Little kids chalking on pavement - is this vandalism?!

[Karlwho]

Kids and their pals are out on the green in front of my house playing. Eldest kids in the group are eight, youngest is six. We live in a quiet little close, I'm hovering around front porch/livingroom window keeping an eye on them (but I'm not out every minute 'what you doing?!' If you get what I mean). Basically i can see them.
Anyway, my kids have got a big buc ket of pavement chalk, the gang aredoodl ing all over my path and house (looks fabulous, budding artists), and they then venture onto the PUBLIC path outside the garden.
Neighbour opposite comes to my door 'I don't know why your children are drawing over my path'. I went and checked that they weren't on HER path, and to make sure they werent drawing the poo emoji/getting creative with curse words etc. They were drawing flowers and boxes. Not in her property. On pathways.
Have I missed something?! Is this not allowed? she was at my door for a good ten minutes going on, and then went to the group of kids to tell them to stay over on 'my side' and not to go near her home.
dont really know if this is an aibu lol

Give her the episode of bing when he does a chalk drawing and how upset it makes a child when it washes away

I remember a story about this from last summer in my local paper. The police actually went out and spoke to the kids and their parents because an old woman had complained about vandalism. They told them they were not allowed to chalk on the public footpaths. This is Scotland. Guaranteed we don't go a week without rain so it washes off!!! But the police still decided to make a big deal out of it!

You need to apologise profusely to her and immediately throw a huge bucket of icy-cold water all over the path to clean up the disgusting vandalism.

Don't forget to apologise for the fact that, in your haste to put things right ASAP, you 'accidentally' drench her full-on in the face before she has a chance to move out of the way

Miserable twit.

She sounds like a miserable old bag. I'm sure it'll rain soon and the chalk drawings will wash off so who cares? Not as if they got a permanent marker to write all over her fence or garage door or something.

Tell her to find something useful to do with her time rather than trying to make everyone around her as miserable as she is.

It’s absolutely fine to do that. We live in quite a lah di dah private road and the kids here do it sometimes. I think it’s nice to see them outside doing something so innocent together and I’m always sad when it washes away.

Did your neighbour not grow up in the U.K. OP? Perhaps she doesn’t realise it will wash away?

Your neighbour is an idiot.

My dc do this all the time. Last summer they did it just before it didn’t rain for 3 months! I hoses it off after 2-3 weeks. I’d carry on, but tell them to leave a stand-off zone around grumpy neighbour’s house!

Not vandalism at all! Nothing damaged, brightens the pavement up and lovely to see! And grown-ups used to do it It's a good 20 years ago, but we had an elderly friend who was helping at an upcoming community jumble sale. We were free, and I like a jumble, so we went along. As we got nearer to the community centre, there was our friend, busy chalking the pavement - 'Jumble Sale on now!' It reminded me of the suffragettes chalking the pavements with ' Votes for Women!'

It sounds as if your neighbour was already annoyed about something, and used this as an excuse to have a go at you. Perhaps your children have been getting on her nerves for a while....the noise, whatever. Some people are sensitive about noise, for instance.

I think it's best to say calmly - "It is just chalk that washes away in the rain. It is not actually on your path. Is this really the issue or is there something else that's bothering you?"

I don't believe that you should be making adjustments to your behaviour unless she does actually have a point. If it's not on her path it's fine. If her complaint is really about something else, how reasonable is she being? If she has a point, then make adjustments. But if you change your behaviour when she is the one being unreasonable, expect to hear your door knocking quite often - she will feel empowered to complain about more things and expect you to keep accommodating her.

I had this. My son when he was 10 and his friends drew a penis on the pavement . One resident went mental saying he must have ‘daddy issues’ and would be in ‘belmarsh one day’ complete over reaction and she was ridiculed for it on the local residents page. Hardly vandalism and this individual must have led a very sheltered life is all I can say

My neighbourhood kids do this a lot - i personally think it looks shite and it takes ages to get washed/worn off. However, they aren't doing anything wrong and they aren't doing any damage so I live with it, just becasue we have different tastes, doesn't make mine right (though of course it is!

I have to admit I don't particularly like it when the kids do it on the public pavement where I live. I don't think it is charming and I don't think brightens the road up. But I wouldn´ t complain about it either. I think you have to accept when you live in close proximity with other people sometimes things aren't going to be exactly as you like!

Your neighbours an arse. Plus she doesn't own the bit of pavement in front of her home. I'd go and scribble on it myself if she makes any more fuss

As an aside, I live very near to parliament square which is currently closed to traffic by protesters. The protesters have spent some of the day drawing massive chalk pictures on the actual roads around parliament square. The police stood right next to them have not told them off!

This sparked off a dim and distant memory of my law studies. Chalk or washable paint on property can actually constitute criminal damage! There's case law to prove it! Of course the chance of this being taken to court against children is slimmer than slim but if someone is sufficiently pissed off to call the police they could come and have a word!

I have never seen children drawing with pavement chalk. It's sounds really sweet and innocent in a 1950s kind of way. Growing up the only pavement decoration I saw was done by adults painting kerbstones with indelible paint in red white and blue, or green white and orange, depending on area. I imagine anyone objecting would have been roundly told to fuck off and had bricks through their windows that night.

Yes, the neighbour is British, and she did know it was chalk. It's all gone now lol, torrential rain here so a blank canvas (my path) for tomorrow. The whole thing is daft, bu uuuuuut for the sake of neighbourly relations, I'll keep my kids away from her house.
I guess I'll just chalk this up as experience.

We used to "draw" by skooshing water from old washing up bottles - we did pictures and writing and it obviously dries leaving a blank canvas again. Maybe one to try for next time? - she cant be unhappy about water on the pavement!

OP, your kids sound great. Especially if they would chalk a poo emoji on the pavement. Childish I know but funny.

whitehalleve exactly. It belongs to the Council, but I know they won't even bother to turn up + wash it off (I work for one). Would be a waste of tax payer's money.

Hopscotch anyone?

Hope you gave her a good head tilt and advised her to have a nice lie down.

Innocent enough - maybe she doesn't want a gaggle of kids (with associated noise, mess, etc) outside her home as a habit and wants them outside their parents houses instead.

There must be something wrong with me because I hate it. I allow it on our driveway but no further and then wash it off when finished. Even that makes me a bit twitchy. Perhaps I need to learn to loosen up.

It's not vandalism! It's lovely. What a horrible misery guts.