Walking on walls - AIBU?

[MakeHayIsAWhaleNow]

Do you let your children walk on walls? I do sometimes (depending on the wall) but always kind of feel like I shouldn't - but they love doing it. AIBU? Do you object to children walking on the wall outside your house? My children are only 4 and 2....

Yes. Ds will be three in December. He loves walking on walls.

jamdonut and your a fucking great role model you mother...

Remember being so free and in the moment that you could just pull a tiny leaf off a passing hedge. Oh don't get people started on that.

People seem very precious about their walls :(

I am not. I may put a sign on it saying, "Toddlers - walk your socks off"

Public walls only.

I also get very pissed off when people go past my garden and pick the roses that grow at the front. They're not overhanging the pavement, but you can reach them. People going to the church next door help themselves all the time. WTF?

I'm glad it wasn't just me that was trying desperately to work out how the hell you could walk on interior walls.

Exterior walls (of course) - I'd probably let my DS in town but not garden walls. It's very curtain twitching in parts round here so I guess it would be 50/50 people minding/not minding.

Public walls yes private ones no

I don't let ds walk on walls outside people's house's but 'public' walls are fair game!

My garden walls are over a hundred years old. I'd be annoyed if kids walked on them as I'm sure they wouldn't last as long and I'd be the one paying loads of money to have them rebuilt.

Ooh, loads of replies - thank you. I am still no wiser...

To clarify, I don't let them run on people's front grass (well, working on 2yo ds...) and definitely no flower picking although they do like smelling. Walls - no if they look in anyway wobbly or damaged, or have the standing-up type bricks which seem more liable to damage. It's the wide, flat-topped ones that they can't resist.... I wouldn't mind, but I am always conscious that others do and would certainly stop on a particular wall if told to (and may now try to dissuade them anyway, although seems a shame....).

I agree that public ones are fair game! Shame there are none on the way to school, that would make life easier to have one that was definitely ok so they could wait for that one.

I think wall walking is on the school curriculum - reception Agreed safe public walls, no flower picking.
What about later when they're into par cour (sp?)
My dc walked on our wall - I felt sad when they stopped.

God, this confused me so much! For some stupid reason I thought you meant the structural walls of a house etc and was very impressed that you had birthed spider babies.

Obviously now I realise I'm a tit. Yes I let my DD walk on walls.

I don't let my son do it on other people's walls because they belong to those other people. Cannot get my head around the mentality that it's ok for kids to essentially trespass. It doesn't belong to you! Leave it alone!

I don't think people should let their kids walk on other people's garden walls. Those are other people's private property. And possibly designed more for decorative purposes than sturdiness, so not necessarily the safest walls to walk on.

Public walls are fair game.

Walking on walls is one of the great joys of early childhood.
And good for children's development of a sense of balance.
It should be encouraged IMO.

Disclaimer: most private gardens here have fences on top of the low walls, so we only walk on public walls yes, sometimes I am tempted too

Not walls around houses (though there's none the right height here, anyhow). There's a low wall on our high street that the boys love walking along, though - it just surrounds a green area, so doesn't bother anyone.

I don't mind walking on walls - I agree that public walls are fair game and that it's fair enough if you don't like people doing it on yours, but what can you actually do to stop it? Put up a fence?

A millions yeses re: flower picking! There was a budget wedding thread on here recently and the bride to be said she would go and pick some wildflowers rather than pay a florist. I was itching but I didn't want a flaming so I left it and seethed internally instead!

I wouldn't mind at all.

If your wall is unable to take the weight of a small child, then I think you have bigger problems then them climbing! phew what a mouthful!

I used to do this as a kid, until I tripped when I was about 9/10 and smashed my mouth and face on the wall. I chipped my front tooth (adult, so permanent) and my dad had to take me to hospital for concussion. He was watching me the entire time, but I fell so fast he couldn't have done anything to stop me fall. It was a really low wall, as well. Probably only a foot or so off the ground.

I'd hate it! Its MY wall, its meant to mark the boundary of everything that's mine.....not a no-mans land of toddlers teetering past my window. Buy them scooters to practice balance.

at spider babies - sometimes the boundaries are blurred.....!

It seems that on balance, I am being a bit unreasonable. Fair enough then, I'll dissuade them and try to find a suitable public wall somewhere close. Might save a few minutes on the school walk, too. I guess! (For some reason they also like climbing lampposts...)

Thank you for all replies.

Another vote for public walls -yes, private walls -no

I remember walking along walls as a kid. I loved it. My mum would only let me walk on public walls, so maybe that's turned me into the grumpy old cow I am now, cos I got so fed up of kids walking along my wall and staring in my window that I put up a little fence on top of my wall and grew thorny roses through it. no more walking along my wall, kicking at my plants, staring into my window and yelling HELLOOOOOO at me now.

I should probably go and live in a cave somewhere by myself