I can see my nude neighbours

Dear Coleen

Although our neighbour has very high walls around her large garden, it is still possible to see into it from the top of my house.

In the hot weather, she and her two teenage sons have been in their garden in the nude, and my 10-year-old daughter and I saw them from our top window.

My daughter doesn’t seem to be bothered in the slightest, but that isn’t the point.

They are very good neighbours in general, so how should I approach this?

Coleen says

Don’t look out of the top window in hot weather! It sounds like they’re naturists and probably assume no one can see into their back garden.

I’m not surprised your daughter isn’t fazed by the nudity – my kids are the same and seem to have a far less prudish view of bodies than me.

“It’s just a body” is something my kids will say to me when, for example, I balk at the acres of bum cheek on display on Love Island (a show I love, by the way).

Look, if they’re good neighbours then you don’t have to mention it in a complaining way. Why not say, “I just wanted to let you know that when you’re in the garden naked, we can see you from our top floor. I don’t know whether you realised that, so thought I should mention it.”

I don’t think they’d be angry if you put it like that.