Neighbours kids keep looking over our fence

Also just to add -and I say this as the kind of adult who would happily chat to a nosy 5 year old over the fence - we are all different! If OP finds it unsettling to have this pair of eyes peering down on her while in her own back garden that’s ok.

And the 5 year old may not even want to chat some kids - like some adults - are just incredibly nosy and while they’re happy to stare don’t want to engage in conversation.

Oh, and there is no way that a five year old's behaviour at just looking over her garden fence is in anyway rude.

Yes it is rude in this situation . If the fence was a short one around her eye level it would be almost inevitable to see into OPs gardens. I grew up in a terrace with a short fence in the garden and we would see onto each others garden without going out of our way too. It was just one of those unavoidable things.

However in this case the kid is deliberately standing on something in order to peer over the high fence.

How do you know she's sweet? Kids can be proper so-and-sos even at 5.

Probably becoming a good game and she's bored. Kids love vexing adults

I agree. I’ve been scrolling the comments to find someone who thought this way. Admittedly, a girl peering into my garden and my dog reacting would annoy me but I probably wouldn’t say anything to her or her parents unless it got worse somehow. I don’t think it’s a situation that requires an army of people to offer their thoughts. My reaction would be to tell my dog to stop barking. I’m not saying I’d be happy about the peeking girl but if she’s as young as 5 I wouldn’t confront her.

Multiple people have answered this (rather silly) question on this thread alone. Hopefully one day people will draw upon their common sense and stop asking.

My neighbours kid does this and she's bloody 12 it gets on my nerves

I work at home on occasion and I'll be sat at the dining table working and she's there on her trampoline shouting "are you working helloooo I see you what you doing, have you got any more pepsi if she sees me drinking a can of Pepsi

It is SO annoying

It’s an “inclusive space” apparently. I was told this when I asked the same question a while ago😂

next time she does it just tell her to piss off. she will then likely be to scared to do it again.

This is something to be careful about - you do have to be careful about taking a photo of a child, especially in their own garden, and then putting it on social media - very bad idea. That really could turn very nasty, unlike the original matter of a curious child looking over the fence.

i bet if you take up nudism and get a pitbull the parents would start to care.

I probably wouldn’t take a photo only because they might spin it on a local Facebook group or something “my adult neighbour is taking pictures of my 5 year old in our garden without my permission”

Totally absurd, but this is Mumsnet, where absurd suggestions are given to avoid the really obvious solution: speaking to the parents. Hoses, Easter eggs… and what would you do if it wasn’t near Easter?

However, I do get that it can feel a bit heartless to be bothered by a curious 5-year-old. It’s exactly what I would have done at that age (and I remember being told to stop doing it).

I doubt she put the table there so the parents need to move it away from the fence which they will soon do if she falls off it. I'd take a photo then speak to the child and parents together and ask her to stop, if she's running away she knows she shouldn't be doing it. If she says she wants to see your dog then you could say she can come round one day and see him but only once when it suits you and with her parents supervision.

Sounds like she’s now doing it on purpose. I’d be tempted to take a photo of her doing it, tell her you’ll show her parents and then ask her why she’s being so nosey. But then I’m in quite a grumpy mood today.

Maybe because some of the pretentious nonsense is funnier than the TV at times?

Robert Frost

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44266/mending-wall

How high is the fence that a 5 year old can see over it?
If you want privacy you’re going to have to make it a bit taller, I’m afraid

The fence is quite high already as the 5 year old has to stand on a table or something to look over. Also it’s absurd to think someone should have to fork out hundreds if not thousands of pounds to get a higher fence when the kid could just stop going out of her way to peer over. She has already spoken to the parents which was the right thing to do.

The next thing to do IMO is to speak directly to the child next time since the parents are denying it.

There is a saying, high (or tall) fences make good neighbours!

My dogs hardly bark, but they would if someone was leaning over the fence.
There aren’t many dogs that wouldn’t react to that.
This isn’t a case of dogs barking everytime someone looks at them, they’re barking because someone is peering over a fence into the garden.

Indeed and attitudes like let kids do what they want is compounding it all

It's broken Britain.

No wonder there’s so much entitlement in this country. Putting up with intrusive behaviour? (I don’t care how old she is). Just letting her do what she wants? That’s why we’re in the mess we are.

Stick your tongue out and pull faces at her.

Get a garden sprinkler and set it off the second she peeps over.

Play some 18+ rated hip hop music loudly in the garden.

Add trellis, bamboo screening or plants along the fence

Put a shed up against their side

Buy a powerful water pistol, and get her smack between the eyes.

Then, when her parents come around to complain, get THEM, smack between the eyes.

Good one!