I think my elderly neighbor Sofie is getting worse in her stalking ways.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to find a camera in my home that she’s placed there to watch me.
I mean, she knows every time I step outside my door – whether I go out the front of the back she’s there, seemingly waiting for me!
Honestly! She’s part of the reason why I’m not getting my garden work done.
All of our backyards are fairly open with short chain link fences between them. I don’t mind this so much and I don’t mind my neighbors being outdoors using their yards at the same time I am … but Sofie … Sofie literally follows me around. I’ll be in one portion of my backyard trying to work at something and she’ll be opposite me on her side of the fence digging in the earth or spraying her plants with water. I move, she moves.
When she finally does tire she’s sit on her steps and watch me work. If she only watched me work in my garden I wouldn’t be too upset … but no, she has to ask questions. Usually it’s the same ones over and over.
Trouble is I can’t usually hear her since the traffic at the front of the house is so loud and she’s talking low. She knows I can’t hear her too. So I’ll spend some time nodding my head but eventually she’ll say something repeatedly wanting me to truly respond and I’ll have to get up from what I’m doing, go over to her to find out what she’s saying “No rain???” and then go back to my work. She does this repeatedly.
Manipulative of her, isn’t it? She knows what she’s doing and I’m certain she knows she’s frustrating me.
Last night Chris went outside at 8 pm to grill some sausages. I could hear him talking to her while he cooked. At about 8:20 he came inside to tell me that Sofie had just brought out some hamburgers and a pepper for him to cook on the grill. Yes our dinner was done. She knew Chris was cooking yet she waiting until he was finished before asking him to cook her food. Grrrr
Almost every elderly person I know eats their dinner somewhere between 4 pm and 6 pm … what the heck did she want with a couple of hamburgers at 8:30 at night? There’s no way she ate them last night.
If you ever wonder why I talk about being outside at 10 pm planting plants, pruning and watering this is why. I hide until she’s closed up her doors and gone in and then I sneak out so I can do my gardening in peace – with the stray cats that wander through my yard and the raccoons.
Of course if I hide from her too long she literally peaks in my windows! Arghhh!
Oh that is just creepy. Would bother me too for sure! Hrmph.
Creepy neighbors suck. I used to have one when we lived in Hawaii who’d sit on her front porch and stare into the windows of my house. I was probably the only person on the island who never opened their curtains to enjoy the view of the mountains behind us thanks to her.
I solved it by taking my boombox outside one day and playing the Barney theme song for my son. Over and over again and again until she went indoors. Then I turned it off. Next time she came out I did the same thing. Luckily, she got the hint.
I almost felt bad when she passed away a month later. Almost.
Yes Cynthia my neighbor stalking me is kind of creepy. Maybe it’s not true stalking but it sure feels like it at times.
That is the weirdest thing I have ever heard no doubt strange stuff.
I believe you about neighbores who stalks.My neighbore sits in her lawn chair from morning til night drinking beer and smoking and watches my house the whole time.She knows when I leave who visits,what happens or happened here what time this happened she gets drunk and argues over nothing you know about that you supposely said.So I boarded my porch up so she cant see us and still she watches my home.So when I leave the house I make faces at her as see stares at me as I drive bt her house.Its sad you cant go outside because of her.I do allmy stuff when it gets late wheni know she wont be outside.She has even gone as far as built fires in her drive way to get rid of the bugs at night so she sya out longer :X
I’m a single mum of 3 and one neighbour is constantly watching me, that’s 1 that I know of. Ive had a run in with another. Elderly ladies both of them. I don’t mind them watching but it gets kinda creepy. The one opposite my house likes to talk to the father of my children early in the morning when he visits after his nightshift. She tells him that the kids scream every morning (untrue totally) and wake her up. This morning she told him to tell me that I should go to bed earlier. She told him what time I’ve gone to bed all last week. How does she know? She watches the lights through the tiny window in my front door. They’ve been blacked out tonight 🙂 My ex husband stalked me, seriously stalked me, he used to sit outside my house for days and follow me around so this neighbour really is freaking me out. I’d love to know what I’ve done to warrant so much hostility and attention from her. I mind my own business, hardly go out of the house and she seems to have taken up a new hobby of single parent watching. Grrrrr!!!
Can I vent here? Can I share your pain? I am Googling “nosy talkative elderly neighbor” because I’m at my wit’s end. The old woman living next door has made my life in my dream home into a cat and mouse game. She sits in her yard, or keeps her front door open, so that every time I come or go, she can pop out to talk to me. About the same things over and over again.
Rehashing, gossiping, complaining about things that happened while we were building the house (we have fixed it all since then!!!), recounting every conversation and telling the life story of all these people I’ve never met and never will…. and you can’t get a word in edgewise, she is hard of hearing. And vicious, always saying ” I keep to myself, I don’t bother anyone, I never say a bad word about anybody…”, then she’ll point her finger to some poor random neighbors house and go “Except them!” and commence to telling the story about how they did her wrong!!!!
I have to sneak out to go get the mail. I run to the car (so do the kids). And like the author of this blog, I CANNOT GARDEN IN MY FRONT YARD! I love to garden, but the front yard is still in pitiful shape, because each time I head out, it’s time for constant yapping! I wait until she closes her doors at night, then steal out into my yard to do a bare minimum.
I just ordered some special bamboos that are not invasive and have planted them against our fence. She started complaining and pow! The straw that broke the camel’s back! I let her have it verbally, got a lot off my chest. But in the end, I caved and reassured her… So, I’ll continue to have the same problem.