Neighbour’s kid picked my daffodils

This. And it also applies to the ones growing in public spaces that people seem to believe are fair game for some reason. Time and money have been invested into them for everyone to enjoy.

No it’s really not different at all. The child still trespassed by coming onto private property without permission - it makes no difference whether she was in the garden or house, she was still on private property. The monetary value of what the child stole is irrelevant - she took something that belonged to someone else. Theft is still theft whether it’s 20 flowers from bulbs that the OP planted or a valuable ornament.

You know the police don't log incidents - they can issue formal cautions.
😆

A job for the special branch for sure!

Definitely a “loggable” offence!

😂

I would want it logged as vandalism. The mother as the supervising adult would be on record in case of future incidents.

Parents need to be held accountable. The “village” has had it with the results of shitty parenting.

What an ignorant remark.

Flower gardening costs money, time and effort.

My daffs were planted by me. That means:

1. I went to the shop (fuel and time)
2. I paid for the bulbs (money)
3. I planted some in the ground (time)
4. I planted some into a new pot my mother had given me (her money, my compost and time)
5. I watered them in (my water meter)

They cost me.

This is how I like to spend my time and money. Gardening is a hobby that brings me a lot of joy. If someone walked into your home and took the results of your hobby you'd invested time and money in, you'd be upset.

Daffodils are not free. Someone has to buy the bulbs and spend the time and effort to plant them and care for them. You are clearly not a gardener.

A vase or something is totally different to a few flowers that technically grew for free.

Do you really think there police would be interested?
The mum has already offered up an apology. She might even have read this thread and not really wanted to speak with the Op.

I wonder what the people who are saying it’s just a few flowers, they only cost £1 for a bunch in the supermarket, they’ll grow back, the child took them as a present for her mum, and that others are overreacting would say to slightly different circumstances. What if the OP had left her front door open for a few minutes while she went into her garage and the child came into the hall and took a pretty little dish that the OP treasured as a present for her mum? The child would have done exactly the same thing - she would have trespassed on private property and stolen someone else’s belongings. I suspect most of those people wouldn’t think it was ‘sweet’ in those circumstances, when the principle is exactly the same.

Overreaction alert.

You are to be pitied if you really don’t understand the difference between vandalism and a selfie.

What if Gardening WAS your life?

Or some hobby that they vandalized?

I would send the CCTV footage to the parents and the police.

I think this thread is getting to me.

I still don’t quite understand why some people think it’s ok for an eight year old to pluck every single flower from someone else’s garden. Or even one flower for that matter. Or to pick flowers that are growing in the park.

My two year old knew not to do this… we went out a lot and talked about how pretty they were and how to pick them would mean that other people couldn’t enjoy them.He understood immediately. It’s not a difficult concept.

If everyone picked flowers from people’s gardens,there would be no flowers.

What would be the point of planting them?

Maybe we should all start doing it at Kew Gardens and see what happens.

What kind of plant is it?

What a rude little fucker. Do you know their parents ? I would go have a serious chat with them to make sure it does not happen again.

Possibly if you look out one morning and it's gone (like the daffodils) you would be enraged, and rightly so.

Not the point as it will probably happen again next year and the year after etc

But if all the flowers had been taken, you would have felt a bit upset, no?

Also yes, I do remember an odd flower going astray. But I did remember just to carry on with my life.

I have a very unusual flower bush in my front garden, and every summer it is quite the feature. So much so people stop to take pictures and selfies. This has been happening for years. It has now just occurred to me to be aghast at this. This is mainly adults as well. I think this year I must remember to be positively enraged!

Put up CCTV up which might stop this. Nice sign too…smile, you are on camera.

You need to speak to the parents as this is a developing behaviour in a child. The behaviour will escalate and she needs to know that what she did was wrong and unacceptable. Children need boundaries and theft needs to have repercussions. Speak to neighbourhood policing if you don't want to deal with the parents, they'll have a word. Helping children to understand what they did wrong is the best thing that can stop any future behaviour and keep them out of trouble.