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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Would you be livid - ruined clothes?

86 replies

deliakate · 05/12/2011 17:12

Quickly popped with ds, 2.5, to the local shops for milk and he was pottering about on the way back. I was watching him closely on a particularly narrow bit of pavement when he plonked his hand onto a very wide, 4 foot high thick wall running alongside the pavement. I looked down and his hand and arm was totally covered in sticky, stinky white paint - very thick rendering stuff that you use on outside walls. Impossible to get off - maybe unless you have swafega (sp) which when we ran home I found out was all gone :(

Its ruined his Gap puffa (about £45 worth) and he reached up to his wool balaclava, so that's another £20. There was no sign in sight, and the wall is pretty long and unavoidable for toddlers. Its on my lovely purse too, and I'm just so peed off. I think the owners of the house have builders there, but there should have been something to let people know it was wet surely? AIBU ?

OP posts:

charitygirl · 05/12/2011 18:11

Ugh you people. No class.

JinglePosyPerkin · 05/12/2011 18:11

charitygirl - I wouldn't object to anyone touching my wall - but if I wanted to have that wall painted, without taking out a full page ad in the local press to notify everyone that may pass by, I will.

slavetofilofax · 05/12/2011 18:11

Paying for the damage isn't the decent thing for them to do at all! Especially if they had builders there, they might not even have known when the wall was going to be painted.

Not touching it would have been the decent thing to do.

charitygirl · 05/12/2011 18:14

This obsession with your rights not to have your wall (which runs alongside a public pavement!) is just so...unpleasant.

winterfox · 05/12/2011 18:15

all they had to do was chalk a little note on the pavement.

do you lot not let your children touch the walls that line the streets? my son used to go along shutting all the gates

strange thread

charitygirl · 05/12/2011 18:17

Not to have your wall touched. Woe betide the doddery pensioner eh?

No one claims you'd be breaking a law, but not putting a sign up makes you an inconsiderate twat. Id be furious with my builders in that case.

FabbyChic · 05/12/2011 18:17

Seriously more fool you for buying such a young child a 20 quid hat and a 45 quid coat.

FredFredGeorge · 05/12/2011 18:17

I think the cost of the jacket is very relevant, you wouldn't be as pissed off if you'd spent 5 quid on the outfit rather than 65 quid. A sign would've been nice, but I don't think it's required.

glub · 05/12/2011 18:18

'teach your child not to touch people's walls'?! seriously?! i suppose you must drive/push yours everywhere? so they need to stay away from the road side (for obvious reasons) yet cannot brush against a wall on the other side? hilariously weird. it's not like the child was meddling with the wall. a sign would have been courteous. anyone could have brushed against it, as the au pair did. i hope they realise that they should have at the very least put up a sign and offer you some compensation at least to cover cleaning.

PontyMython · 05/12/2011 18:23

Compensation? Seriously?

Paint doesn't actually affect the warmth of the coat, does it?

babybythesea · 05/12/2011 18:23

I'm a bit confused by the idea that because your wall runs next to a public pavement there should be a no-mans land of a foot or so, so people do not lay their nasty fingers on your property.

It's no different to understanding that people will brush your car with their coats if you leave your car in a supermarket carpark - people will need to squash between them to get into their own, or to cross the carpark.
You own a wall (which is hardly a delicate thing liable to collapse at a mere breath on it) that ajoins a pavement, people will touch it. Children will poke at moss or insects on it, adults will brush a bag against it especially if more than one person is trying to use the pavement.

If a sign was there then absolutely it becomes your fault if you end up covered in paint. If not, well, they're under no obligation to pay for anything but I would be a bit shamefaced that I hadn't thought to let people know. It doesn't need to be printed out on a banner, just a note scrawled in felt tip stuck on the wall/near the wall, or a bit of chalk on the ground.

PontyMython · 05/12/2011 18:24

I do agree there should've been a sign, but compensation would be ridiculous. It's just a coat.

babybythesea · 05/12/2011 18:27

Although I should also add that my dd would be wearing the coat regardless, especially if it was expensive. I figure she'll grow out of it really quickly anyway so as I'll have to replace it in two months anyway she may as well wear it, with paint, until then!

winterfox · 05/12/2011 18:28

if it were my wall i would offer something for dry cleaning and apologise but then again i'm a nice person

winterfox · 05/12/2011 18:29

£45 is hardly way over the top, just people are used to cheap crap clothing

yomellamoHelly · 05/12/2011 18:30

Should have been a sign, but what's done is done. I'd be tempted to let him carry on wearing the coat and hat once the paint is dry. They're still going to do the job for which they were intended.

Laquitar · 05/12/2011 18:32

OP will sue the owners for ruining the jacket and the owners will sue OP for ruining their wall.

spiderpig8 · 05/12/2011 18:32

charity-the point isn't that you must never touch anyone else's wall, but that you do so at your own risk.

Popbiscuit · 05/12/2011 18:35

The point, Spider, is that the home-owners were inconsiderate...and so are a lot of people on this thread, apparently.

ArtVandelay · 05/12/2011 18:35

I'd be fuming. I'd hope the family will be understanding and compensate you or get the builders (who will be insured) to compensate you.

But - can I just ask all the people who are complaining about the price of the jacket - where are you all buying your cheap toddler jackets from? A nice warm one even from H&M (which is where I mostly shop and think is very cheap compared to most places) costs 35 - 50 euros.

I think you should post in legal and see what the legal expert MNers have to say. Not that its worth court! But its worth seeing if you are in the right to expect a level of protection from wet paint.

LadyBeagleBaublesAndBells · 05/12/2011 18:37

It sounds like even if there was a sign, Op wouldn't have seen it before her ds touched it.
And obviously, if there was a sign, he would still not have had a clue.
A decent winter coat should last two years, so I don't think £45 is too much, but that is not the point of this thread.

montysma1 · 05/12/2011 18:38

If is borders a public foot path then the fence or wall or any structure has to be safe and I would presume not covered in chemicals, be it paint or anything else without warning. the council would be liable if it was theirs, so why not a private individual?

I bet there was hundreds of pounds of damage done to to peoples clothes today. Your child wont be the only person who brushed against it. Adults and children alike are liable and entitled to touch any structure bordering a pavement. Not to have a sign up is negligence.

TheJiminyConjecture · 05/12/2011 18:42

A decent winter coat for an adult should last two years - not so relevent for a growing toddler!

Yes it's annoying It's certainly not worth being peed off about

Sevenfold · 05/12/2011 18:46

yabu your child ouched someone else's property, and got pain on him.
hardly their fault

babybythesea · 05/12/2011 18:51

Svenfold - have you really never brushed up against someone elses wall then? Say when trying to get past someone else on a narrow bit of pavement? Or their car when in a car park?

And if that wall had paint on it which got onto you, would you not be annoyed?

(Only asking you because you were the last poster, but I was wondering the same about the others who said it).

Interestingly, I have actually sat on someone's wall (very early pregnancy, suddenly felt very dizzy and sat down on the nearest available surface until my head stopped spinning). I didn't realise there were so many MNetters who would have gladly rushed out to push me off their property and will sit down in the middle of the pavement next time. Admittedly, it wouldn't have made any difference whether there was paint on it or not as I wasn't really looking, but are we really saying that no-one, whatever the circumstances, should be allowed to touch your wall, even if it runs alongside a public area?

Maybe barbed wire running along the fence is the answer.

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