Pushy Neighbors

I am just getting so freaking sick of the pushy people around here. There was a couple, and their children that shoved their way into our lives. They used to act like they owned our fucking house, walk in whenever they pleased, go through my refrigerator and cupboards and take food if it was left out on the counter or table. Well, started locking my door every morning after the kids left for school. They eventually got the hint. They only drop in once every few weeks now.

Then there were the children from across the street. Constantly ringing my god damn door bell! They'd come over to my yard with no invitation, barefoot, and then, when they hurt themselves, come whining to me for bandaging. No matter how many times I told them to go home, wear shoes and no, I didn't have band-aids, they were over here, bullying my kid. So I grounded her. No friends (ie, THOSE kids over and she couldn't go play with them). We don't see them as much.

Now I have another problem. My elder daughters are friends with a nice young man from school. He is very polite and sweet. His mother however? I don't know if the woman is mentally ill, retarded or just socially incompetent in a way that she has no friends.

See, she makes her own soaps, jams, that sort of stuff. Not that this makes her socially unacceptable. I have a mild interest in this stuff. I made that interest known on a polite level, of "oh, how interesting". That was several months ago. Since then, she has stopped by the house on several occasions to invite my daughter to come to her house and get a box of fabric scraps that she had no use for. Then, when my eldest borrowed the woman's phone to call me and let me know about something that was happening, she apparently saved my number. I started getting calls from her, inviting me to come to her house, where she sells all these things that she makes. I told her I would think about it. Not that I have a lot of money for high end specialty craft items like she sells. I thought I was being polite from refraining to tell her that I am highly sensitive to most soap and only buy one brand. That scented candles can often give me headaches/ migraines. That I don't like most homemade jam combinations because I never know how thick or chunky the fruit is going to be.

So anyway, this woman continued to show up at the house and D2 invited her in, because she wanted to show off her younger son, who was 2. The woman stayed for 90 minutes, rambling at me about her life and then throwing out nasty comments, then telling me that "not that I'm judging... anyone". Finally I decided enough. Well, when I told her that I didn't think I'd be able to come down one day, she started pressing me to pick a time and date to come to her store. She would stop her truck in the middle of the street to yell out the window at me about coming to see her. I was at City Hall/ the police station to pay my water bill and she starts demanding that I ride with her (while I was babysitting another friend's daughter), and she'll just stop off at her place to show me all her goodies. After I said that I didn't think it wise to take someone else's child someplace unfamiliar to her, we headed off. She tracked me down at the corner by my house on our walk home and told me that I could just turn around and go back to her place. It wouldn't take long. I told her that I was tired, as my daughter and I had been walking around town doing errands for over three hours. she said she'd drive me. I said no because she didn't have a car seat for my daughter. (Thank goodness that they were in the 'Burban that hubby had at work! I'm quite sure that she would have told me to grab it from the house had she thought of it.)

Last week, she called demanding to know exactly what day we were coming over, because my eldest said something about trying to come over St. Patty's day weekend. So she wanted to know what day exactly. Friday. She wanted me over Friday. I told her that I didn't think that I would like to. She wanted both of us over. She called again Friday to tell me that she wasn't home, had to go to another town. But I was to go down to her house and wait for her. She'd be home in a jiffy. (She was 57 miles away!) I said no. She called me when she got home, demanding to know where we were. I told her that my husband had arranged a surprise trip for my eldest and she was going to be leaving with her boyfriend for an overnight trip to see him and his father. She demanded to know when they were leaving. I told her I didn't know and she snottily told me to go ask my daughter. I told her that my daughter didn't know as it was a surprise to her. She then implied that we were bad parents for not having these details. Then she wanted to know when my daughter would be home and started rattling off her schedule of when she would be around. I told her that it was my husband's birthday and we were just going to celebrate quietly, as a family.

So she called me yesterday. I didn't bother to answer my phone, especially as it was listed as an unknown number. She left me a message telling me that she was home and that she'd see me later in the afternoon. I went to bed with a migraine.

I haven't heard from her yet today, nor has she shown up at the house.

What I wonder is this?

Can I call the cops and ask them to tell her to stop harassing me to shop at her "store"?