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

Would rather tread in smashed up apple than dog crap.

Yes may not look or smell pleasant for a few days, im sure birds and wildlife could still eat the apples too, might even be a bit easier for the birds to eat.

I'd much rather see some teens mucking around with some rotting fruit than chasing each other with a knife or doing wheelies down the road into oncoming traffic which seems to be the norm around here at the moment.

Years ago there was a plum tree on a green that didnt get used in a village where me and my friends used to hang about about age 14/15. We used to have plum fights with the fallen fruit, didnt harm anyone, may have stained our clothes but that was the least worrying thing we did back then 🫣

It's apples, not animals. You'd tell off kids chasing pigeons or whatever, but kicking some rotting apples around? If it was close to other people or noisy, that would be one thing, but just messing around in a corner of a park isn't affecting anyone.

I don't think your kids are destined for a life of crime OP.

Well they were clearly doing something to piss the woman off enough for her to risk challenging a couple of teen boys.

And some people are just arseholes who think they don’t have to consider anyone else.

This

Actually, thinking about it, the tree makes crab apples precisely to help spread it's seed. The OPs sons were doing it a favour.

I think I'm in the YABU camp. It seems disrespectful and destructive to me.

But she approached the OP, the teen boy’s mum. She didn’t challenge the boys. She didn’t approach or say anything to them. Nor did she have any right to do so, either. If they were kicking apples to each other in her garden, then fair enough. But it was a public park. And they weren’t hurting or bothering anyone.

Kids doing nothing more than being kids seem to piss a lot of people off. There’s constant threads complaining about kids in every single situation you can imagine on here.

Please do try to explain why a couple of boys having fun in a public place is inconsiderate, because you haven't managed to do so thus far.

<baits breath>

Disrespectful to who?

Destructive of what?

I agree with this - it's just giving the wrong feeling - Nature isn't there to be trashed for a bit of cheap fun - what's next - pulling twigs off because they could then branches because it was fun? And for 30 minutes ??? I can see kicking an apple as you walk past but to spend 30 minutes kicking and stamping on the apples, no, just no.

Sorry but that's just ridiculous. The tree produces apples to spread its seed. It doesn't care whether that happens by animals ingesting the fruit and shitting it out or by animals kicking it around like a football. Kicking these apples around wasnt trashing nature it was propagating it.

Yabu as it makes a slimy mess and increases the risk of falling.

If you squash it no one is going to use it. But I simply meant those were the thoughts that would likely have gone through my head.

I can not imagine they were very quiet whilst doing this and while it seems harmless fun, to some people it would be akin to breaking tree branches off. Disrespectful really and a bit annoying

Whatever your opinion on the squashing of apples, the idea that if someone makes the effort to complain they must be justified in doing so is terrible logic. Some people are just cranks.

Oh my days! To all you "typical mumsnetters" what's the problem?
The lads weren't causing any damage and were well away from other people.
Did they find a dead animal and arse about with it? Rotting apples on the ground is far from being thecrime of the century!!
To the person who said they were "too old" to be doing that, pull your panties out your bum 😜 🤣 2 teenage lads could be doing so much worse!!
It definitely wasn't a mark "of disrespect to nature" either.
The wildlife would have eaten it all by the following day, unless you expect a field mouse to rock over and carry off an apple 😂 they were probably grateful for smaller pieces.
@TheZanyPanda carry on letting your boys be boys and find enjoyment over little things, the uptightarsehole, person who came over thinking she was the big I am would have been told to jog on 😉😂😂

I probably wouldn't have approached them, because they seem ferral and I wouldn't expect them to react well.
They are making a mess, removing a food source from wildlife, no doubt making noise, encouraging younger kids to copy them.

So does horse shit, cow poo, rotting leaves, mud, ice etc. The countryside is not a pristine environment.

Ah yes, ‘let boys be boys’ - the phrase that enables shit behaviour by boys and young men.

OP, one of the lessons I've learnt so far with parenting is this... things that your kids do may annoy other people without being unacceptable.

Take children talking happily in a crowded commuter train. Many would find this very annoying, but it's not unacceptable behaviour in the least.

We do not have a right not to be annoyed in public. We have a right not to be subjected to unacceptable behaviour.

Some people don't understand the difference.

You don't have to jump to and rein in your kids just because some people find them annoying. Some people find other people breathing annoying.

We often forget that teenagers are children, what is cute play by a toddler child can come across as destructive/intimidating etc by an adult sized child.

There is no easy answer but we do need to balance letting (and encouraging) teenagers play, without encroaching on others.

And there is a huge problem in teenager girls not being able to play, have space, and feel safe in public.

🤣 🤣 🤣 will no one think about the children!

They will feed birds stomped or not.

If I picture a tree with say 50 apples that have dropped off vs a tree with 50 apples smashed up around it they look very different.
Smashed up apples will look a horrible mess so I wouldn't let my son do this.

I also find it pretty strange that a 15 year old needs to let off steam, he's not 5 and I wouldn't be encouraging him to let off steam in this way.