the weeds. This isn’t rocket surgery.
“When are you going to cut your grass?”
cuts grass
“No, not like that!”
😡
I am on a tight budget, but rearranged things to pay for a lawn service. My neighbors would line up in chairs on the porch and watch me and give me unsolicited advice and it drove me nuts. And it now drives them nuts that I don’t do it myself! One told me that it was lazy and wasteful I didn’t do it myself! Best money I’ve ever spent!
I’d threaten him a little with it. Weed eaters are not hard to use or figure out. It takes a little practice but it isn’t rocket science.
Every. Damn. Time. I mow my lawn, some dude stops to give me unsolicited advice or comments or offers to do it for me. Which I would be happy to take them up on if I didn’t know it would create expectations of indebtedness or reciprocation of some kind.
Reminds me of this winter. We had decent snow for the first time in about 6 or 7 years, so i needed to go shovel my car out. No big deal, I’ve lived in the area my whole life and dealt with plenty of snow storms and my share of shoveling. I’ve got a smaller car, but have 2 parking spaces and live alone, so plenty of space to dump snow too.
Neighbor I’ve seen but never spoken to who lives in the house opposite my spaces looks at me (just getting started) and immediately starts to explain how to shovel and offer tips on what to do. Didn’t say hi, no small talk, didn’t offer to help. I had scooped maybe 1 pile of snow, but had apparently done it wrong to him?
I have rarely been so annoyed at another person, to be mansplained snow shoveling while in my mid-40s.
Ew shitty men love a captive audience. Once got skiing mansplained to me by a dusty old man on a 20 min long chair lift ride because he saw my last run and I was “going too fast.” I considered yeeting myself into the trees more than once on that ride