To object to our next door neighbour spreading vicious gossip about us?

[justbogoffnow]

She is telling other neighbours that dh beats me up. Having heard our dc's playfighting (with one of them shouting 'don't hurt me' sometimes), she has decided this is in fact me being beaten up. Dh wouldn't dream of hurting me and usually, I would simply ignore something like this. But.....not long after she and her partner moved in, she was loudly telling people (including the builder doing repairs to her house) that her partner's daughters (who visit but mainly live with their Mum who has remarried) were being sexually abused by their stepbrother. Not sure how this was investigated but it turned out to be completely untrue. It's the lengths to which she takes her gossip and accusations that makes me feel nervous and less able to just forget about it.

What a cow. Hopefully folk will recognize that this is just spiteful gossip. Best wishes

She seems to have a history of doing this so hopefully no one will believe her

Are you living in my old house?

We were having problems with ds1 16 at the time, lots of shouting and banging. Neighbour came up to me in the street and asked me if I knew about women's shelters, she pointed at ds2 and said he will get hurt if you don't leave dp.

Not the way I think you should go about helping a neighbour you think might be suffering from dv

Sounds like she has a problem, can you all band together and vow to ignore her nasty gossip?

I had a friend like this ( not a friend now), who makes up really terrible stories about people and spreads them. One example - another friend's DH got a job abroad on a fairly long contract. She immediately told everyone that he was in prison as a child abuser.

People will work out that she is a serial liar fantasist. I tend to be likely to speak my mind, so would probably confront her loudly in public I'm afraid, and ask her to get her facts straight or keep her trap shut.

Speak to your neighbours and put them straight. Then speak to her and tell her to put a sock in it.

Im not sure if u can win this. You can tell whoever will listen that dp isnt hitting you but a lot of beaten women will do this too.

She sounds like a right gem of a neighbour. Maybe you & the neighbours could make up some gossip about her & see how she likes it. Or is that too chilish

My wanky ex-neighbour once called the police because me and exP were playing noisily with DS.

My other next - door neighbour is lovely and we are good friends. I'm also on very good terms with her neighbours and a few others.

The woman does have a history of mental health problems. She was sectioned one weekend a few months after she moved in. I knew things were not good (walls between properties VERY thin) and tried to stay out the way with the dc's because I was worried they'd be a bit bewildered by it all. Unfortunately, as I walked back to the house with one of dc's she was escorted handcuffed into one of 3 police cars outside her house :(.

I wish I could feel some sympathy for her, but she has been so hostile to us from the start and it's just continued. When I first met her, I had what I thought was a normal, first conversation, and told her we had moved here because the secondary schools were better. This was translated into us having 'a fucking cheek moving here just for schools' :(. I apparently killed her lawn last year (there were problems with it after it was relaid), my dh and dc's are autistic....I could go on.

Thanks for the responses so far, they have really helped me get some perspective on the situation. For a while I've been thinking that the only way to resolve this is to move. There's no point in talking to her partner, he seems to deal with everything by encouraging her to drink more alcohol (which it seems she shouldn't be doing at all given advice given to her during her last 3 week stay in in the Priory). She could stay put for years and I'm worried enough for my dc's to think the only way forward is to move. We were sat happily in our sitting room one afternoon when suddenly a huge commotion erupted next door and it became clear it was another suicide attempt. We can't afford to move, but to protect dc's, who are finding these things more unsettling as they get older, we're beginning to think it's our only option.

You have my sympathy! My childhood NDN told the village, and the builders renovating our house,that my mum was a prostitute and that I was pregnant and I had been ejected from the house, followed by my belongings!
She rang the council about noise that we weren't making, and she used to stand on her side of the 40ft high conifer hedge, that she planted the entire length of the garden, repeating everything we said in the garden in a high pitched voice, cackling like a witch!!!
She was a church warden, and a pillar of the community! We knew better, she was a fucking headcase!

Have started looking at houses. Although.....everything was just fine here until this neighbour moved in. Hopefully we can't be this unlucky again.