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

The apples were on the floor, they were not a crop ready to be picked. A “sustained bout” is a game of football or appleball. The apples belonging to someone were on the ground. This wasn’t a garden or a playground or the local playing field or your living room. I despair.

What is it with people these days who think fields are public areas not private property on which people rely for their livelihood? The word ‘national park’ means it is private land with extra conservation measures for its nature and beauty, not that it is a park like a city park that the public are welcome to clomp over.

“Too old for that”

Yet when teenagers just sullenly sit staring at their phones people complain about that too. I think it’s lovely they were still enjoying some child-like fun and being physical in the fresh air.

The fact they were on the ground doesn’t make them public property. Windfallen apples can still be used for cider or jellies/jams if the owner of the field decided they wanted to use them that way.

Not being on screens is not an excuse for trespassing and destroying someone else’s property.

Is anyone else thinking of Mrs Doubtfire's "drive by fruiting"

That woman was the fun police. And so are many of the posters on this thread. Your boys were having some innocent fun, they weren’t doing any harm. It’s nice that they still play together in this way at their age. No-one is too old for fun, I love kicking fallen leaves personally!

This has brought back a memory of my kids - DS kicked a fallen apple and it splattered all over DH, you would not believe how much apple mess was all over him. Me, DS and DD collapsed in laughter and the crosser DH got the more we laughed! Nice memory!

YABU for the apostrophe in your title though 😂

I was getting a bit confused, though, as people are talking about private property and so I re-checked op's posts. She definitely says it was public.

I think a short stint of this sort of game was absolutely fine, given they were NOT trespassing; but, as it was public with others in the vicinity, I do think I would probably have called time on it a bit sooner, in case we were putting other off from coming over that way.

“Destroying property” - you mean the rotting apples that were already on the ground? 🙄

No evidence of trespassing- op says it’s a public field set up for visitors near a car park full of other families- were they also trespassing?

Yes, that can be fun in the right circumstances, but equally the risk of getting in that sort of mess might be off-putting to others wanting to walk by who are not wanting to get mucky on their way somewhere.

It's a brilliant game on your own land... and fine for a few minutes in a public spot so you aren't taking over the public space with it.

Completely innocent fun. Some of the comments on here are unhinged.
I used to play the same game with my nephew - cricket bat versus a pile of rotten apples. Hilarious. The really rotten ones explode.

My cousins and I would do this in my grandparents' garden.

Not at the park though ...

You are right that it doesn’t cause harm OP, but I wouldn’t say it was innocent. You (well, they) should have thought to bring a ball if they needed to let off steam.

it’s hard to put my finger on it, but it just feels wrong. I think because stomping apples is physically violent, looks violent and they are quite big to be doing this. Maybe the shouting women was triggered or didn’t want that example to be set for her kids? It is wanton destruction really, whether it is harmless or not. I wouldn’t like to see this either to be honest, it just sounds very unpleasant. Aren’t there other non-destructive ways they could have let of steam?

Hmmm I often pick up fallen apples from our local park - even bruised ones - and chop them up for crumbles. I've watched the badgers eat them at night too. Stomping them into the ground feels very antisocial.

Righty-o, all that shows is that there are grouchy unreasonable people in the countryside too, which isn't a surprise to me because I live in the countryside. In a national park. Family on my side are farmers. I can promise you they wouldn't give a monkey's about a few apples being kicked around. But the farming community does have its weirdos the same as any other.

Ugh it’s horrible to be on the receiving end of some random person like this. Honestly your boys weren’t doing anything wrong. Sounds like a busy body. It wpuld take something really really serious for me to even think about approaching a parent/kids and giving out like this. Some people just have very little tolerance for others and expect others to bend over to make them comfortable. Please try and shake it off and don’t let it spoil your day.

Yes, this is a good point.

I think there is a difference between the question of should op have let them do this for as long as half an hour in a publicly shared space, and the different question of was it ok for a stranger to reprimand them in a publicly shared space.

I think the latter is a no for me: it is busy-bodyish and being a considerate user of public space involves keeping your thoughts to yourself unless really necessary.

But personally I'd want my dc playing more discreetly in a public space.

We all need to learn to co-exist and share spaces considerately and tolerantly, and I think there was as much wrong on the scolder's part.

I don't see the problem with the boys' messing about like that, you just need to be aware that there are odd, entitled people around who think they can police everything.

Funny that most of the comments seem to be saying op kids did nothing wrong. But the voting says the opposite. Seems the silent majority thinks the OP was being unreasonable 🤷🏻‍♀️

I guess it depends how ‘under foot’ it would be for the next person. If it’s an area of a field no-one would really walk through, crack on. Otherwise, it would be slippery, sticky etc…

It's not a massive deal, but really, at 13 and 15 it's a bit antisocial to be making a mess like that. They are too old for it.

I wouldn't have let them if they were my kids, but I also wouldn't have stopped and had a go at you.

It would have just been a roll my eyes and move on sort of thing.

Just bring a football in future?

It rather depends whether the apples were already at the rotting stage or whether some might have been useable, in which case the wastage is hard to defend.

Fucking hell this is nuts.

This is a couple of kids, kicking some rotting apples around for 30 minutes in a public space and posters are calling it "wanton violence" and other such nonsense. I would have laughed in the woman's face.

Some squashed apples in a field are not a mess. They are going to degrade and get eaten within a few days.

How much steam did they need to let off? They were already outside, not cooped up indoors all day. I’m picturing two whistling kettles zooming about.

The opposite of destructive behaviour is not being on a screen all day either.