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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:
DurhamDurham · 20/03/2015 16:31

I've collected a stone from every beach that I've ever visited for as long as I can remember.....we have a sort of feature going on in the garden.

Its lovely, honestly Blush

I have heard its illegal to remove stones/pebbles from the beach but I don't think the police would be chasing little children of those who just take one....I think that they don't want people arriving with buckets to fill in order to do a pebble drive on the cheap.

geekymommy · 20/03/2015 16:32

I let DD (2.5 yo) bring some pebbles into the house after a walk the other day. She likes to pick up and carry pebbles. She threw them on the floor. I think this may be a new house rule here.

ClockwiseCat · 20/03/2015 16:34

I would tell them they are only allowed to bring their five favourite stones back to the house. Buckets are just greedy.

We use this strategy with DC who would bring the whole bloody beach / forest home if allowed!

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 16:38

Well, it probably is only about five (at the most eight). They get carried in the little buckets from bucket and spade sets.

OP posts:
BackforGood · 20/03/2015 16:43

I'd say YABU to set up rules about this. There is great pleasure to be derived from collecting pretty stones / pebbles/ shells as a youngster, and it can't be that hard for you to put them back once they've gone, or at the end of the season surely.
It seems an odd thing to get worked up about, tbh.

ClockwiseCat · 20/03/2015 16:43

But don't they take them home with them?

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 16:44

No, once the kids get the stones back, they lose interest and I end up taking a whole bunch back to the beach.

OP posts:
kippersmum · 20/03/2015 16:45

We live near a beach & I have a plastic mesh crate by the front door. Pebbles go in it & the mesh allows rainwater to drain. When it starts to get full I empty it back at the beach & various DCs then start refilling it! :)

GoooRooo · 20/03/2015 16:46

You meanie!

I live by the beach. We get buckets of pebbles and shells collected by visiting children.

Either they end up in the pebbles in our front path, or we take them back to the beach when we walk the dog.

WorraLiberty · 20/03/2015 16:47

Why don't you just tell them that if they want to bring them to yours, they have to remember to take them home?

"Oh, don't forget your pebbles" when they're leaving.

If they say they don't want them, tell them to dump them on the way home.

I think there are way more simple solutions that banning their fun.

WizardOfToss · 20/03/2015 16:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 16:50

Why can't they collect them at the beach and have a "leaving the things for everyone to enjoy" session when it's time to leave the beach? Why do they have to be taken from the beach at all?

OP posts:
TheFecklessFairy · 20/03/2015 16:50

'and other dirty things'

They've been washed many times in salt water - I doubt they are 'dirty' !

Starlingsintheslipstream · 20/03/2015 16:54

Oh, I must be such a mean mum - I never let mine take anything from the beach. It must have an environmental impact if everyone takes bucketfuls surely? OP, I don't think YABU but seem to be in a minority!

ThatBloodyWoman · 20/03/2015 17:02

My friends dd once put all her very dirty gathered treasures actually in my freshly changed white covered bed.
At the time I was BC and not thoroughly impressed.Nowadays I think back on it fondly!

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 17:10

Argh! That would really annoy me.

OP posts:
TheFullGammon · 20/03/2015 17:11

Stick a flowerpot somewhere in your front garden for any who don't want to take them home, and return them once a year.

Or rather than tell them they are not to bring them into your house, just ask the child whether they will be leaving the thing at the beach or taking it home in the car? No need to impose rules as such. They probably don't want to bring it into your house and leave it there anyway.

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 17:14

Well the parents aren't usually terribly keen to have their cars filled with stones from the beach, in the past they've said that Oh, we'll just leave that with you.

OP posts:
Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 17:15

Yes, a flowerpot is probably sensible.

OP posts:
JuliaDream · 20/03/2015 17:17

You poor thing living near a beach and having to put up with a few buckets of pebbles.

Must be hell.

Suttonmum1 · 20/03/2015 17:17

Have a special area where each child is allowed to leave one and only one pebble to mark their stay with you. Anything else must be left at the beach. If on day 2 they bring a second stone then the first one must be taken back to the beach.

Original poster
CruCru · 20/03/2015 17:18

Well I do see that it is not the most pressing issue of the day. However, quite a lot of AIBU is about relatively trivial stuff.

OP posts:
catzpyjamas · 20/03/2015 17:20

How about using the beach as a lending library of pebbles? First group brings pebbles back to garden, next group returns first group's pebbles when going to beach before collecting their own which are returned by third group etc. We always bring shells back but they stay in an old sieve in the garden so it doesn't fill up with rain water.

SquinkiesRule · 20/03/2015 17:23

YABU. I live near the beach too, I leave them all outside, most end up in the plant pots. They are hardly dirty having been washed about in the sea. Just collect them up at the end of summer and dump them back on the beach.
I think you've lost your inner child, collecting pebbles and shells is so much fun when your a child.

Shodan · 20/03/2015 17:24

Well the parents aren't usually terribly keen to have their cars filled with stones from the beach, in the past they've said that Oh, we'll just leave that with you

That's just rude. Do what TheFullGammon suggests. And if you don't get the chance or an answer, brightly say you'll leave the pebbles by the car doors so they definitely won't forget them. Or stand by the car door and say 'We'll pop them in now, shall we? So they don't end up being poor, forgotten pebbles that no-one loves?

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