It's always a positive when you move into a new house and hit it off with your neighbours, as it's nice to avoid those common arguments between people living next door to one another.
But one mum has now discovered that just because your neighbours start off friendly doesn't mean they'll stay that way, after the elderly woman who lives next door to her and her husband became too much to handle.
The woman explained she and her husband agreed to give their neighbour their phone numbers in case of emergency when they first moved in, but that soon escalated to a point where the couple is now on the woman's emergency line so that they can be contacted if anything happens to her while she's in her home.
Now, the neighbour has become "crabby" and "demanding", and the woman is beginning to regret her decision to be kind.
In a post on Reddit, she said: "My husband and I moved house in January and our new neighbour is elderly. To begin with she was friendly, as were we, and we went round for a brew and a chat.
"She asked for our numbers in case of an emergency which was fine, but fast forward and her daughter messaged out of the blue giving me access to an emergency key [to the woman's house] and adding us to her mother's emergency line. This means that if our neighbour presses the emergency button [in her house] it comes straight to us and the company calls asking us to check on her.
"Since then she has become rather crabby. She has taken issue with our jasmine hedge, and first requested we cut it down. I say no, and she storms off. She rings round another evening demanding my husband come look at the hedge, I eavesdrop to hear her saying 'your wife said no'. He also said no to taking it down but compromised that our shared handyman will cut it back on her side completely at our cost at any time.
"The next day, I hear the handyman in her garden, and she lies and says we said to cut the hedge down. He doesn't believe her, as she had asked him to tell us to cut it down when we first moved in. We like it and it adds privacy between gardens."
The woman and her husband have also recently become first-time parents, and with a newborn baby taking up almost all of their time, it's become even more hassle to respond to their neighbour every time she needs something.
She added: "We now have a newborn and the phone has gone twice in a week for an emergency. One was an accidental push, and today it turns out she fell. She had double-locked the door so my husband couldn't enter, and we had paramedics scaling our garden wall to get in as well as the fire brigade. My dog is going mental as they come through the house and the baby is screaming. They finally get access and leave 3 minutes later as she is fine.
"I can't cope with the responsibility anymore, would I be the a**hole to ask to be taken off the emergency line? Other neighbours warned us about her demanding nature and nosiness but we just can't say no!"
In an update, the woman added that she and her husband have reached a compromise in which her name has been removed from the emergency contact list, but her husband will stay on there - as they don't want to leave their neighbour without anyone to rely on.
She wrote: "I have just taken my name taken off the emergency contact, my husband is refusing to have his removed as he thinks of it that he would want someone to help his grandmother.
"It's a slight relief that I won't be called upon with my baby being the first priority. I literally cannot jump up mid-breastfeed or nappy change to run next door."
Commenters on the post were on the mum's side, with many encouraging her to "set boundaries" and to be more firm in refusing to do things she doesn't consent to do.
One person said: "You guys need to learn to set some boundaries. I don’t know why you'd agree to be on an emergency call list for someone you barely know."
While another added: "Contact the daughter and politely decline any further engagement. They will both be upset and you can politely let them be."
And a third posted: "You need to reach out to her daughter as she is the responsible party."
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