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?

Exactly this. I've never heard of this practice, but whoever dreamt it up should be ashamed of themselves. It's a pointless environmental horror.

When my kids did the whole reindeer food on Christmas Eve it was such a small amount and presumably got eaten by the birds because you couldn't see it the next morning. How much did they actually chuck around?

YABU tidy up your mess

yabu for using glitter

Definitely unreasonable. If it's not edible glitter it's bad for wildlife and wet porridge sets like cement. Clean up your mess on public land.

Probably. But I think there is some edible stuff??

ideally I guess you shouldn’t be throwing any!

You're in the wrong here, OP, and so is your DH. You should have cleaned up any 'overspill' immediately. Your DH should have simply said sorry and swept up the mess when asked to.

Hope you’ve got the message OP, get out and clean up the mess and next time think about the wildlife before you do something that can potentially kill it.
Your husband sounds like a typical argumentative bolshy neighbour, the sort we all dread having!

Ignore the pearl-clutchers OP. The rain will take care of the 'offensive' oats. Hope the reindeer liked it!

So if it’s only overspill and not much, why can’t you sweep it up? What are you waiting to happen with it? It hasn’t blown away. The wildlife hasn’t eaten it. The glitter is toxic and long lasting. It’ll be slippy for your kids to walk on when wet. So what are you waiting to happen with it?

Bad for the wildlife and made a mess - why are you not clearing it up?

Was it edible glitter? If not yes you need to clean up asap and also educate your kids about putting stuff out that’s a danger to wildlife. What’s wrong with a carrot?

Pearl clutchers? Try reading the thread, it might be educational for you.

What is lazy is coming on MN in full attack mode over a handful of oats and a couple of pinches of glitter, treating OP like she is personally and single handedly responsible for the death and destruction of Earth.

This whole thread is a great example of frustrated people needing an opportunity to stick the boot in presumably because they were gifted a bottle of Baylis and Harding or had to wrap their own present from their “D”H 🙄

Most of the examples of use I gave (laundry pods, plastic bottles, synthetic clothing) are easy to swap out if you care about the environment and the impact would be far far more significant than avoiding the pinch of Christmas glitter, but I guess it’s much less fun than the sanctimonious boot up the arse posters love to dish out

Just what the already over polluted waterways and streets need more plastic.

YABVU just for buying it let alone throwing litter. You are littering not getting ready for Santa

Didn't you notice it was out on the road and sweep it up proactively? Who do you expect to clean it up? If it gets mushy it will be a slip hazard as well as attracting rats and poisoning the birds.

If your kids have a made a mess on a public path, you need to clean it up.

It's not reindeer food it's unnecessary crap
This!
It doesn't add to the so called 'magic' of Christmas. Its just a mess.

It was well known years ago that it attracts rats and glitter hatms wildlife so im suprised people still do it.

The floating excrement in the waterways would only be made a little more glamorous by a little glitter. I don't think this is a big issue.

Raindeer food spread around... Who could have come up with it... 😂

Love the up in arms MN outrage 😂 it’s a bit of porridge that’s spilled out into a road.

Your kids should clear it up. They made the mess and need to clean up after themselves.

This was my first thought!

People put out reindeer food?! Really?
Fine if you want to do that in your own garden, but it really shouldn't spilled onto the street.

I’d have been sweeping it up before the kids saw that the reindeer haven’t eaten it, and pretending that they have.

This. Send the children out with the dust pan to clear it ip. It doesn't need to stay there for days. And no glitter in future.