Neighbours kids keep looking over our fence

[lilybit2025]

As the title suggests. Young girl around 5-6 keeps looking over at our fence. Did it a handful of times yesterday until I turned around and said 'hello can I help you?' And she's doing it again today. It sets our dog off and drives her insane yet she still does it.
I find it incredibly intrusive and I don't know if our neighbours know she's doing it and she's only a child but we do not have children and aren't particularly fond of them either.

I'd carefully position a sprinkler and turn it on whenever she peered over.

Are you for real?

About 20 years- I remember when it really was for parents and we used to lobby parliament. Now these boards seem just for folk who want the Reddit experience without dealing with all the people for whom English isn’t their first language 🤷🏽

By the 93rd time of the same thing being said surely only an idiot would take the bait?

…..oh

Obviously not. It’s very clearly sarcasm.

1.All the replies I'd read were directly addressing the situation the OP described. I was not aware that other posters asked a version of the same question.

1. Sorry, one of what countless threads?

I don't really understand your comments, tbh.

Can you put a cheap camera overlooking the garden and show her parents the footage next time she does it? They can't deny it then at least but I can imagine they probably won't care and won't do anything to stop her. You can at least let them know you're not lying about their precious princess though

Control your bloody dog.

Nowhere in this post is the OP stating that her dog barks all day every day. It's the neighbours child setting the dog off and to add in that the kid after being asked not to keep doing it she is now purposely doing it and also making barking sounds at the dog so she is clearly doing it now to taunt the dog. The parents would soon be bashing on the door if that dog went for their kid and hurt her though I bet

Barking its stupid head off, and probably bothering everyone in the vicinity.

It is not difficult to teach the dog not to respond that way.

OP doesn't really have any grounds to demand the neighbours control their child even she can't even control her dog.

Sort out your own house first, THEN start criticising what other people are doing.

A child doesn't need to change her behaviour to manage the dog either 🤷‍♀️

If the main concern is privacy, then tell the kid to stop being so nosy, and have a word with the parents.

Regarding concern about the dogs behaviour: train the damn dog.

Not least because any other approach gives the parents wiggle room to brush it off.

"Please teach your child it's rude to stare and be nosy" is better than "tell your child to change what she's doing in her own home because it's bothering poor lickle Snuffles (who I can't be arsed to train)".

The OP has already spoken to the child's parents and the only response they have given was to deny that their kid is doing it at all

Is she actually leaning over into your 'airspace' or just standing up on something high?
Whose fence is it?

Poor kid sounds very lonely

The kid being lonely (or nosy) is not the op’s problem. The dog is barking as a direct result of this kid’s head appearing over the fence and barking at him. There’s a very simple way to stop both of these things. It involves the parent parenting though which some of you don’t think is necessary.

This is annoying. This might sound crazy but have you thought about inviting her over, maybe to meet the dog? This could stem her curiosity and hopefully stop the behaviour.

The dad does sound inconsiderate with the gym though and if so he’s maybe not bothered about his daughter doing this, which is wrong. Sadly these types almost never change.

Yeah she’s only young too. Probably left to her own devices a lot.

I don’t really see it’s a massive deal if a little girls looks over at your garden occasionally and don’t realistically think you can stop her anyway (she’s not trespassing, she’s in her own garden) so I’d suggest you accept it, reframe it and move on, otherwise your annoyance at this tiny thing may cause unnecessary harm to your mental health. She’s just a little kid; I’d be more worried if it were a middle aged man peering in!

Maybe just smile and say ‘good morning’ if you spot her looking and then carry on with whatever you were doing. It doesn’t cost you anything to be civil. If you’re more relaxed your dog may be less likely to bark too.

She may even be looking over as she’s scared of you - hence the running away - and so if you let her see that you’re not a scary monster after all the novelty could wear off and she may find that things in her own garden are more exciting anyway.

A child doesn't need to change her behaviour to manage the dog either 🤷‍♀️

But she does need to change her behaviour full stop. Which is kind of the point.

Are you a bit hard of thinking?

The OP's dog is defending his territory from a perceived threat, that's all, and he is allowed to bark in his own garden. Bloody kid!

This. Or a trellis with a Clematis to screen. It'll grow loads this summer.

Blimey, you're nice.

'he is allowed to bark in his own garden'

And the child is allowed to stand on a table in her own garden too!

Oh, don’t be so ridiculous