AIBU snowmen vandalism?

[hooochycoo]

hmm.... what does mumsnet jury think.

Is it ok or not to destroy snowmen/snow sculptures? are they fair game in the park and public space? but safe in gardens? What's the snowetiquette here?

Those in public places are unprotectable sadly, much as sandcastles are, but nobody should be trespassing on your land for snowmanocide or any other purpose!

Why would anybody want to smash up somebody else's snow creation ?

Well if one of my dc destroyed a snowman or sculpture I'd be very disappointed and pissed off.

What's the need to do that?

trespassing on private properties is never acceptable, so garden snowmen should be safe even if they are not in RL

I don't understand why anyone would like to destroy snowmen in parks, I suppose they are fair game but it's petty and not very bright to enjoy smashing them. Sadly many people are idiots.

It's happened outside our home SIX times in the last three days - middle day I didn't build one. First day, got hit three times - head kicked off and smashed, and I kept going out to rebuild his head so my kids didn't see the damage. Yesterday's snowman got his head smashed off last night, I rebuilt so my kids didn't see, and again he got smashed this morning and again later. Gutted. So cruel - it's obvious kids live in my house.
We don't have a proper front garden (or a back garden), and we live in a cul-de-sac with a communal drive area, but there is a walk-way that is a short-cut for pedestrians. I'd built him right outside our front door.

Oh, and someone had also made a penis and balls on him the first day, which I did manage to remove before my kids saw.

You have to be bit of an arsehole to destroy a snowman. This poem's good though:

Stealing by Carol Ann Duffy

The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman.
Midnight. He looked magnificent; a tall, white mute
beneath the winter moon. I wanted him, a mate
with a mind as cold as the slice of ice
within my own brain.

I started with the head.
Better off dead than giving in, not taking
what you want. He weighed a ton; his torso,
frozen stiff, hugged to my chest, a fierce chill
piercing my gut. Part of the thrill was knowing
that children would cry in the morning. Life's tough.

Sometimes I steal things I don't need. I joy-ride cars
to nowhere, break into houses just to have a look.
I'm a mucky ghost, leave a mess, maybe pinch a camera.
I watch my gloved hand twisting the doorknob.
A stranger's bedroom. Mirrors. I sigh like this - Aah.

It took some time. Reassembled in the yard,
he didn't look the same. I took a run
and booted him. Again. Again. My breath ripped out
in rags. It seems daft now. Then I was standing
alone among lumps of snow, sick of the world.

Boredom. Mostly I'm so bored I could eat myself.
One time, I stole a guitar and thought I might
learn to play. I nicked a bust of Shakespeare once,
flogged it, but the snowman was the strangest.
You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?

Does anyone remember that story from a few years ago where a woman called the police because someone had stolen her snowman from the front garden?

my kids and Imade one in our local park. We nipped home for the loo ( were away 10 mins) and returned to find some of their local friends smashing it up ( who had seen us building it). I told them off and made them help rebuild it. Their mum's had watched the whole thing and implied that I was being a bit precious. ended up feeling a bit silly.

Reminds me of Carol Ann Duffy’s poem:
Stealing
The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman.
Midnight. He looked magnificent; a tall, white mute
beneath the winter moon. I wanted him, a mate
with a mind as cold as the slice of ice
within my own brain. I started with the head.

Better off dead than giving in, not taking
what you want. He weighed a ton; his torso,
frozen stiff, hugged to my chest, a fierce chill
piercing my gut. Part of the thrill was knowing
that children would cry in the morning. Life's tough.

Sometimes I steal things I don't need. I joy-ride cars
to nowhere, break into houses just to have a look.
I'm a mucky ghost, leave a mess, maybe pinch a camera.
I watch my gloved hand twisting the doorknob.
A stranger's bedroom. Mirrors. I sigh like this - Aah.

It took some time. Reassembled in the yard,
he didn't look the same. I took a run
and booted him. Again. Again. My breath ripped out
in rags. It seems daft now. Then I was standing
alone among lumps of snow, sick of the world.

Boredom. Mostly I'm so bored I could eat myself.
One time, I stole a guitar and thought I might
learn to play. I nicked a bust of Shakespeare once,
flogged it, but the snowman was the strangest.
You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?

Destroying things other people have made is never ok in my book, no matter where they are. It's completely alien to me that you would think this was OK! If you want to smash a snowman, make one yourself!

DS desperately wanted to jump on some snowmen in the park earlier. I get it - he's 5, the idea of pushing over something bigger than him is very exciting. He hasn't seen snow before so jumping on big piles of snow and flattening them is also very exciting.

I didn't let him because I pointed out the kids who made them might still be there and would be sad. Snowmen should last till they melt.

We came back later and someone else had trashed them. I let him jump on one of the pieces that seemed fairly unrescuable and he had a lot of fun breaking it down. We left the bits that looked like they could be restacked & repaired with a bit of effort.

Cross post echt!
It’s a good poem though.

Good for you OP. at the mums condoning small-minded, gratuitously destructive behaviour.

You could follow this woman's lead ...

that's a great poem thank you

We saw a snowman in the park today that had obviously taken someone a long time to build. At which point a boy about 9 years old entered the park and said loudly to his friend "what me drop kick it" and ran over to it and destroyed it, hitting it with sticks and stamping on it whilst yelling "look at me".... have to confess I judged him along with his mother who just watched him do it and said nothing 🙈 Possibly precious but definitely not something I'll be encouraging my DS to do!

I've never seen any destroyed round here, but we did have a snowman pinched from our garden when dd1 was about 2yo. It had a tin for a hat and a ragged for a scarf.
They'd used a shovel to remove it and left a clean square where it had been taken
The only thing I could think of was some one thought it was funny to fill someone's garden with them or something. Really odd-it wasn't particularly big and about as good as you'd expect from a 2yo making it.

I also think you'd have to be a special sort of twat to destroy someone else's snowman, especially one which has been clearly built by a child.

In countries that have a lot of snow is there an accepted etiquette?

after we rebuilt the snowman, we went away again, came back to the park later and it had been totally smashed up.

this has happened everyday. the snowmen that the kids build always get smashed up.

i don't get it personally but am worried that i'm in the minority and being a bit of a dick to be surprised and disappointed . so thought i'd check

No. You are not.
It's nasty. I've never come across it before.

OP. If isn't nice but it will happen if in a public place unfortunately. Do you not have a private back garden to make your creations with your children? If not then have fun making them but teach your DC that these things will likely happen... take pics for memory's x

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