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.

Anything to excuse poor parenting.

Doubt her parents would be pleased if she ran into the house soaking wet.

Yes, that's really safe for a five-year-old to be doing unsupervised.

I haven't been able to look all the way through the thread (it's now at 18 pages) but have read all of your posts OP and plenty of responses.

Has anyone else suggested that you video her (and the dog's reaction) and take this as proof to your neighbours?

Don't back down on this one. It's incredibly inconsiderate and a huge invasion of your privacy.

My adult neighbour joins in convos when I'm in my garden, usually when I'm talking to gardeners/workmen. What's bizarre is that the rest of the time she ignores me, and indeed all of our neighbours in our very friendly/considerate road!

Bizarre. Does my head in. No filter.

I’m pretty horrified at some posters advocating for setting a hose on a tiny child in her own garden (which would be criminal - assault and battery - by the way) simply because she LOOKS in the direction of a neighbour’s garden. And before anyone says ‘clearly, I’m only joking’ please be aware that you’re encouraging child abuse on a public parenting forum and run the risk that you are taken seriously, particularly when there’s more than one of you saying the same thing.

Be careful with your words.

Chuck the dog shit over the fence.

Water your garden in the nude. If she cops an eyeful, so be it.

I think the whole point of this suggestion is that the hose would be in op's own garden so if the water hit the child it would be her/her parents' own fault because she is trespassing of sorts? I don't know.

Well actually no, not if she’s deliberately doing it to peer into the OP’s garden. There is a limit.

Unfortunately I really don’t think that’s what people are suggesting. The little girl is not trespassing (she’s not leaving her own garden) so a hose in the OP’s own garden wouldn’t make sense, and the wording of the posts clearly suggests spraying AT the little girl - presumably over the garden fence. This would be assault and battery, and (although less likely) could even be a worse offence of assault causing actual bodily harm if the girl was in any way hurt by it, eg, if she fell off the table. Let’s remember this child is very young indeed, only 5 or 6, so a powerful hose would be a weapon against her.

The comments are likely flippant and posted to be funny (I would hope no-one would actually be like that in real life), but this is a public forum and those sort of suggestions encourage a vindictive and child-hating streak, especially when there are multiple posts. This shouldn’t be who we are.

Anyone who’s posted that sort of stuff needs to please take it down; it’s not as ‘harmless’ as you might think.

What nonsense is this? When I'm gardening/pottering around in my garden I find it immensely annoying when my neighbours dog is barking at me through the massive hedge. When it barks at midnight in their garden it annoys me. When they let it out at 7 am and the barking wakes me up it's VERY annoying. Dog owners are often the biggest group of annoying neighbours I think. I wonder how many neighbours my cats in my enclosed, cat-proof garden annoy? Oh yes, none, that's right 🙄

Are you confusing a garden hose intended for watering delicate plants with a fireman’s hose, perhaps?
Anything used to water your begonias is not going to amount to assault and battery upon a child who accidentally or otherwise gets in the way of the spray.
Cool your jets there!

Why are you staring over their fence at 7am and midnight?

I’ve said my piece: I think it’s worth being mindful how things like that come across and can quickly turn into a mob mentality on a forum like this.

Encouraging deliberately spraying a young child for existing in her own garden isn’t a reasonable response.

I’ll leave it there.

That really surprises me. So do you not think it's a positive that Mumsnet has broadened out? There's still the activism element here, if you look at things like the gender-critical element of the side etc (which is also an issue not confined to parents, just saying.)

There's definitely some clickbaiting going on nowadays, quite a lot in fact, but sadly I think that's now the nature of online discourse and this particular thread doesn't strike me that way. And personally I will say I don't want a Reddit-style experience in the slightest, I suspect most MNers don't, but I can't speak for anyone else of course.

Oh swearing how lovely 😂

Considering you see yourself as a bit of a gatekeeper as to who’s allowed on Mumsnet, it seems strange that you don’t know how prolific swearing is on here.

It likely doesn't count as noise pollution unless it's constant or continues late, but that doesn't stop it being a bloody nuisance. It's not hard to teach your blasted dog not to bark it's head off, or better yet, teach him, "quiet!". Child appears, dog barks, you tell it to STFU, problem solved.

If you just don't want the kid standing there gawping, that's a separate problem. It has bugger-all to do with the dog.

The dog is not a problem at all. The blasted kid and its blasted parents are.

I hate dogs, and like children.
However, the child and her parents are the problem.
As someone suggested, if the parents don't believe their princess is being an arse, a video of it would be a good idea.

The child isn't just peeking over now she's standing at the fence barking at their dog. Clearly taunting it purposely since she's been asked not to. Would you like a kid popping over the fence barking into your garden.

Pop around and say to the neighbours that you've noticed their daughter is standing on something to look over at the dog, and that youre worried she might fall and its also making the dog bark so you thought youd better let them know.
If you want to soften it a bit take the dog with you and say that you've brought the dog over for her to stroke and say hi to as she seems to like it!

I agree. If one gives a fake excuse for something, people will simply override you objection and find a way around the excuse. In this case sods law says they might agree the table is unsafe and provide her a step ladder instead. “No is a complete sentence” applies here.

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

I first came here around 2006 and it wasn't for children issues although mine would have been 7 and 10 then.

The boards were already varied and I loved the music board. We talked about gigs we had been to and bands we like, have discussions over favourite singers etc. I used to really enjoy it. It then went flat and people started asking about clarinet lessons and piano exams for their children.
I became disheartened for a while. However here were plenty of other boards that i enjoy. I like the holiday board as well as the general chat, style and beauty, films, exercise and weight training boards. None of which have much to do with kids.