A jerk is a jerk is a jerk

He's just not a nice person.

I mean, not that I really know the guy. I have actually never seen his face. Not once. But still, he's not nice.

He's our neighbor. Not our live-next-to-or-across-the-street" neighbor. Nope. He lives catty-corner to our backyard. So it's not that I am an unfriendly neighbor, I just don't usually peek into other's yards from my backyard. At least not when they are outside.

Well, on Memorial Day, we were having a party and a ball that my kids were playing with bounced into his backyard. My kids kindly asked if he would throw it back over. So he did. Unfortunately it happened again, and he threw it back over, but yelled, "If this comes over into my yard again, I am keeping it." And he did. 

Then two weeks ago, in the middle of the day, my kids were out jumping on the trampoline. I guess his dog didn't like that and started barking at them. He came outside and yelled, "Shut-up! You are making my dog bark!!"

Ummm, okay.

Well, the other day, when we had some cousins over, they decided to sleep on the tramp. They woke up at 6:30am and started jumping.

Yes, I said 6:30am. Yes, it was way too early to be making that much noise. But before I could roll out of bed to tell them to "Shhhh!" our favorite person yells, "YOU STUPID, IDIOT KIDS! SHUT-UP!!"

In this situation, I really can't defend my kids' behavior. It was early. And they were being loud-ish. You know, being kids.

But that guy needs to chill out. My guess is that he would never talk to an adult that way. But why does he feel the need or the right to scare and intimidate, berate and belittle my children?

Because that's what jerks do.

Maybe, though, he is out there somewhere, blogging about his jerky neighbors who have some really cute but annoying children.

The difference?

I am not a jerk.