Redneck Neighbors

I think you would get further with them if you did not classify them with any group of people. Each issue has a solution that has nothing to do with being a red neck or not, so do something about the dog by calling animal control every time you see it out. Call the police or write to your home owners assoicaltion or rental company about the basket ball, swearing, and public nusence they create with the basket ball hoop, lights in your windows, and loud inappropriate langague. You can also contact the police about the noise, though maybe not the content. The rest is just part of living in the city near people. To avoid it, you kind of have to move out to a place where you are in control of your surroudings and no one can live near you.

I think that you should really drop calling them anything but people. It weakens your argument. Some "red necks" are very polite, nice, and care about the people who live near them, and some do not use any profanity at all.

M.

I am a very proud redneck!!! Not all of us are unlearned, unwashed jerks... lol. I agree with most of Rachel K's points... While your neighbors are indeed very ignorant of their surroundings, it is their right to do things like back into their driveway and play shirtless basketball. Like Rachel said, put up curtains. Blackout curtains work very well. As far as the dog is concerned, call animal control. Video the little thing running around off-leash if you have to. When they are disturbing the peace, call the police. You don't mention that you have ever ASKED them to stop... just that you are nice to them. They might not even realize you are annoyed. Have you tried asking them to watch their language when they are getting loud? You could even blame it on the baby~ 'hey guys, my DD is starting to try out new words... do you think you could watch the language?' Maybe that would help.

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Why does everyone on this site seem to think lazy rude people are rednecks!!! I find this offensive!They are rude and self centered!!!! Not redneck. Call animal control when the dog is in your yard, call the police when they are disturbing the peace, have you asked them to watch their language if you are playing outside with your daughter they might not even be aware they curse bc it's such a habit. Close your curtain then you dont have to watch them play basketball. As for backing into their own driveway sorry but I think thats a silly thing or you to be pissy about my hubby is not allowed to back his work vehicle out of a driveway he has to back in when parking some towns even have laws about backing out into a road. Get some blackout curtains for your bedroom and problem solved. You are going to have a loud obnoxious neighbor no matter where you live so I'd just learn to deal with this one. It could be worse.

Just like Rachel said because there loud and rude doesnt mean there redneck. That is offensive. And Tn does have a leash law. If the dog comes into your yard then call animal control. If they dont do anything then tell the neighbors next time your dog comes into my yard acting like its going to attack me im going to shoot it and usually they will make sure it wont come back in your yard. I know animal control will do something because i had a dog that came in my yard and would growl and i would try to shoo it and it would just look at me so i called and havent seen the dog since.

Wow. Sorry, that stinks. Are your other neighbors bothered by them as much as you are? If so, maybe if you talk to them about it, you can come up with some ideas together.

I guess if I were in your shoes, I'd buy black-out curtains or shades to eliminate the problem w/ the headlights. Don't you have leash laws where you live? I'd call animal control every time the dog left their yard. What if it attacked a child?
I would also call the police when they get all obnoxious for disturbing the peace. You could even say they are being so loud you can't get your baby to sleep.
Maybe you could talk to a lawyer just to see what your rights are. When they start cussing, close the windows and turn on the radio or tv. Not sure how much more you can do than that if you don't want to move. I'd move...if it were at all possible.

My parents did that when I was little and some obnoxious neighbors moved into the house behind us. They'd lift their 3 year old over the fence so she could play in our yard w/o even asking. They also had some loud, foul mouths over there. Once their obnoxious son set a snake in our yard. My Dad didn't want us growing up around them and was afraid that if he waited he'd have a hard time selling because they were starting to accumulate junk in the yard. The rest of the neighbors took pride in their homes and kept the outside neat and the lawn mowed.
Anyway, good luck. Hope you're able to find ways to make yourselves more comfortable :)

this is not acceptable redneck behavior. this is trashy behavior rednecks dont let our dogs roam free and not do anything about it. as far as the dog get a bb gun and if the dog comes in your yard and barks at people in your yard at your door shoot it. wait till they go to sleep and park your car where the headlights shine straight into their bedroom window. if at all possible if you have the way of doing it put a yard light up where it shines bright into thier bedroom window. but warn your other neighbors so they can black out thier room. this is what we call redneck justice. if they work nights and sleep days have a neighbor everymorning about 9 am mow thier lawn one a day they wont be able to sleep. they will eventually get the point. this is how we would handle it and we are rednecks. or next time they shine their lights in your house go turn on their headlights and wait till they go to bed and their battery will be dead in the morning every time they do this :) maybe not proper but this is what rednecks understand. it should work

edit redneck is not a slur if we are we admit to it. and we have no problems admitting it but this is even breaking redneck rules. i agree with throwing the dog poo at their house they will get the point its called redneck justice. that would even make a redneck mad having someone elses dog poo in our yard. and a dog who comes in our yard barking at our friends would make us mad too.. and for the basketball thing something you might try is taking the hoop part off of it in the middle of the night next time they do it and make them go buy a new one. after replacing 2 or 3of them they will get the hint. and if someone called me a redneck i would laugh at them cause its true.

Get a bigger dog than theirs, one that eats little dogs for lunch, like a Doberman. I know, not practical, but it would serve them right.

Vindication aside, call police when they are loud and obnoxious after curfew. Does your community have a curfew? In our old one you couldnt work on engines after 10PM and couldn't have loud parties without notifying the police, etc.

Call animal control. You are afraid someone will get bit, they will have to provide the shot record and maybe they don't have one, there goes the dog problem.

Start looking for a new neighborhood and visit it at all hours of the night.

I'm sorry you have crappy neighbors. If you confront them they will only get worse.
Good luck

Check city ordnances about blocking the street to play basketball--there may be some kind of law about it. Also, check the leash laws, and next time the dog is loose, call the dog warden.

But I think that Catherine C might have some very excellent points....

I know exactly how you feel! I have neighbors who make yours sound like a dream! No exageration! The only thing you can do is ignore it, or move, or pray they move! lol I Wish I had advice to help but people like this are just impossible to deal with and there's really nothing we can do! Sorry

I don't know if you have tried to discuss these issues with your neighbors or not, but they will have no idea their behaviors disturb you unless you have that honest (and difficult conversation). It's true, people are often not aware that things they consider to be perfectly normal are really annoying or even offensive to others. When we chose to live in neighborhoods in close proximity to each other, there is a certain amount of give and take that is expected. I have spoken to neighbors about barking dogs before, which is reasonable, but I refrain from complaining about how my neighbors choose to live (neon green shutters or things I consider unattractive in their yards).

My suggestion would be to speak to them politely, addressing the two most offensive behaviors--the dog and the cursing. Perhaps the headlight issue is a bit picky, probably prompted because you are angry about all of the other behaviors. It is not unreasonable to expect neighbors to keep their pets (and their pet waste) on their own property. It is also reasonable to expect to be able to enjoy your home without hearing loud profanity in the street. In other words, I would pick my battles wisely. If you approach them with a huge list of complaints, some of them being kind of picky, you probably won't get very far. Is this about being "right" or being "happy"? As for all of the suggestions about "giving them a taste of their own medicine". Do you really think they'll notice and do you want to go to that level? That sounds like a lot of work for something that will get no result or even make things worse.

The only thing that you really have a good solution to is the dog...are there leash laws in your town? If so...call the animal control and report the dog as a nuisance. There is no reason for you to have to put up with that...and the dog would be much better off if they would keep it confined in a fenced yard.
As to the backing their car into the driveway...do you have some room darkening shades so that the light doesn't bother you? If they aren't willing to listen to you NICELY ask them to dim their lights as they back into the driveway, there really isn't anything you can do about it .
I am afraid that your attitude towards them might not be exactly leading to a good relationship between the two families. You seem to be understandably unhappy with them and upset over some of the things that they do and I imagine that comes across to them when you talk with them.
Try "killing them with kindness"...treat them as if they were you favorite people in the entire world... be kind, be positive and upbeat...and see if you can't meet in the middle somewhere and learn to be live together more comfortably

I would call animal control on the dog. But you need to really be aware that calling someone Redneck is a slur. I agree it can be a pain to have the guy playing ball in front of your house but better her hubby is home playing ball with his buddies than out drinking etc. There is really nothing you can do about the ball playing thing but you can do something about the dog and I would do that. as a previous poster said get some black out curtains and ignore them. chances are they are renters and won't be there long so they don't feel they need to blend into the neighborhood.

For the dog I would do one of two things. A paintball gun(less likely the damage the dog verses a bb gun that can break the skin and set the poor dog up for a nasty infections. Check with your local animal control office about leash laws and all laws concerning pets roaming free. If there are any you can use. Call and report the dog running loose.
As for the basketball goal odds are that is something you are going have to get use to unless the area you live in has laws against it. Again you can check your local city laws. If there are laws about it then report them to the proper people. To get it taken care of.

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We had neighbors like that once, but luckily they were renting. I called the landlord and had them evicted. Find out if they are renting or own so you might be able to do something there.
there is a leash law in M'boro, call the pound on the dog. If you are nice, warn the neighbors, but if it were me, I might just call. You could write them a letter but fact is, if they own the house and don't rent, there is not much you can do to make them turn off their head lights, not play bball shirtless, etc you CAN have the dog kept up b/c it is a law. If it were me, and it was, I would move and visit the good neighbors that you do like. We moved and haven't regretted it once! Neighbors like that bring down the value of your house and we needed the equity to raise, not fall. Trying to be nice doesn't phase them b/c they are redneck and nasty. maybe your entire neighborhood feels the same way and you can all sign a sheet to push them out but really, they aren't leaving b/c they don't care. You can call the city or codes if they aren't mowing, parking in their yard, etc but the things you mentioned unfortunately aren't against the law. I really would suggest moving....sorry, I know that is a bad situation!

If you shoot someone's dog, even if it's BBs or paintballs, you are asking for them to storm over to your house cursing MUCH louder than you ever heard when they're playing ball outside. And you'd be asking for a huge and ongoing feud. Would your cats be safe after that, if they wanted revenge? Would your baby be safe, once she's toddling and playing outside? Don't shoot anything at anyone.

Right now things are bad, I agree, but you're not (yet) in a feud. Are you in an area where you are covered by county or town animal control laws? I would first talk to them about the dog and the cursing, at a time when you're calm, things are quiet and when the dog has not just been all over your lawn and the guys are not standing there sweaty and pumped-up from a ball game. Be the bigger person and express yourself like a grownup even if they fuss or are unresponsive. Then when the dog is loose again, which probably will be the case, call in animal control. Have your other neighbor watch for the dog and do the same. If both you and the good neighbor consistently report this as a loose dog (which is not legal where I live, at least), you may either get them to finally control it or the town will take it and charge them with something, possibly. That could lead to them being sore at you, but it's a documented and safer route than shooting at an animal -- which, by the way, could get you arrested for animal cruelty and possibly more.