I've got a neighbour, female, same age group as me (late 30s-early 40s). We live in adjoining flats, and I mainly keep myself to myself but from time to time we borrow things from each other, etc. She is immensely irritating in numerous ways, but in particular one habit she has of repeating information back to me that I have previously told her and acting like she's telling me something I don't know.
For example, I borrowed a stepladder from her, and she starts lecturing me about how to fix the thing I was going to fix 'you have to do it this way' in a really bossy manner, labouring the point, when I had already told her exactly the same method previously. She's done this numerous times and not only do I find it weird, it seems like a hierarchical thing, that she prides herself on being 'smart' and has shown on several occasions that she thinks I'm dumb, so when I tell her something she doesn't know, it seems to really hit a nerve and cause this reaction.
I wouldn't say she's stupid but she's not half as clever as she thinks she is. She also has the habit of telling me how good she is at everything with every interaction eg. I'm doing a long-distance run 'oh, I can give you some advice at that, I'm really good at it' Then she might give me some really obvious advice and labour the point that I have to do this. :/
She also was boasting how another neighbour had said she looked like an intellectual in her glasses, and then got her glasses and put them on for me and asked 'what do you think, do I look like an intellectual?' - with no irony whatsoever 😂It would all be quite funny really, if she wasn't so patronising and belittling every time I interacted with her. She reminds me of the cameo part Jennifer Coolidge did on 'Friends', the annoying Amanda. Anyway, I suppose my questions are a/ Have you experienced this and b/ What's the best way to deal with it, bearing in mind we live in close proximity, so some civility is required.
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