Letting children chalk public pavement

I'd rather the kids chalking than owners letting their dogs mess out side my gate which has happened a few times. Dirty bastards.

This.

It washes away and harms nobody. Some people just go through life fretting about trivial things, though. I would tell your kids not to chalk outside Misery Guts’ house, so as not to rile them, while inside thinking very little of the neighbours now I knew this about them.

How miserable of them when rain easily washes it away and we are hardly short of rain.

I don’t think you or neighbour are being unreasonable. He didn’t like the chalking outside his house so he removed it without complaining or making a fuss. You perhaps need to teach your child to be more respectful of others

RainbowRanger29 your children & their friends are welcome to decorate the pavement outside my house whenever they like - they can do my drive, paths everything. 😘

As for those concerned about taking chalk into their house on their shoes, I suggest that they remove their shoes at the doorstep which is what we do in my house anyway. There's worse than chalk that can be brought in on shoes.

Bit mean of them, but if the kids are allowed to chalk public pavements they should accept other people are allowed to wash them off.

I do find it a bit tedious to see kids scrawlings all over the shop, and local to me someone had chalked racist crap everywhere. Plus the kids don’t take the chalk sticks away.

Yeah. I can't fall down on either side. It wouldn't bother me and we used to do it ourselves in ancient times. But equally I think that people have a right not to be happy about it.

You’d have to be a really special kind of joyless bastard to wash away children’s chalk drawings.

I was having a really hard time last week, came hope and saw beautiful children’s artwork over the pavements near my house (not my kids - they are older). It cheered me up so much it nearly made me cry.

Some people are nuts OP. Stay away from your repellent neighbour.

My kids do this too, as do the kids up the road. Noone has complained, our elderly neighbour came out specifically to join in and jump their hopscotch 🤣

Our local council actively encourage "Play Streets" which might be worth you looking into to see if yours do too, especially if there's a few supportive families on your road!

There should be info on your local council website with a quick Google search:

https://londonplaystreets.org.uk

https://playingout.net/play-streets

Play street pages on council websites
Leeds City Council
Bradford City Council
Coventry City Council
Adur and Worthing Council
Brent Council
Bristol City Council
Brighton and Hove Council
Ealing Council
Croydon Council
Lewes
Eastbourne

Why would you wash chalk away in front of kids not sure what lesson they were aiming to teach here baffles me that people are so ridiculously petty

Were the children being supervised by an adult? If so, why didn’t they say something?
Oh and I wouldn’t have a problem with young children chalking on the pavement outside my house, unless it ventured onto my path or driveway.

I would be delighted to see it outside my house. Children's chalk art is always charming, and it's so ephemeral.

It wouldn’t bother me. I find it cute.

The other upside is they know which house to avoid.

That person probably thinks the rainbows make the pavement gay because that’s totally how gay works!

Just nickname them sourpuss for all time

As long as it’s not a giant cock and balls I’d have absolutely no problem with it. Being outside and creative is a good thing for children.

What a pathetic killjoy. Imagine having such a sad life you have to go out of your way to ruin some kids fun, it would have been gone in a day or 2. If they were really THAT offended by it they could of waited until the kids had gone in.

There will always be people like this. It’s not as if the children were using spray paint. I suppose they will know to stay away from Mr and Mrs Grumpybastard’s personal stretch of pavement in future.

Genuinely I think your neighbour is being petty, passive aggressive and mean. If they really had an issue with it, why not just say, please don't allow the children to do that outside my house (but they're well aware that they've no "jurisdiction" on the public pavement!

We have some young families in our street and I have seen chalk drawings on the pavement further down the road. It wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Even if it did bother me, to wash it away when the rain will take it away so very soon is so very petty. Summer is such a short period of time I don't see the harm in it.

I saw a couple of young teens chalking a huge hop scotch, they got to 100! I thought it was lovely to see, especially considering how much time teens like to spend on their phones.
There was a lot of debate about this during Covid, there’s always going to be miserable people who don’t like it because it’s common/unsightly/whatever but they’re probably the sort of people who don’t like bins on the path a minute after they’ve been emptied

This is my thinking too. Ds loves doing this and I encourage him to do it in our driveway/ garden. Directly outside your home is fine but I can see why others might find it unsightly even though it wouldn't bother me personally. I think it's probably a life lesson for them that it's a shared space and some people like it to be clean and tidy whereas others like colour and fun and both need to be respectful.

I would think it’s cute. It’s not like they’re spray painting dicks on the path or anything, it will go away when it rains. Some people are joyless.

I don't see a problem whatsoever. As you say, it'll be gone as soon as it rains!