Letting children chalk public pavement

I absolutely couldn’t care less,-lucky, as our garden soil is almost 95% chalk 😆.

OP’s the neighbour may have their own personal reason for not wanting chalk on pavement beside their home?
could be simple as; it treads in onto the carpet?

‘Enjoyment of a tidy pavement’

What sad lives people must lead if this is a concern. Need to get out more!

You know this is the same neighbour who’d be judgy if they saw your kid on an iPad. What a grumpy idiot.

Tell your five year old I think their pictures are FABULOUS and I haven’t even seen them. If they can draw on a hopscotch for me to hop down on my way home from work I’d hugely appreciate it.

I think the examples you gave in your post are fair enough. Protecting a fragile tree and not wanting your vehicles isn’t being joyless.

I do think it’s joyless to wash away a child’s chalk drawing while they’re still out there though. If you really hate it that much, fine, but maybe wait until the kids have gone in to wash it away. I think that’s the part that makes the neighbour sound like a massive grump - it’s the timing for me.

We all did this as kids decades ago. Not one person ever complained about it, people can be real miseries nowadays.

And that’s fine. But I don’t find it joyful. We are all different.
I’m simply offering an alternative view.

Because I just don’t like it. The way I wouldn’t like it if a dog did its dump on the pavement outside my house. It’s something I’d prefer to not have there.

Not everyone wants kids drawings everywhere. It just looks messy, even though it’s temporary. The broadband people coloured our pavements with lines when they were here planning the cables and I thought that looked a mess too. So it’s not just kids stuff.

This used to be so common and it was never an issue. We used to do it in the 80s, my parents in the 50s , my kids in the 2010s etc. People just seem much less tolerant of children playing outside these days.
We have a childhood obesity problem coupled with screen ‘addiction’ so anything safe that gets DC outdoors is generally a good thing! I loved to see local
kids running around playing in the trees behind my house during the summer holidays. Let them chalk on the pavement & play hopscotch!

You could have the enjoyment of a tidy pavement the other 360 days of the year once this is washed off?

But the majority of people, judging by this thread, would find it joyful. It's not like they drew on that neighbours path.

we used to do it all the time in the 80s on a public footpath people are jut miserable

Kids doing what kids should be doing I love to see kids making their own entertainment outside it’s what we used to do !!!
Your neighbours are absolutely killjoys !!
Let your kids keep doing what their doing because it’s better to be outside in the fresh air than cooped up indoors watching tv x

Why would you have been annoyed - it was a public area and not outside your front door?

Do you take pride in how the public pavement outside your house looks? Do you sweep it clear of mud and leaves, get rid of any weeds the pop up?

Maybe you do, in which case I apologise. But I don’t think everyone on this thread with a sudden interest in the public pavement, or “enjoyment of a tidy pavement” as a PP said cares about it all the time. Just when someone is having some fun.

Well done for getting them all outside playing in the fresh air. Wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

We don't have any small children in our road currently but when we did and they did this outside my driveway on the public footpath I was quite touched by their efforts - when they were asleep in bed I drew a rainbow on their driveway (I did ask the Parents permission as I ask needed to borrow the chalk )

😂

What a grumpy cow!

Nor me!

I may try and join in with a go at the hopscotch! 🤣🤣🤣

I think that the neighbour was a joyless sod.

However I also think that if your kids are saying, "mummy, didn't they like our pictures", you can nicely respond, "Looks like they didn't. Not everyone likes drawings on the pavement. Next time, check with me if you want to chalk outside of the house."

Just because the neighbour is a joyless sod doesn't mean your children get to wilfully piss them off, they can learn a bit about dealing with joyless sods without getting upset about it.

Wow - I would be exacting petty revenge forever, like never accepting a parcel for them and any of the other things nice neighbours do.

Doesn't bother Me

The littles down the road have spent a lot of Summer chalking outside their's on the pavement .
Not a Problem

I couldn’t waste energy over this - it’s a complete non issue

On the same hand, perhaps the children are ruining someones enjoyment of a tidy pavement.

We are all just living our lives and that should involve not inflicting things on other people who might not like them. So I will stand by the fact that the kids should have just decorated the pavement outside their own house/drive.

My children chalk but only outside our house as we have neighbour issues.
I love seeing adults hopping on it when they think noone is looking.