I have a very kind but intense neighbour. With hindsight the warning signs were there when we moved in 7 years ago - she turned up to introduce herself and said she'd had a walkthrough of our home already. She and her husband don't have children and are a lot older than us. They've also always lived on the street.
I will chat to most people, so at first it didn't bother me, and we'd have a chinwag if we bumped into each other on the street from time to time - or borrow tools etc from each other. There's a bit of beef between the old-timers on our street, so we purposefully kept the chat light and breezy. During covid she and her husband were very reclusive and we didn't see them for the better part of a year. But now she's back... with a vengeance.
I get doorstep visits nearly every day. She used to kind of respect boundaries - and would only ring the bell once and leave, if unanswered. Over the past couple of months she'll repeatedly ring it until I answer. The topic of chat usually starts with something light and topical but increasingly she repeats stories she's already told me or goes into theories of neighbours hating them/historical street disputes - which sometimes descend into her weeping. She'll do this with me one day, and then I'll catch her repeating the same thing with my husband the following day.
She knows I work from home, but saying I'm on a work call makes no difference and sometimes I have to be very blunt. Sometimes DCs are kicking off/dinner time/bath time and getting her off my doorstep is nigh on impossible. She used to occasionally drop off gingerbread for DCs. This is now her MO - she'll appear wanting to offload under the guise of bringing us gingerbread (we don't need any more bloody gingerbread). It sounds creepy, it's really not, she's just a lonely person who possibly needs mental help - but she's driving me fucking crazy.
It doesn't bother my husband so much as he only wfh 1-2 days a week so it's not so intense. I'm working full-time from home, DD are 6 and 4 - time really isn't something I have an abundance of. I got home from an appt this afternoon and was on a call on my mobile. There was a packet of gingerbread by my doorstep, so she must have buzzed so much my neighbour answered and let her leave them. (We have a dodgy doorbell in our building, so if it's rung repeatedly it will ring the other flats too). Within 2 minutes of me getting into the flat she was buzzing my door repeatedly again and I could hear her saying to my neighbour "I just saw her go in". We have a video doorbell but annoyingly it doesn't always catch her so I can never be 100% sure it's not her or a courier etc.
I don't want to be unkind but the unsolicited visits are eroding my work time (I've just started a new job) and personal time - and I feel like she must often be watching me, to be able to appear at such opportune moments.
Has anyone else had something like this with a neighbour before? Any recommendations please? I'm losing my fucking mind!