to not want to pick up everyone else's rubbish

[NeverBeenALocal]

The road I live on has a Primary and Secondary school on it. My youngest (5) had gone to a holiday club in the Secondary school and whilst walking back he grabbed a can someone else had put in a hedge.
Unfortunately there always seemed to be rubbish either on the pavements or in the hedges of this road. I told him to put it down and he threw it onto the road.
Whilst I was telling him off an older man on the other side of the road started to tell us off, telling me I should pick it up because it was setting him a bad impression. I tried to explain that there is always rubbish in the hedges but he just kept saying it was setting him a bad impression. I initially walked away and then turned back and asked him if I went into the middle of the road to pick it up would he look after my children if I got knocked down. No response.
My children don't litter and in the past have picked up other people rubbish and binned it. I stopped my eldest for doing this as he would pick up every bit of rubbish regardless of how much was there so AIBU?

I always say if you pick rubbish up off the ground then it becomes YOUR rubbish to throw away but I do agree it's shocking how many people seem to treat littering as the "norm".

I had a similar problem on a beach the other day. My two dogs are like wombles and after mistakenly begining their beach walk where crap tends to get washed up they ran around with disgusting cans and cartons in their mouths and I was so cross I had to keep shouting at them to DROP IT!!! I was worried they would cut their mouths.

A lady who had been watching this whilst also stood in this flotsam and jetsome area asked me in the tone of a dinner lady talking to a five year oldif I would now put it in the bin please. I said "No" as I hadn't dropped it and I suffer from a phobia that it would carry something nasty on it.

It is really not like me to refuse a polite request but as she has been on this beach for a while and she didn't like the rubbish why wasn't SHE beachcombing?

On reading mu post back I suppose I could have said I'll pick up and bin two things if you do the same couldn't I?

I agree with the general principle that once you pick it up, it becomes your responsibility to get rid of. I expect the man thought you'd dropped it yourselves. If he knew you'd fished it out of a hedge then dropped it, it's a bit mean to have a go at you about it, but that's the trouble with picking it out of the hedge - other people think it's yours so if you drop it, you look like the litterbug
We picked some up in the park today cos there are rubbish bins nearby. I hate it when my kids start kicking a can up the road. I make them pick it up and carry it to a bin. In fact often to a recycling point. They kick less cans as a result lol

I don't apply that principle to dogs though! How rude some people are

I don't apply that principle to dogs though! How rude some people are

That happened to my dog Lonelylou, he picked up a can some prick person had left on a beach and cut his mouth quite badly .

Yes.
You stopped your child doing something worthwhile.

Do you think that he thought you had put the litter there and that's what he was on about?

It's just so odd of him otherwise, isn't it?

I pick rubbish up in the park and if DS kicks at something he has to dispose of something.
OP maybe that man assumed your question was rhetorical? Can you call the council regarding the rubbish? Or organise a neighbourly clean up or even speak to the school?

Sorry for the delay in coming back.
I liked the idea of telling my son that once he picks something up it's his to bin so that is what I'm going to do in the future. I will talk to the Primary school in September. I'm will send the council an email.
I stopped my eldest litter picking because he suffered with ecezema. Finding soap that didn't dry out his hands took some time and for a while he hated washing his hands as it only dried them out more.
Mericbucket that woman was out of order. My OH had dogs from a very young age so I've been trained to detach the lid from all tins.