People were left gobsmacked after a woman shared a story of how her nosey neighbour used a trampoline to see over a hedge and bamboo into her garden to talk to her “every time” she stepped into her back garden
One mum has been left baffled after her neighbour bought a trampoline to peek over her garden fence despite repeated attempts to block her view.
The mum expressed her frustration with her “overly friendly” neighbour who spies on her back garden.
She said since moving in with her family, they have faced a repeated problem with their next-door neighbour, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The neighbour would appear and speak to them “every single time” they used their back garden, she said.
At first they would peer over the low hedge which was a divider between their gardens
But in a bid to secure some privacy in their garden the family erected a six-foot hedge.
Not wanting to offend their friendly neighbour, they said it was put up because they were thinking of getting a dog.
The jilted neighbour even “made a few jokey comments about how it was harder” to speak to them due to the taller hedge.
But, undeterred, she made use of a step to continue their conversations “whenever” the family ventured into their garden.
As desperation set in, the mum and her husband even planted some bamboo which has since shot up and is now eight feet tall.
But unperturbed, the neighbour now uses a large trampoline, originally bought for their children, to bounce above the barriers and continue chatting to her neighbour.
The mum took to Mumsnet’s popular Am I Being Unreasonable (AIBU) thread to seek advice on how to “directly” but “gently” ask their neighbour to give them some privacy.
In a post titled “Neighbour bought a trampoline to look over our fence”, she explained the situation and then continued: “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.
“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 a 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.
“WIBU [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?”
The mum’s post was met with hundreds of responses from fellow Mumsnet users. Some were keen to offer advice, others were in hysterics over the situation, and some doubted the authenticity of the mum’s story.
One joked: “Gentle? I’d be hiring a hitman!” A second said: “With persistent people like this you need to be blunt. It’s the only way to get it across.”
A third said: “Hilarious, sorry not helpful but the thought of you and your neighbour in a bizarre fencing/jumping arms race is cracking me up. What next, stilts?”
A fourth suggested: “Headphones every time you are out in the garden and ignoring her because you can’t hear her. She’ll give up.” And another simply said: “This cannot be real”.
One Mumnset user commented: “This [is] amazing in the total madness of it. Her head popping up over the bamboo.”
Another said: “YABU [you are being unreasonable] for planting bamboo. Awful stuff. The thought of your neighbour bouncing 9 foot in the air to talk to you sounds hilarious but I suspect I’d get bored of it fairly quickly if I were in your shoes.”
In a follow up comment, the mum added: “To clarify, we don’t dislike this woman, we think she’s funny and bubbly and enjoy saying hello and having a quick chat in the FRONT garden. We just want to enjoy the back garden as a family.”
Source: The Mirror
