Neighbour’s kid picked my daffodils

Whatever is eating your daffodils, it's not woodlice. They only eat dead plant material, not living flowers. They aren't little buggers, they're a vital part of the composting system of breaking down old leaves and twigs into soil.

FWIW, it's probably slugs/snails going for the daffodils. Last year was terrible for this, I was relieved to find out it wasn't just mine that had been decimated.

I'd be utterly gutted if some undisciplined kid came uninvited into my garden and stole my flowers and I'd be having a word with the parents for sure. A lot of my daffodils are particular varieties I've scoured the internet for (and cost exponentially more than "cheap as chips" bunches of daffs from the supermarket to boot!) so I'd be deeply pissed off to have them snaffled.

And no doubt the child will come back and pick them again, unless someone has told her it's wrong to pick flowers from other people's gardens by then.

Not that young a child. Certainly old enough to know better especially if her parents had bothered to teach her. Even worse that there are daffodils in the child's own garden but she purposely chose not to pick those.

The OTT responses are the crazies saying "oh that's sweet"

Are you mad? She stole from someone's garden. And they'll be dead by Mother's Day.

If a child doesn't know by 8 that this is wrong, I would bypass the parents and speak sharply to the child myself.

Sorry but that is not sweet. I would definitely go and say something to mum and/or dad. They need to teach their daughter to have respect for others' property

I guess it's easy to say when it's not your property that's been nicked.

Are you nuts? Not sweet. Vandalism.

Last year my dh strimmed my tulips before they had flowered and this year a workman fitting an ev charger stood on both the daffodils and tulips and flattened them, they are perking up again but some stems were snapped 🤬. Yanbu.

I agree with those who have pointed out that the kid probably doesn’t realise how inappropriate it was. Definitely worth speaking to her parent - you don’t have to do it in an angry way, more that you’d like the kid to understand that it’s not the same as picking dandelions for example.
I would be gutted and annoyed as well though OP, so sending sympathy! x

If the child decides to start picking wild daffs then hopefully their parents have deep pockets.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2026680/picking-daffodils-flowers-5-000-fine

It’s about diplomacy… if she goes in hard, labelling the child a thief (which they are) it will undermine neighbourly relations and lead to other issues, possibly reprisals. OP does not actually HAVE to give permission next year - she is asking that said child is polite enough to come to her door and ASK for that permission (at which point she is perfectly at liberty to say NO). I thought that was perfectly clear in my PP.

PS Is that enough capital letters for you?

All these people saying this is sweet by the child, what is wrong with you??

This was my point too. If a child of 8 doesn't have the common sense level to know not to go around damaging property, then they don't have the common sense level to be out alone unsupervised. She could stroll into the wrong garden and end up in a very serious situation. God knows there are plenty of predators out there now, i can't imagine having this level of ignorance of my child's behaviour that I was unaware of her entering random gardens with no sense.

Why are people saying that it is sweet/innocent for an eight year old to pick flowers from someone else's garden? It is not - by this age children are perfectly aware of right and wrong and should be punished accordingly. I wrote earlier about my four year old brother doing the same thing with his little friend. That was innocent, especially as they gave the flowers to the lady who had planted them. It was made very clear to them that it must never happen again.

No, don't do this, OP. Do not suggest you might give them permission to pick some of your flowers as THEY HAVE THEIR OWN FLOWERS THE CHILD LEFT UNTOUCHED IN THEIR OWN FRONT GARDEN! So the child clearly knew she wasn't allowed to pick them, but merrily picked someone else's.

Indeed. I'm wondering if the OP had a flower shop with daffs outside if some posters would think it acceptable for the child to take some. And if so where do they draw the line, the corner shop? Superdrug? Tiffany & co?

how do you encourage wood lice into the garden? Just out of interest. I have images of her “pspspspsps”ing at a woodlouse to get it to come into her garden 😂

It’s slightly worrying that some people seem to be saying how sweet it is. At 8 years a child should know it is wrong to pick flowers from a garden..especially all of them. I would mention ittoher mum.

I doubt it was done out of meanness, she’s a young girl who probably thought she’d pick them for her mum. It’s the innocent, but thoughtless, sort of thing I could have done at that age. The correct thing would be for the mum to speak to her daughter and an apology for the OP.

no. OP needs to go to the parents, explain what has happened. Ask if they would prefer her dig up their daffs to put in her garden to replace them, or if they are going to pony up so OP can get replacements.

All you MNetters who think 8 year olds are cute for stealing: Do your jobs. Tell your feral children not to steal. FGS what on earth is wrong with you?

I have an eight-year-old currently, and I'd be absolutely furious with her if she did this
I don't think she would because I've spent six years making sure she knows which flowers you can pick and which flowers you can't pick, so I'd be flabbergasted as well as furious, tbh
Definitely go and have a word with the parents. "Sweet", my arse

Yeah this. I also have an 8 year old. I’ve been telling her since she was a toddler that it’s not ok to go into peoples gardens/pick flowers so she would absolutely know fine well this was wrong.

No wonder the schools are in the mess they are, with some of the attitudes on here. “Super sweet” ffs. Kids need to learn. You don’t do them any favours by not teaching them.

I’m sure I remember a post from ages ago. The OP had inherited a house but when she inherited it it was already rented out to an old lady who couldn’t manage it. She was worried about the state of the house and wanted to evict the woman and sell the house. One poster told her in all seriousness to give the renter the house! Like we can all afford to give houses worth hundreds of thousands of pounds away to total strangers. Typical Mumsnet.

I said it's not worth getting upset over, not that she shouldn't be upset. I personally wouldnt waste my time being upset and try to move on from it. I might be annoyed and go round and ask them to not do this anymore, yes.

My judgement is probably not great though so you might be right to question my opinion. I am writing from prison as I am currently serving a long stretch for a gold heist. I moved on from flowers pretty quickly and it escalated to me being an international master thief. My downfall was my trademark of leaving tulips at the scene. The police eventually traced it back to that day when I picked them from the neighbour and that's how I was caught.

I'd do this too.
No need to start a feud with the neighbours, sounds like the child was acting in childish ignorance not out of malice.