AIBU ? Really sad about trip to the beach today.

[Tigertigertigertiger]

I’m fortunate to live a 15 minute drive from a big sandy beach.
Today was hot so after work I went straight to the beach to swim .( it was freezing )

I’m really sad about the experience.

The beach was full of out of control barking dogs, children literally screaming at the top of their voices for no reason ( yes, it’s a theme of mine ) , but the saddest thing of all was the place was strewn with litter.

Plastic bottles, empty crisp bags, discarded takeaways, fag ends, empty drink cans ....
There were loads of bins around . Not that you need a bin to not litter.

I’m genuinely upset by this. Is this considered ok now ? What can be done about it if anything ? I’m properly upset.

UK is the most littered country in Europe.

I've lived in other countries where there are road signs saying Don't Litter, and Respect Your Community and children participate in national Keep Clean days where they pick litter. I can imagine the howls of fury from parents here if that rolled out.

We're an island nation, individuality is valued over community. Littering (ie behaving how you want to the detriment of others) is part of the culture.

Having fun is fine. Screaming is not!
At the sea, screaming means someone is in danger, is in difficulty in the water, needs help.
How hard is it to understand that?
If children run up and down the beach screaming, how would anyone hear those in actual danger?
It's selfish, dangerous behaviour, and parents should stop children from doing that.
I bet they don't have those screaming contests in the car.

We have a lovely beach near us last time I was there people had broken bottles and covered the glass with sand!
So many kids about and adults bare foot

I don't know what's wrong with these people!
I don't get dogs at the beach on a hot day tho it's not fair on them and don't get me started on dog poo not being cleaned up

I don't mind noisy kids or dogs on beaches, but I've voted YANBU because of the litter alone. I just don't get why, when people have visited a place because they like it, they then desecrate it by leaving litter! It makes no sense to me.

I do wonder what decibel is allowed on the beach? . But then I say this when I eat a Greggs sausage roll in the street. The horror. I'll make sure my child is seen but not heard. Preferably not even seen by this thread 😂.

It's shit OP, I don't live near the beach but I do live near the river and countryside and it's terrible what people leave behind, funnily enough they can carry the bottles when they are filled with booze or whatever but they can't seem to manage to carry them home...

As for dogs, since when have people started taking their dogs to the beach during the busy parts of the day? We had dogs growing up and also did day trips to the beach but I never saw dogs there and we would take our own dogs to the beach only in the early morning or evening. More likely to take them to the river/pond to play. If we went to the beach for the day then the dogs stayed at home . Either someone would stay with them (big family) or they had the run of the garden and shelter etc. It wouldn't occur to me to take a dog to the beach at a "people" time.

As for kids shrieking, i'm 50/50. Shouting laughing and enjoying themselves is great, constant shrieking for no reason is crap.

Anyone who begrudges children having fun on a beach after the bloody awful 15 months they’ve had is so unreasonable it’s off the scale.

Off the scale? What about the other concerns of the OP? Sorry to pick on this contribution, but proportion has been lost a bit?

Keep your kids in check so they don't annoy others (despite how hard theirs', their parents' and others' year has been). Pick up your rubbish. It's not hard - empathy for other people.

@PumpkinKlNG

Well they do it round here, they organise litter picking groups and they go all over the area cleaning, rather than just sitting at home complaining about it...

What a terrible attitude. Do you leave litter all over the place and expect other people to pick it up? Are you happy that lots of your council tax goes towards cleaning up people’s litter instead of lots of other stuff?

People should take their rubbish home. It’s antisocial, nasty, dreadful for the planet, and just plain wrong.

No I don’t, I just don’t get complaining about it but not doing anything about it then 🙄

I'd kill for a swim in the sea. You're very fortunate to be so close.

I agree with you about the individualism, but beg to differ on the Europe thing. Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal are all tidier than the U.K. - but honestly if you’ve ever seen the litter and dog poo around the place in France you’d not say the U.K. is the worst! Spanish cities too are not exactly tidy.

Have the council definitely supplied a lot of bins? When people are struggling with kids, dogs and beach kit, it’s easy to see why they might leave their litter behind (although totally unacceptable).

Barry Island?

I actually feel so sad that children can't even make noise on the beach. It's been a shit year for everyone but it's been even harder on them

I'm on holiday in Denmark. Yesterday evening I took a walk on the beach, it had been busy in the day though not quite Brighton beach standard. Not a scrap of litter, nothing at all, just a few sandcastles.

Yanbu over the litter, of course, but acting like because you live close it’s YOUR beach and kids and dogs shouldn’t be there is ridiculous

it may not look great but why dont councils put skips on the beach,im sure they could run a competition to make them look more appealing
and would hold so much more and could be empties daily

sorry havent read all sosorry if a repeat

i live in Bournemouth and the rubbish is huge,,here some bins are to small and some cant be arsed to walk to the prom,those people wont take their rubbish home but may get the kids to deposit it in a closed skip or similar

theprojectsworld.com/world-news/bournemouth-beach-left-covered-in-rubbish-and-empty-booze-bottles-after-thousands-swarm-site-sparking-major-incident/

What always gets me is the lack of bins near beaches, I am sure this would reduce the amount of rubbish. Kids should be able to run around and enjoy themselves but I think dogs should be restricted.

Bananalanacake

Denmark is the country we should aspire to be like in terms of their attitude to the environment. Beautiful country.

i dont agree with dogs on the beach

seriously why would you want to take a dog on a hot crowded beach

Well this is a pare ting site, how many of those people leaving litter behind where parents with kids or were adults clearly not raised properly to respect their environments

Maybe there should be a long hard look at how children are being raised instead, appalling that they grow up not to respect the environment

There is just no excuse really.

I've started avoiding places like that for those reasons, the litter is unnecessary, if they can bring it they can bring it home, dogs should be on leads and cleaned up after (I have dogs and wouldn't dream of bringing them to a busy beach), I don't understand why children are so much noisier that they used to be, I loved beach days as a child and as an adult when my own children were young but there wasn't the screaming and squealing that happens today. I cringe when I hear it because it's just for attention I think and not a sign that the children are enjoying themselves.

@DGFB

Yanbu over the litter, of course, but acting like because you live close it’s YOUR beach and kids and dogs shouldn’t be there is ridiculous

not sure where you get that impression .. OP's litter concerns are valid regardless of her mileage in relation to the beach

You're not being unreasonable about the litter, but it's a beach so all the rest is to be expected. If you live 15 mins from the coast I'm sure there must be a less well known spot for you to swim.

agree i live in Bournemouth and dont bother with the beach in the summer months it make me feel ick