How do I stop my neighbour talking to us?

[Naithnira]

I take toddler DC in the garden to play every morning. For the past three days my neighbour has climbed up on a chair to chat over the 6ft fence. She doesn’t seem to notice me literally pressing myself against the opposite fence until she goes away, and I’m too polite to just say “we’re not talking to you”. Yesterday I was in the house when I saw her handing chocolate biscuits to DC over the fence. So I went out and confiscated the biscuits, then she went on a long rant about how people should be social distancing and you can’t relax the rules because you’re fed up, and was saying how she works with Covid patients but has insufficient PPE...

AIBU to think that if she works with Covid patients she shouldn’t be passing biscuits to a two year old over the fence? How the heck do I get her to leave us alone? She’s lovely and means well but she’s putting us at risk. We’ve been shielding for six weeks due to a lung condition, running out of essentials and just coping because we didn’t want to put ourselves at risk by going out - then she comes along and just undoes all our effort.

Just pretend to be on the phone when she appears?

I think some of the people who think that OP’s (legitimate) safety concerns are ridiculous/OTT/irrational must have big gardens. If OP’s garden is narrow (terraced house for example) then she may very well have to stand over to the opposite side in order to maintain a 2m distance. There is no invisible forcefield surrounding your property that prevents other people’s germs and viruses from coming over. 2m over a fence is the same as 2m in the street or the supermarket or anywhere else. Besides which, 2m is the very minimum distance, it’s not the ideal. If my neighbour had been infected with COVID then I certainly wouldn’t be standing mere feet away having a chinwag.

Crumpled to the grass 🤣
You sound very dramatic, OP you didn’t also scream whiskey sightseeing in Italy did you?!

But seriously, tell her you don’t allow DC biscuits so can she not give him anything again, and if you don’t want to have a conversation just end it and carry on with your day! I think your making this into a much bigger situation than it needs to be and using covid as a reason to justify not wanting to speak but you really don’t have to justify it, you’re under no obligation to continue a conversation if you don’t want to!

• when not whisky

I would butt in, in the middle of her talk, and say 'sorry Janet, but I've got something on the stove, so I need to go in, speak to you later, bye'. And just go in! I know other posters will say there's no need to make excuses, but if you don't want to appear rude as you say, then it's the way to go.

Just scream hysterically every time you see her. She definitely won’t want to talk to you after that.

Just say - “I’m going to stop you there” and walk away. She’s so thick skinned she probably won’t even notice you leave.

You say that she was isolating for two weeks and now she's back at work. So, what are her working hours? Do you notice that she leaves the house in the afternoons, for example? Use the garden as much as you can when she's away at work. Good idea about the trellis and the tree!

Scream hysterically?! Yep sounds good way to deal with neighbours you have to live next to for maybe years

Rather than a simple note or phone call explaining about the shielding and simply telling her politely not to give biscuits etc.

Are we actually adults or children here? Great role model for the DC too