About 12 years ago a number of my neighbors had 'privacy' fences installed that totally hid their backyard and whatever their kids were doing. A few really needed it since they had no coverage to prevent everyone looking in their back windows, but I didn't like the others.
Why? 12 years ago my kids were 5 and 2 and always outside on our swings, riding bikes or walking. And they were always looking for someone to play with. Lots of times a 'walk' ended within a few minutes with them playing in someones backyard. Likewise many times kids would see mine in our backyard and come running.
With the 6ft privacy fences, you never knew if the kids were out playing nor could they see if mine were. You'd occasionally hear giggles and laughs but it was hard to tell if someone was outside. (Also at that time most of the kids had younger siblings or themselves took naps, so ringing the doorbell mid-afternoon was discouraged.)
So why did we get one? Well, Christopher has inherited my adventure gene, you know the one that ignores directions from parents to stay in the yard and he likes to go wherever he damn well pleases. Which is dangerous since he doesn't grasp the concept of traffic (and more than a few of our neighbors and guests drive WAY too fast.) He's also learned the 'drop all my weight to the ground and mommy can't pick me up' trick. Doesn't work on me but he'll do it to Deb when she catches up with him. So we need to keep him contained, at least long enough for us to get to him if he wants to wander.
Instead of getting the privacy fence, we went with a 5 ft picket fence that you can see right through, but is high enough Christopher can't climb it before we catch him.
The dog isn't thrilled. In fact Deb thinks she is pissed at us. Yes, we're getting teenager attitude from the dog.
Christopher is a little confused but thinks it is cool. We'll see in a few days when the tried to take off and can't how he feels.
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