Letting children chalk public pavement

I'm firmly on team Misery Arse.

It looks "cute" and "sweet" to the adoring parents, but it's usually a bloody eyesore .

Would I turn the hose on it in front of your little darlings, no, but my fingers would be itching so much I'd have to go inside and do a little rain dance.

Chalk is fun but messy and can be walked into people’s homes. If they chalked over the width of five or six houses that’s quite a lot of chalk to avoid.

I think hosing the chalk away in front of the children was a bit unkind and unnecessary but they were making a point about territory. Your children didn’t know which of those home owners would mind and who would be perfectly fine with it.

I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t be thrilled.

Its a bit of chalk it will wash away. People need to calm down.

He was considerate by just washing it off outside his own house without making a fuss

We live on a tiny cul-de-sac of 4 houses with a private road. Many years ago my DC were playing with the boy next door and chalked all over our drive and next doors. The mother came out and went ballistic. I was quite shocked by her reaction. It was all gone within hours because it rained.

Our street won the 'tidy pavement' award four years in a row. People came from miles to enjoy the serried ranks of grey concrete slabs, all neatly aligned and unmolested by any unsightly wildlife or feckless amateurish artwork.

(The trouble with children's artwork is that often they're not actually very good at it. My children did pictures of the family without a neck and with too many fingers, the proportions were completely wrong and the colours were garish. It was very upsetting, and I took away their felt pens to stop it happening again.)

Anyway, we'd have made the tidy pavement award five years in a row if it wasn't for Number 33 and her Bichon Frise with IBS.

@RainbowRanger29 the poor kids, I honestly don’t know what is wrong with people, it’s just chalk.

We used to draw on the pavement all the time, beats being infront of a screen!

You are not being unreasonable, your neighbour sounds like a grump.

Unfortunately, I've never had children of my own.

I love seeing wee ones playing like this. It's good for their development and does no one any harm.

What a shame they behaved like that. The only time I've had anything close to a problem with it was when someone sent their kids to the bit of pavement outside my house (instead of their own driveway) so my kids couldn't put their own chalk drawings there! We said oh well and waited until it rained, problem solved.

Perhaps these people have their own big life stresses and overreacted to something small that felt like a loss of control (that's 'my' bit of.pavement). Perhaps they're just miserable. It's a good teaching moment at pausing to consider when you've upset someone else - did I do anything wrong that I should put right? If not, just smile at their silly reaction and don't overthink it.

Lovely idea.

And agree, it's great to see kids outdoors having fun.

A considerate neighbour doesn't think they own the pavement outside their house

But it’s clear that the neighbour doesn’t like it so it’s reasonable to now tell the children not to do it outside other peoples houses

I always have a go if i see a hopscotch

It wouldn't bother me. If I saw a hopscotch grid I'd want to have a go. Some people are very territorial about their house and it's frontage though so maybe tell your child to just chalk in front of your house in future.

All sorts of vehicles park outside my house, given its a public highway, some even have garish writing and images on them!

That's not what they asked. You should be considerate of your neighbours for things that reasonable. Your neighbour could not like a thousand different things, that nobody would ever for one second claim isn't being considerate to continue doing.

So the question remains what is unreasonable, and disrespectful, about it. The fact the neighbour doesn't like it is irrelevant in its own.

I find it much more likely that they said it in reply to your response specifically about 'the scribbles of a 5/6 year old'.

And saying someone is obtuse isn't 'name-calling', give over.

Oh do try to keep up.

Except that’s exactly what happened. First response told me I was joyless when I gave these examples.

Is it considered obtuse if someone is unable to follow a thread? I tend not to jump to name calling on threads so I’ll leave it to you to decide that one.

Oh brilliant!!! 👏

Put up with what. All those micrometers of chalk they might trip over? The beauty of old ugly tarmac they never spend any time looking at and literally wall on destroyed?

Get a grip

In the knowledge that people can be a bit funny about the fronts of their houses (see also parking) I've always told our dc to keep it to our own property/ in front of our own house. It wouldn't bother me in the slightest, but there are some right miseries around who seem to think they own the public spaces.

Just come on here to say that!!

A nice warning letter (or preferably a fine) would make them even more grumpy!