Children looking over back fence - AIBU to find this annoying

[PinkPonyTail]

Part of me thinks it’s part of living in a built up area but I myself have kids and do not allow them to watch over into the other neighbours gardens.

So a new family have moved into the house that backs into our garden. Their children climb up and hang over the 6ft fence and shout things. Nothing major but I don’t want to sit in my garden and have a random child hanging over the back fence.

I have to close the conservatory blinds as the garden is really small and they can see us watching tv or having a cup of tea if we don’t.

I’ve said to the kids, don’t watch over at us, we don’t like it but their reply is their dad says they can, it’s their fence. (Double sided). No point getting into a discussion about it with a child. Dad is standing there but says nothing.

AIBU

They'll get bored unless they get a reaction.

Grow something spiky and dense along the fence. That will fix them for next year. In the meantime, ignore them totally. Your Dad would probably give you permission to give them the finger if you asked him!

Trellis and some nice jaggy climbing plants 🤣
Could you speak to the parents and say you’re concerned about damage to fence and say they’re doing it a lot and your a bit uncomfortable with it??

YANBU but the best thing is probably to ignore them completely, without a reaction they’ll get bored quickly.

I would tell them its rude to stare. hopefully they will be back in school soon?

Kids will do things more if they get any attention, positive or negative, from doing it. As annoying as they are try to completely ignore them and they'll get bored.

Ignore ignore ignore. They'll ramp it up initially in the hope of getting attention, but they'll give up when it doesn't work.

Alternatively, start telling them a lot of tedious, interminable stories and really rubbish jokes and tell them to make sure they tell their Dad. Bet he tells them to leave you alone then 😂

Yep ignore.

Annoying as it is for you I'd get up and shit blinds every time without any eye contact.

I'm sure it'll be more annoying not to nip this in the bud.

Fix extra high trellis and plant spikey plants - try this.

Just ignore them, they will soon get bored, literally just carry on like they aren’t there.

We had the exact same problem a few months ago. We have kids, we know that kids will often do things like this without realising it's annoying. But the parents did nothing. There was 2 of them. They were climb on the shed at the back of their garden and stand over looking at us. They didn't even talk or anything. It's was bizarre. The people next to us ended up saying something as it was strange. They weren't particularly young either.

Tbf in lockdown my son would talk over the fence to the kids next door as they go school together but I would always encourage him to come away and let them be.

Tough one. It may be their fence but you are entitled to privacy.

Maybe they will get bored if you don't ready. The kids behind us did in the end 🤷‍♀️

Nice tall bamboo, in pots. You can pick up phyllostachys in any B&Q garden centre and it grows like the clappers - will happily reach up to 6m and keeps its leaves.

Keep it in a pot though because it can be really invasive in the ground. The other benefit to having it in pots, is that you can position them just far enough away from the fence that the kids can't reach it or push it out of the way.

They'll get bored pretty quickly. They'll be back at school this week and within a month or so, it'll be too cold and dark to want to hang around outside after school.

I'd bide your time and with luck the issue should solve itself

Agree with comments about tall spikey plants, roses so it doesn’t look planned on purpose if you want to keep the peace. I’d also be swearing and talking about rude things for them to hear and copy it is very rude of them, I have a neighbour and her child who looks into our garden constantly, it’s disrespectful imo and I’ve always told my children to not look at other people’s gardens/windows.

Burglar greasy along the inside top of fence on your side should do it.

Of course it’s annoying. Unfortunately there are no laws against people being annoying and I agree with pps that if you try to do anything about it, it’s likely to make things worse.

You need to water your plants with a strong jet hose.........

It's annoying. My DC do it sometimes - just to spy on the kids next door but I always stop them as I assume the neighbours don't want us gawping over the fence at them. I'd either extend the fence upwards or ignore them untl they get bored, or set up a sprinkler.

One word ... pyracantha!

Dig a large flower bed.
When the ask what you are doing tell them you are digging a grave. Child sized...
Wonder what dad will say

(Sorry if that’s in bad taste)!

😂😂😂

Tall spikey plants. Big rose tree with thorns.

YANBU at all.
They sound like they've been let down by their parents if they think nothing of being rude to neighbours requesting privacy because 'my dad says so' in full view of dad.
Nice spikey plants are in order

Or nasty sticky hard to wash off stuff on top of fence.

Spiky plants seems the best idea- back to school and colder weather in a few weeks may help.