Neighbours complaining about reindeer food

[wasteful26]

Elder dc bought a bag of porridge on Xmas Eve to mix with glitter with their younger siblings and put out for the “reindeer”
As dc do on Xmas Eve they got carried away and as well as putting the food in our front garden they sprinkled it on the public road.
A neighbour who we do not know by name but to smile at had posted on the local FB page complaining about the mess which went over our heads but he then confronted dh in the street today when he was getting in his car.
Because of the old dry weather the porridge is still laying in the street.
Dh being his usual non diplomatic self wasn’t exactly friendly towards neighbour.
Ive no intentions of going out with a brush and shovel for what is a few handfuls of oats and it’s to rain in the next few days anyway but am wondering if this is something that others would be upset about in their street?

@wasteful26 you could've cleaned it up in the time it's taken you to read this thread.

and wet porridge in the street isn't going to be great either.

i don’t think i would be bothered, so it seems bit of overreaction, but i thought we shouldn’t put the reindeer food out because of rats? At least that’s what i’m scared of so I didn’t let my son spread his (he also got it in nursery)

Just sweep it up especially if you didn’t use edible glitter. Terrible for the environment if you used plastic glitter.

If it’s not biodegradable/edible glitter yabu, sorry!! Also agree if you’re in an urban environment it could prob encourage rats….

Agree with this 👆 also you shouldn't be mixing it.with glitter, it's harmful for wildlife.

Unless it's torrential rain it'll just make the oats big and sticky and will end up looking like sparkly vomit outside your house.
I'd just Sweep it up now whilst it's dry.

It's not reindeer food it's unnecessary crap.

If your family littered then your family cleans it up.

It will attract rodents into your house as well as your neighbours.

Surely only 'rough' people don't clean their own mess.

Yes you do need to clean up. Bad enough sprinkling glitter which could harm wildlife and cats on your own garden. You definitely don't litter the street where people could be dog walking or gardens of neighbours who might like wildlife or have cats with tiny bits of poisonous plastic.

Depends how much of it there is. If the glitter was plastic. If there is a shed load of porridge oats all about to go slimey in the rain down or just a few loose ones.
Either way you essentially threw food into the street so should clean it up.
Just because its reigndeer food to you, doesnt mean that to someone else it doesnt look like your kids went outside and chucked a box of Shreddies all over the street.

Even edible glitter is bad for wildlife.

I hate this trend, tbh, I thought it had finished a couple years ago. Children will still find the magic of Santa exciting without harming fellow creatures..

If it was enough to make a FB post about ..it must need a clean up. Who would you expect to do that OP?

Agree with others about encouraging rats and the micro plastics in glitter ...who thinks reindeers eat plastic ?

I wouldn’t confront anyone over it but yes I’d be annoyed if someone left glitter and oats all over the pavement. I’d probably roll my eyes that it was even in your garden to be honest, the environment doesn’t need more microplastics in the soil and the oats just encourages vermin. Totally unnecessary nonsense.

Was it edible glitter? If not, you've just encouraged your DC to sprinkle microplastics into the environment.

And glitter gets absolutely everywhere. Your neighbours will walk it into their house and see bits of it for a year or so.

As dc do on Xmas Eve they got carried away and as well as putting the food in our front garden they sprinkled it on the public road.

So you had no clue that your own DC were outside and spreading this shite everywhere???
Go and clean up your kids mess! I'm with your neighbours. YABVU!

It’s the glitter that’s the issue. I would be really annoyed- I thought people had stopped doing this.

Lol, a bit of porridge in the street. Obviously don't live in a big city ?!

Yabu. Glitter is awful for wildlife. Please go and sweep it up.

The fact that the neighbour has complained suggests that there was a large quantity of oats and glitter. You've glossed over any specifics regarding quantities.

You've also glossed over the specifics of what your unpleasant husband said to the neighbour.

Both you and your husband are lacking emotional intelligence and common decency. If you were aware of causing an issue from the Facebook post, you could have swept up your mess in 2 minutes - problem solved ....but no, you've both very deliberately made a choice to be rude and selfish.

The problem isn’t porridge it’s glitter, but if you’re happy littering your own doorstep, crack on. I feel sorry for your neighbours.

Unless the glitter was wildlife safe you need to clean up all the glitter

Encouraging rats no they won’t it’s one day not over months ffs.

so neighbour knew who it was got short shift from husband and you haven’t went out with a broom to sweep it up.

id be more worried if it did rain and become slippy and someone falls.

So because there is mess in a big city, that gives carte blanche to deliberately add to it and harm wildlife further?
Wow.
I wonder if you're one of those people who throw rubbish in the street muttering it keeps street cleaners employed.

You are setting a terrible example to your children. It's not ok to litter, it's against the law, for good reason. You are also damaging the environment by throwing glitter out there, you are harming wildlife, and feeding rats.

You need to take a good look at yourself and start caring about the environment, and set a better example to your children, otherwise, they'll end up like you.

I would clean it up. When my daughter went out today she took a photo of the pavement in front of our house where there was rubbish strewn around. She asked is it ours. Indeed it was. I’d left bags of chicken carcass etc outside the bin last night because it was full and I’d completely forgotten about urban foxes. Foxes came during the night and mess ensued.
so as she was going to the shops for me I asked her to pick up extra dish soap. We got buckets of water and a brush and scrubbed the path and pavement so that no one else could slip over or tread mess into their house. It is so much nicer to think about other people around you. And animals too. My first worry was that I hoped the foxes didn’t come to danger going through the rubbish.

I couldn’t leave glitter out that animals could ingest. And I couldn’t leave porridge on the ground that a vulnerable person could slip on. Just be nice unto others