A mum has called out her "overly friendly" neighbour after they installed a trampoline in their garden to peer over their fence to chat.
The woman took to parenting forum Mumsnet to seek advice after revealing that she and her husband had installed a 6-foot fence in their garden in an effort to avoid making conversation with their neighbour.
In response, the neighbour "placed a step on her side" so that she could continue to peer over the fence and chat to the couple. They then proceeded to plant bamboo along the fence, at which point the neighbour installed the trampoline.
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The mum wrote: "Have had issues with overly friendly neighbour since we moved in. The original divider between our back gardens was a low hedge, and she would come out and talk to us every single time we were out in the garden.
"And boy, can she talk. She also used to lift her DC (dear child) over the hedge without asking to play with our DC (who is years older and not interested).
"Eventually, we put up a 6ft fence on our side of the hedge. I’d tried to warm her up to the idea of this beforehand by saying we were thinking of getting a dog and needed a fence to keep it in."
She continued: "When we put up the fence she initially made few jokey comments about how it was harder to talk to us now, but she solved this problem by placing a step on her side and continued to pop up whenever we were out in garden. My husband then planted bamboo along the fence which shot up over the summer and is now about 8ft.
"Last month, we saw from our bedroom window that a large trampoline had appeared in her garden. We assumed it was for her DC and thought nothing of it. However, they don’t use it, she does.
"When I was out in the garden a few weeks ago, up she popped over the top of the bamboo, laughing hysterically, and shouting ‘see what I’ve had to resort to! hahaha!’ I said something along the lines of ‘oh yes haha, is that a trampoline for X’ and she said it was originally but he wasn’t interested so she’s going to use it for exercise instead."
She added: "So far all her exercises have coincided with us being out in the garden. We’re now back at square one and whenever we’re out she appears over the bamboo, laughing and shouting.
"My husband is very non confrontational and says the bamboo will keep growing and eventually she won’t be able to see over it, but I think this will take year as she must be hitting the 20ft mark at full jump height. We would also start losing light if we let it get that high.
"Would I be unreasonable to tell her directly to give us some privacy? Is there a gentle way to do it that won’t hurt her feelings that we’re missing?"
Before long, the post had received dozens of replies from fellow Mumsnet users. There was a range of opinions on how the couple could solve the problem.
One user wrote: "Her coming out every time you're in your garden would p**s me off massively. Just ignore her every time and she'll soon get bored. Can you initially stick headphones on while you're out there until she gets the message?"
A second shared: "It's getting colder she wont be out there for much longer. I don't know why people cant take the hint though."
"Set up a sprinkler that will reach the Flying Madwoman," a third joked.
Others argued that the woman was not being direct enough with the neighbour, with one commenting: "Taking this at face value, you are going to have to be tactfully blunt with her and request that she please respect your privacy. Unfortunately, there are people who really are super oblivious who miss all the hints even if it prances right in front of them nude."
A second echoed: "Her behaviour does sound weird and it sounds like you need to be more direct and make it clear that you are uncomfortable with her constantly peering into your garden!"
Another agreed: "This is hilarious. All you had to do was keep the conversations short. Instead you’ve done all this passive aggressive hinting shit of building fences and planting bamboo."
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