I’ve had my share of bad neighbors but in one case the sneakiest thing I did was…….nothing.

I had a downstairs neighbor who at first was wonderful. Our daughters were the same age and went to the same school. All was good until the girls had a petty argument and the mom got involved. After that it was war. She called the landlord saying we were too loud, the noise from my shower kept her son awake, I parked too close to her car. My response was always unfailingly polite (kill ‘‘em with kindness). He finally told her to stop bugging him and work it out between us. She didn’t and decided to step up the harassment.

Her downfall came the day the police and CYS showed up at my door one day. My neighbor made a report that my daughter threw a rock at her daughter and it took 10 stitches to close the cut on her scalp. The police wanted to question my kids and CYS was there to take them away as my neighbor also told them we lived in squalor. I politely invited them in to my very clean apartment and asked if anyone wanted coffee. They all said no and asked me to produce my kids. I told them “Well that’s going to take a while since for the past month they have been in Florida with their dad. He has visitation with them for 2 months every summer. They’ll be back the middle of August if you want to wait.”

She was charged with making false reports to the police and CYS. They moved a few months later. Funny thing, the girls ended being friends again all on their own; the way it would have been without parental interference.