HOA President vs. Parents… Guess Who Won?

Gated Shadows

Beverly Jenkins thought she could run our neighborhood pool like her own personal kingdom — banning beach balls, splash games, even laughter. But when she went too far at my daughter’s birthday party, the whole neighborhood united in the most silent and satisfying revenge you’ve ever seen.  Sometimes the best way to win… is to follow every rule to the letter.  👉 Watch next:  ✨ More HOA Chaos You’ll Love:  🎃 My HOA Said I Could Only Have ONE Pumpkin... So I Got a 1,800lb Monster https://youtu.be/MuO7djYfQg8?si=ksLnYLLI14P6pPzV  🌌 HOA Tried to Shut Down My Observatory... BIG Mistake  https://youtu.be/HIalI7bYvDU?si=m_O5mZ2JbfSSiFXF  🌹 The HOA Tried to Destroy Her Rose... But Justice Bloomed https://youtu.be/rByS8GVlAS0?si=E285cQkK2Hrx95Lb  🚧 My Neighbor Tried to Take Down My Fence... But Guess Whose Was Illegal https://youtu.be/TbGGqWzgTpY?si=e7w3p2e8LHW1HBbv  📋 The Scandal at Lot 47: HOA Queen Gets Outsmarted https://youtu.be/IKHJACCeldI?si=jekAPITHuFtouk73  🌳 She Fined Us $500 Over A Twig... So I Filed Complaints Back https://youtu.be/ssPCv3g-Zfc?si=yuUudvEdIZX10aBR

Transcript

00:00The first time I saw Beverly Jenkins with a thermometer in the community pool,

00:04I thought she was checking for a sick kid. Turns out, she was checking for a violation.

00:09Welcome to Pinecrest Estates, where the lawns are perfect, the houses are worth a fortune,

00:15and the community pool is a war zone. And Beverly? She wasn't just the HOA board president.

00:21She was its general, its judge, and its chief executioner. She believed the clubhouse,

00:27the pool, and the tennis courts were her personal fiefdom, and we were all just messy,

00:33noisy serfs who needed governing. The rules for the pool were laminated and bolted to the gate.

00:40They weren't suggestions, they were commandments handed down from Mount Beverly.

00:46Rule 7. No splashing. Deemed aggressive and disruptive.

00:51Rule 12. Flotation devices must be appropriately sized for the user's torso.

00:56She carried a tape measure. Her favorite. Rule 3. Pool temperature must be maintained between

01:0378 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal energy efficiency and user comfort.

01:10User comfort. That was a rich one. I saw her make a nine-year-old boy get out of the pool because

01:16his dive rings were commercial-grade paraphernalia and violated the no-retail advertising clause she

01:23D just invented on the spot. The kid cried. Beverly wrote his parents a ticket. The breaking point was

01:30my daughter's 10th birthday party. We'd booked the clubhouse, paid the fee, dotted every I. The kids

01:36were in the pool playing a game of keep-away with a beach ball. It was, by all accounts, the sound of

01:42pure, unadulterated childhood joy. It was like a dinner bell for Beverly. She emerged from her house,

01:49which sat like a watchtower overlooking the pool, her visor already on, clipboard in hand.

01:56Excuse me! Excuse me! She yelled, clapping her hands like she was breaking up a riot.

02:02That ball is not on the pre-approved list of pool toys! The kids froze. My daughter,

02:08Chloe, looked at me, her face crumbling. Mom? Beverly, it's a birthday party, I said,

02:14my voice tight. It's a beach ball. It is an unregulated projectile, she corrected,

02:21pointing her pen at it. And the resulting wake is causing water to splash onto the deck,

02:26creating a slip hazard. This is a clear violation of Rule 4 and Rule 7. The ball must be confiscated,

02:33and I'm going to have to ask you to enforce a 10-minute silent cool-down period for the children.

02:37A silent cool-down period. At a birthday party. I saw red. But I also saw the other parents' faces,

02:46a mixture of rage and helpless resignation. We'd all been beaten down by her for so long.

02:53That night, the email arrived. It was a mass CC to every homeowner. Subject,

02:59reminder regarding responsible use of community amenities. It was a not-so-thinly-veiled recounting

03:05of our transgressions, complete with a link to the 42-page PDF of Pool Rules. But this time,

03:12something was different. Instead of the usual silent groans, the replies started flooding in.

03:18From Mark Chen. Beverly, while we're on the topic, can you clarify why my family A.S.

03:24reservation for the tennis courts was denied last week for excessive grunting at during play?

03:29From Sarah Lopez. And why was my book club asked to leave the clubhouse for overly

03:35enthusiastic laughter that violated the Brasodecibel Ordinance? From Dave Miller.

03:41My son was told his swim trunks were too colorful and distracting. They were blue, Beverly, navy blue.

03:49The dam had broken. We'd found our army in a thread of reply-all emails.

03:54The revolution was planned not in a secret meeting, but in a chaotic group text titled

04:00Pinecrest Piranhas. Our weapon wasn't anger. It was malicious compliance.

04:07The next Saturday, the day Beverly held her sacred poolside reading hour, we struck.

04:12At exactly 10.01 a.m., the one minute after the pool officially opened, we descended.

04:17Every single one of us. We didn't break a single rule. We followed them to the letter.

04:23Mark Chen played tennis on the nearby courts, hitting the ball with soft, silent taps.

04:29No grunting. Sarah Lopez's book club sat on loungers, reading their books and

04:34occasionally sharing a silent, closed-mouth smile. No laughter.

04:39My daughter and her friends waded slowly into the shallow end,

04:43using flotation devices that had been pre-measured and certified appropriately sized.

04:48They moved through the water like ghosts, making not a ripple.

04:53The silence was deafening. And it was absolutely maddening.

04:58Beverly's head snapped up from her book. She looked around, her eyes wide with horror.

05:04We were all there. We were all using her facilities. Perfectly. Quietly. Legally.

05:10She couldn't write a ticket. She couldn't yell. She was trapped in a prison of her own making.

05:15The lifeguard, a teenager we'd secretly tipped 20 bucks, walked over to her.

05:20Ms. Jenkins, he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

05:24I've been monitoring the pool temperature. It's at 81.2 degrees. That S a violation of rule three.

05:31I am going to have to ask you to exit the pool area until it recalibrates, for everyone's optimal

05:37comfort. The look on her face, the sheer, sputtering, impotent fury, was worth every fine,

05:44every moment of anxiety, every confiscated beach ball. She gathered her things and fled,

05:50the silent, staring eyes of the entire neighborhood burning into her back.

05:55She resigned from the HOA board the following week, citing a desire to spend more time with her family.

06:02The new board's first act was to host an actual, rowdy, splash-filled pool party.

06:08The first rule on the new, single-page list of guidelines?

06:12Be cool. Don't be a Beverly. The moral of the story is simple.

06:17You can try to control the space, but you can't control the people in it.

06:22Not if they finally decide to stand together.

06:25And sometimes, the quietest revenge is just following the rules.

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