To find pavement chalking by neighbour unreasonable?

It usually looks awful and you have to walk on the road to avoid getting on your shoes. Unfortunately it’s just one of those annoying things that children do.

I don't think it looks nice but it's temporary. It will wash away with the rain, and I guess if we'd had more rain this summer it wouldn't have been such an issue.

Graffiti, now! That's a different matter. I hate graffiti on buildings/hoardings, but especially on buildings of stone, brick and wood. I love these natural materials and I wince when I see lovely old brickwork (or modern brickwork) covered in horrible 'tags' from drug dealers and gangs.

I was coming home on the tube last week and I saw some new flats built in the ochre-coloured London stock brick - really attractive - and some idiots had already started on them. Someone's actual home, which they're paying a mortgage or rent for, and some vandal is already devaluing it. It's really hard to get graffiti off brick - it's never quite the same afterwards...and the next day they just do it again.

I hate the elevation of graffiti to an art form. Just because some of the perpetrators can draw doesn't excuse it. Put it on a hoarding, or go and buy a canvas and do it on that.

I remember getting into deep shit as a kid for doing this. I can kind of see why. It’s basically graffiti. Yes it washes off, but it takes a long time, especially during hot summers like this when there is no rain.

Trouble is, parents these days don’t give their kids any boundaries.

The only time this upsets me is when the children don’t let me walk past without playing hopscotch and I have arthritis. It’s annoying on my way out to the shops but on the way back it’s worse because I have to jump about carrying heavy shopping.

Yes

Jesus. It's chalk.
It'll wear off with foot traffic in a couple of days, or the next shower of rain will wash it.
Personally, I enjoy seeing kids chalk drawings on the path! A bit of fun and colour to a slab of boring concrete!
Get a grip OP.

Really?

And in english?

Take the chalk off them ... draw a hopscotch, and bloody well join in!!!!

I can kind of see a little of your point. On the one hand, it's a cute, fun and creative thing for kids to be doing that gets them away from screens and encourages them to really fly free with their imagination - an absolute win and a v good thing.

On the other, it can be annoying when you end up with coloured chalk on your shoes or furniture if you've not realised you've got it on the bottom of your trousers, or your dog has stepped in it etc. I used to live in a terraced house and my NDN's son would chalk in front of their house and mine. I personally would have encouraged my child to only draw on the pavement in front of our own house and to swerve the neighbours' but I wasn't overly bothered and never said anything about it. I didn't really care - until it got all over my dog's fur. He's quite short with a bushy, waggy tail - it's like a sweeping brush that doesn't stop. We always wipe down his paws after a walk but didn't realise he'd got LOTS of brightly coloured chalk in his tail and it ended up ALL over my sofa, floors and rug.

We could only go out of our house through the front door (back door led onto the teeniest yard ever, then that led onto the bin alley which was gated, locked and often filfthy) so it was completely unavoidable whenever we left our house. It did get annoying. Kids should absolutely be encouraged to be creative but I also think it shouldn't lead to extra cleaning for other people. I still never said anything to NDN, but I did have to use the kettle and wash away the chalk on our front step - I waited for hours after he'd finished hoping the rain would do it for me but when it didn't happen, I had to do it. Got on well with NDN and her son, so there was no drama but yeah, it can get annoying having to do extra cleaning in your own home.

Unless they’re drawing dicks and writing slurs you absolute should not say anything

This thread is making me feel a bit sad that I didn't take a photo of the road network my DD drew on our patio over the course of the summer before we came away.

ODFOD

I highly doubt the pavements are owned by your husband, so the drawings were hardly "inflicted on him" 🙄

Must be nice not to have any real problems to worry about 🙄

Chalk? Thats it? Now if they were obnoxious pervy kids leaving rude sayings and c unty pics there may be reason to lodge a complaint but rainbows and hopscotch I think not. We contend with a family of 4, all under 9, having blood curdling screaming matches on their trampoline..often at 7 am on wknds. Trampoline and jungle gym are in the rear of their yard cloaer to our windows than their own to make it even worse. Now THAT I say is too much (particularly when they scream "JESUS LOVES YOUUUUUUU" to anyone who may pass by😒)...but chalk washes away and is a quiet undertaking. Of ot were your own drive it would still be petty but w/in your rights to ask them to draw elsewhere but any other walks are free reign

...ever thought you may end up restricting the next Banksy or Tracey Emin ?

You mean pavement?

I actually hate people/kids that do this. Its not just a mess but it gets on your shoes and dogs feet when you walk on it. Its actually against city code where i live. Scribble on your own driveway or footpath, I don't care, but not on a public sidewalk.

I’m lucky that I live in a little cul-de-sac and the kids play out on the street. There is a family 2 doors down whose children sometimes play cricket in the grounds out the back, we love to see it!

I said disliking the appearance of messy pavement scribbles is valid. I didn't advocate for complaining, the opposite actually, it's harmless fun. I wouldn't want to see it outside my house but I wouldn't complain

Might need my popcorn for this one 😂

As a parent, and as someone who lives next door an awful grumpy old man for 12 years who complained every time the kids in the street chalked.....I would say... Leave it alone. It will wash away. Pick your battles man.

Go have a gin tonic to deal to help you get over the trauma.😱

Where I live it is an offence to chalk on the footpath. As OP said, you don't own the footpath, neither does the neighbour.