To think you should leave the flowers in the park alone?

[nomoreheels]

I live t next to a park. One of its few redeeming features is that the management have planted quite a few crocus & daff bulbs. The crocuses have come up, the daffs are a week or two away.

I regularly see people with kids who allow them to pick what they like. Just now a grandma with a 5 year old girl let her take around seven crocuses. I think it's a bit wrong & not teaching them about respecting things in public. If you really have to pick them though, at least only take one.

M DP thinks I'm a miserable git. I did not dispute that I might be a bit miserable but I think they should be left for everyone to enjoy. If everyone took 7 flowers at once they be gone in no time.

I did concede it was better than some scally coming along and trampling them or running them over with a scooter (which also happens a lot round 'ere) but still!

So who's right?

I agree that they should be left for everyone to enjoy but when my 2 DD's badger me all the way through the park I sometimes give in and let them pick 1 each but only ever 1 each!!

I dont think you should pick them. My son went up to some in a public park yesterday and we both quickly informed him he must not pick them. He said he "just wanted to smell theme" and then stuck his bum in the air and sniffed them

They are for everyone to enjoy, so really I dont think its in the spirit of things to pick them. And if you teach kids a blanket "no pick" rule then they wont go picking flowers out of people's gardens either, hopefully...

Them, even.

I think - they are not there to be picked - if you want some flowers at home grow them or buy some.

My mum once had a go at a woman as she was digging up the daffs on their local green - with a shovel.

yanbu...I have never let mine pick them though they would have liked to often.

No flowers in public places ought to be picked...wild or planted. Wild because they're protected and park ones because they're for everyone...it's like taking library books or something, they're paid for by taxpayers and not nmeant to be picked.

Who picks a crocus!

It's possibly one of those over indlgent Granny things to do...I kno that my MIL would have a hard time saying no to something like that.

A long time ago I had had a recent fight with my long-ex bf and was stewing off my side at home. There was a ring on the bell and downstairs was a very dejected looking long-ex bf. Fight now forgotten- what on earth is the matter? On the way over here to say sorry/ make up I picked you some daffodils but a policeman saw me, told me off and made me leave them there. Pffft.

Anyway OP, apparently some policemen wouldn't allow it so you have some moral high ground for sure.

YANBU, I have always told my DC not to pick or otherwise mutilate any flowers, shrubs, hedges etc that we pass on the way to school.

Yanbu. Same for wildflowers.

YANBU

I also live next door to the park and it breaks my heart watching people collecting huge bunches to take home. Within a few days of the flowers opening they have all gone and there is nothing for anyone to enjoy.

YANBU, I would never pick flowers either in a park or growing wild. I don't see the point anyway (or of cut/picked flowers in generaly), I'd rather see them growing in the earth than pull them up so they'll decay and die in my house.

YANBU

Only park flower allowed to be picked is the common daisy

Can't say I've ever seen anyone actually doing this though! And I walk in the park every day...

I've seen two little old ladies with their shopping bags DIGGING UP the daffs in the park and putting them in their bags

I was a teenager at the time taking DB for a walk in the park, he was about 3, he starts saying "what are those ladies doing?

oddly I think I was as embarrassed as they were and said nothing!

YADNBU. I've told off children for doing this. And told them that dogs had weed on them

Thanks for all the replies & great stories.

I will now go tell DP that Mumsnet agrees with me, so ner

Considering you can get a nice bunch or two of daffs from the shops for £1 too, there's no excuse really.

PS Ashamed, that happened to my mum! Some insane woman pulled up in a car & uprooted half of one of her lovely flowering plants, then sped off. She'd obviously been casing the horticultural joint & planned it all, even down to the getaway driver... My mum got the registration though, & the police went to tell her off. Funny thing is, if she'd knocked & asked nicely my mum would have gladly given her a cutting.

I can't believe there is anyone who thinks this is OK- what is your DH on? And what kind of an argument is "if they didn't spoil things, someone else will, so you might as well do nothing at all"?

What a numpty. Is he housetrained or do you have to clean up after him?

The council uses our money to plant displays in parks so that they are nice places for everyone to be. Not to provide free flowers for those too selfish to think about anyone other than themselves.

YANBU
Flower-rustling! Country's going to the dogs.

Aww, he's alright Silverten. If it were older kids he'd be well cat bum face, I think he just thought it was a little kid having fun. He is definitely being inconsistent there. He dared me to outside & have words with the grandma - which I didn't of course!

If people want their kids to pick flowers they should grow some bleddy flowers. Even people without gardens can grow things in window boxes.

Harrumph mutter mutter civic pride mutter mutter harrumph.

I agree with silverten and am absolutely astonished that anyone could consider it OK to do this or even think it is only "a bit wrong"

It is plain WRONG and is an incredibly selfish thing to do to pick flowers whether cultivated in the park or growing wild. Leave them for everyone to enjoy!!

Sadly I think it's all part of a big problem we have in our area - a lack of respect & not caring/wanting a nice area for all of us to live in. Other problems in the park include dog poo, flytipping (regularly!), teenage drinking/vandalism/smashing bottles/fighting, quadbike & scooter riding...

There is litter everywhere in certain streets, precious little "house pride" and many people let rubbish accumulate in front of their houses. People chuck mattresses etc out in the street without arranging bulky item collections & refuse to wheel their bins back in to their back garden. I hate it.

There are some lovely families/dog walkers etc too - but a fair few plonkers unfortunately.

I should point out in defense of my DP that he would never pick flowers, he also does his own local litter collections once a week armed with a bin bag To try & keep our bit of the park & street tidy & he frowns greatly on any anti-social behaviour. I think he just has a blind spot for little 'uns because we're expecting our first in June. She will not be allowed to pick park flowers, that's for sure!

YANBU. I'm shocked that anyone would allow their DC to pick the flowers in the park, no matter how much they badgered! If you were in the supermarket and had no money left, would you allow them to pinch just a few sweets??