AIBU? Kid's kicking rotting apples in a field / parent had a right go

It was more the disparity between the comments and the votes which I found interesting. I’d say at least 80% of the comments are supportive while the votes suggest the majority of people aren’t supportive.

Do you eat apples? Are you worried this will normalise you to eating hedgehogs? This is a very weird take.

Actually no they often can’t sit in the garden if they want peace and quiet. Living alongside people means everyone has a responsibility to consider others. So people have to tolerate a certain amount of noise etc but people should also be mindful that they don’t own the place and that they have just as much responsibility for not being a pita.

The Yorkshire Dales national park is a place of outstanding beauty whete people go go to enjoy being at one with the natural landscapes and the flora and fauna . It is not a playground and visitors are told to leave no trace
of their visit.
The op having found a beautiful l spot to enjoy thrir picnic and sit and relax promptly spoiled it forvthr next visitors on what she describes as a beautiful day
I doubt she would have enjoyed it as much had it been surrounded by rotten apple slurry smeared all over the grass. It is so disrespectful to the next visitors
Furthermore fallen spples rot slowly providing providing a valuable sustained foodsource. Pulping them will cause them to rot much quicker. Apart from creating mess and stink,
the birds etc will not have them go feed on in the colder months.

If they really were well out the way to the side/edge of the field then I think it’s fine!… that people think a 13 & 15 yr old shouldn’t be allowed to have a silly fun game outdoors is bonkers - yes, let’s chain them to computers inside or insist they walk daintily & quietly along the path only🙄

It's a bit different. Firstly the leaves aren't messy in the way slushy apples are. Secondly, anything they might be used for, they can still be used for. Thirdly, no-one is going to get pelted by a stray leaf you are kicking.

But yes, I love crunching through autumn leaves!

I still find it hilarious that people think squashed apples, in grass, are a mess. It's really not.

I mean, come on. And if people had really wanted to use them, waiting until they are off the tree and half-rotten is a bit late.

The point being that nobody has any right to demand absolute silence in a shared space. In your own home, fine. Out and about? Nope.

Kids simply playing is and always will be an acceptable outside noise.

I was really meaning a mess if you got pelted by it. Having a rotten apple kicked at your trouser leg would leave you in quite a mess. Ask me how I know!

If children accidentally kicked leaves at a passer-by, there isn't that same issue.

But they weren’t being kicked at people. If they had been people would have responded differently- but they weren’t, that’s the point.

Also this weird attitude that the country side should be quiet isn’t that what farmers complain about townies for. Townies want silence while the farmer is on the combine harvester or the church bells are ringing.

Good for you - it’s always a bonus when people kick them all over the pavement and when they get nice and wet it’s easy to slip and break a bone.

At that age they shouldn’t be kicking anything at anyone.

Apparently not in your own home either.

You can’t demand silence but if you cause irritation to someone then you have to accept that they will say something.

I just can’t imagine this ever bothering me.

But OP has already said they were well away from people.

Obviously it's not cool if the kids were kicking bits of apple slush onto people's clothes, that's not on. But they weren't. They were just playing and messing around and not causing anyone any harm.

But, alas, there is never accounting for the grumpy fucks in this world.

And if someone moaned at me because my kids were just being kids I would, at best, ignore them.

This, all day long.

Assuming they weren’t near enough to anyone to be annoying, they did nothing wrong. I live in the countryside and am overly sensitive about my kids being a nuisance, and I still think it was fine.

I don't kick them over pavements; I kick them over grass.

People can slip on leaves on grass.

See that’s the type of ludicrous comment we end up with. Kicking leaves is fine, it’s fun but it depends where. Kicking apples is fine, in a field in the middle of the countryside.

The wind is a thing as well. Almost as if people should just watch where they are walking.

I’m sure you would. Of course it depends on people’s definition of ‘kids being kids’.

Of course nobody can stop them or you behaving how you want but they can pull you on it.

Bees don’t go on rotten fruit but wasps will be all over it feeding. Solid windfall apples might be just slightly bruised and the birds will eat them, as will foxes and badgers, but mashed up fruit everywhere is slippery, it’s a wasp magnet increasing the risk of other kids getting stung, and fewer creatures will eat it. I wouldn’t have allowed my dc to do this.

I'll only listen to people who aren't batshit crazy though.

I would have been embarrassed. Kicking apples does make a mess as they split and mushy apple would be lying everywhere.

And you know their state of mind how exactly? Or do you assume they are batshit if they dare disagree with you 🤣