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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not let people bring pebbles into the house?

56 replies

CruCru · 20/03/2015 15:58

I have a house near a beach. Visiting children usually want to bring pebbles back from the beach, which I'm not terribly keen on. Technically it's illegal to take things from the beach but, more practically, I often end up with buckets of pebbles at the end of the summer as the children lose interest once they've bought the pebbles back.

WIBU to say that any pebbles have to go right in the parents' car once we get back and are not to come into my house? I find that the parents are a bit keener to enforce the whole "leaving everything at the beach for others to enjoy" when I say this but all the same perhaps it isn't very welcoming.

OP posts:
mousmous · 20/03/2015 16:00

yanbu
we have a rule that sticks and stones are left in the park and not brought home.

AlternativeTentacles · 20/03/2015 16:01

Of course not. Your house your rules.

AlternativeTentacles · 20/03/2015 16:01

Sticks - another matter! We go out foraging for sticks and have midsummer fires in the woodburner and the nieces toast marshmallows. Such fun!

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 16:05

Argh! Thankfully sticks aren't as plentiful at the beach (or are covered in seaweed).

OP posts:
Nomama · 20/03/2015 16:08

Could you have a Return To The Wild Party on their last day or in October half term?

My nephew used to collect stuff over his summer holidays (they live in Cornwall). In October we used to visit and out job was to take all the pebbles and other junk back to a beach. The idea was that the flotsam and jetsam had enjoyed their stay at his house, but now it really was time to go home!

ThatBloodyWoman · 20/03/2015 16:09

While yanbu as such,just think how much pleasure the children are deriving from it.
At least thats what I think when children come to my house,and tear round the mud in the woods then charge through my house brandishing sticks and handfuls of leaves....

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 16:11

I could but usually they are in a rush at leaving time and don't want to worry about pebbles. Also, I've just redecorated and really don't want pebbles and other heavy, dirty things coming into the house. I have enough crap, I don't want a bunch of random stones adding to it.

OP posts:
MrsFlannel · 20/03/2015 16:11

I think YABU. For children who don't live near the beach it's a MAJOR part of the pleasure. I do see that if we all took things then that would be bad...but a few children's buckets of pebbles? Meh. Put them all back as Nomama says.

LowryFan · 20/03/2015 16:14

I have a bit of my front garden just for Special Stones that have come back with us from days out. So they never make it inside, but the kids still get to fulfil their need to find worlds bestest stone ever. I think of it as my little patch of Zen Garden.

FireflyChild · 20/03/2015 16:15

Technically it's illegal to take things from the beach

What statute covers that?

I've never heard of that before.

I could just imagine going into a police station to report someone stealing a sea shell Grin

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 16:17

Hmm. I do see your point but when you live by the sea, it's a real heart sink moment when you realise that the children are planning to bring back bucketfuls of stones.

OP posts:
Theimpossiblegirl · 20/03/2015 16:17

Just be glad they aren't like DD. One year she had a small dead fish in a bucket of water that she was determined to take home. It sat on the doorstep of the house we were staying in. We told her a seagull had eaten it while we were eating out at the local pub. A few stones would be less smelly better.

guiltynetter · 20/03/2015 16:17

I think YABU also. they are JUST pebbles! if you live so near why is it so hard to return them?

WorraLiberty · 20/03/2015 16:19

I get that it must be a bit irritation but in the grand scheme of things, I wouldn't let it bother me enough to say they can't bring them in.

Collecting pebbles as a child, is lots of fun.

WorraLiberty · 20/03/2015 16:19

*irritating

ThatBloodyWoman · 20/03/2015 16:19

We still have a bit of seaweed hanging up in the back lean to from last summers camping trip.
It went whiffy,then mouldy,then hard.

AChickenCalledKorma · 20/03/2015 16:20

If they are visitors, I'd say it's perfectly reasonable to say they have to go in the parents' car.

BUT if you do that, you lose the opportunity to put the stones back on the beach after they've gone.

Could they not live in a pile by the doorstep? (Like all the oh-so-fascinating sticks that come back to our house from the woods. There are a LOT of woods in this area and yet the kids still fall in love with a new stick every time)

Samcro · 20/03/2015 16:21

just say no

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 16:22

Perhaps the law about taking things from the beach only applies in certain places.

www.theargus.co.uk/news/8179509.Caroline_Lucas_says_she_has_returned_Brighton_pebble/?ref=rss

OP posts:
AlpacaLypse · 20/03/2015 16:23

Firefly I think OP's right, I've got a vague idea everything between high water and low water is Crown property or something like that, which is why building material companies can't just come along with bulldozers and tipper trucks and scoop up all that gravel, cobble stone and sand!

butterfly2015 · 20/03/2015 16:23

Tell the kids they must stay in the garden, the pebbles, not the actual kids. I'd also suggest only selecting one each which they can take home and paint with the name of the place and the date so they have a reminder of their holiday.

PannaDoll · 20/03/2015 16:24

Oh my goodness you grump ;-)

I grew up in Australia and my parents house is full of random buckets of shells and pebbles my siblings and I have collected over the years. It gets worse as the kids get older as you collect certain kinds of shells with a view to turning them into glamorous jewellery or hippy curtain style projects (that never come to fruition).

Collecting flotsam and jetsam from the beach is a rite of passage surely?

You aren't being unreasonable to gently suggest that the parents take the buckets of crap with them but you are being an unreasonable grinch on the whole.

FireflyChild · 20/03/2015 16:26

Oh ok thanks Alpaca

I remember a while ago a ship had got stranded and all the goods were washing up on shore. People were getting brand new BMW motorbikes etc

Think it was in Devon

ShatnersBassoon · 20/03/2015 16:28

Is it worth instilling rules over something relatively unimportant? A couple of buckets of discarded pebbles to get rid of in October is a small price to pay for enjoying the company of visitors.

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 16:29

I really don't want them in the garden either. If they sit in buckets then they have to be tipped out to empty the buckets of rainwater and if they go in flowerbeds then I end up with stony flowerbeds.

Perhaps it's because I grew up but the sea but I've always thought of taking things from the beach to be only a bit less serious than taking something from someone's garden. It's embarrassing to have people see us leaving with buckets of stuff.

OP posts: