Kids chalking on pavement

[Ritascornershop]

My best friend lives in a little estate of row houses with a grassed area in the centre and pavement around the edge with paths off to each of their houses.

Her idiot ex-partner lives with her (for the most part never paying rent or contributing to food and bills). They are just past 50 and never had kids.

The neighbours’ kids are aged around 5-6 and have taken to drawing pictures in chalk on the pavement; animals, houses, and hopscotch squares. They do this in front of a number of houses. My friend’s idiot ex partner has been hosing it off and telling the kids not to do it (& given how often she tells me he shouts about other things I suspect he’s not telling them nicely).

I told her I thought he was mean to hose away their harmless drawings, that she used to chalk draw when she was little, that he fancies himself an artist, and that I think he’s being awful. AIBU?

You have to be one objectionable sod to go to the bother of hosing kids’ chalk drawings off the pavement. Yanbu.

He needs to stay in more.

He sounds like a miserable arse who'd be finding something else to moan about if it wasn't the chalk.
Imagine being so unpleasant you'd want to be mean to young children who are harmlessly having fun.

It's chalk. It washes off the next time it rains! He's a loser.

This thread shouts privilege. I grew up on the 13th floor of a block of flats. There was no garden to do it in. Playing in your garden doesn’t allow neighbourhood kids to join in ffs. People begin to wonder why children have no social or coping skills. It’s literally because we bring them inside and do everything behind closed doors. Playing hopscotch on the pavement was a highlight. Like @Chouetted whenever I see it I always have a go.

OP your friend’s Ex-p is not a very nice man. Sounds like nothing will change that.

I live in a terraced street and many of the houses have been extended meaning they have no outside space at the back so all the kids play out the front in the street.
They chalk on the pavements and play football in the street (sometimes balls hit our cars or front doors) but no-one complains. They are kids and you'd have to be pretty joyless to prevent kids having some fun.
(My kids are too old to play in the street so I'm not biased)

He's a dickhead. It's chalk ffs

but was it the driveway?

Chalk on the pavement has had a massive return here since lockdown. I love it. It's chalk. Any adult with an issue with it is just being ridiculous

As long as they're only doing it outside other people's houses that don't mind then it's fine. Otherwise the parents should steer them away from doing it outside someone's house who doesn't want it. Much in the same way he can only complain about what is directly outside his if no one else minds he shouldn't be hosing the whole pavement.
I'm not against it personally but I'd respect someone else's wishes.

@PaulaTrilloe

Around here we have people writing on the pavement in chalk pointing out the wild flowers names

This is illegal, unless they are licenced. I'd love to do it, but it really isn't allowed

Chalking on pavements is against the law.

Personally, I don't have a problem with it, but anyone who objects to having it in their shared area does have a right for it not to happen

It happens here, I don't think anyone is bothered

@Tombero ‘chalk wilies’ 😆

Being mean to little kids is really crossing a line and I didn’t think sugar-coating it would help

Crossing a line that years of cocklodging and causing your friend problems doesn't cross?

Its chalk. Kids have been doing this as long as chalk and charcoal have been around. Kids take it for granted they need to draw it out afresh every day. Some people don't like it and hose it down, the majority don't care either way.

@MidnightMeltdown

Oh wow, I'm amazed that people think it's ok to allow kids to do this. In your own garden maybe, but not in the streets. I remember doing similar with my friends when I was around the age of 6 or 7. When our parents found out, they were all really angry. We were all sent out with scrubbing brushes and buckets and made to scrub it all off!

Maybe it will wash off in the rain, but that's not really the point. Kids should be taught that it's not ok to graffiti in the streets.

Graffiti the streets? Kids' chalk games?

Where did you grow up, next to the Bucket residence??

I voted yabu as I think it's nothing to do with you. ( Yes, I know she asked, but it sounds more like you don't like her partner).
The chalk doesn't bother me.

Of course children should be allowed to chalk on the pavement- what harm is there? I'm baffled at people being 'angry' with children over this- how sad for them! The children are allowed to do this in the playground at school during break times- keeps them busy for ages!

@MidnightMeltdown

Oh wow, I'm amazed that people think it's ok to allow kids to do this. In your own garden maybe, but not in the streets. I remember doing similar with my friends when I was around the age of 6 or 7. When our parents found out, they were all really angry. We were all sent out with scrubbing brushes and buckets and made to scrub it all off!

Maybe it will wash off in the rain, but that's not really the point. Kids should be taught that it's not ok to graffiti in the streets.

Graffiti!??!? Get a life.

Start a queue outside his house having chalked 'Candlelit Suppers Served Here' on the pavement.

I like to see children chalking on the street. When I was a child in the 60s we used to find chalk in the earth in the gardens (Berkshire) and draw with it. It washes away when it rains anyway, people who object so strongly are really unpleasant imo. It's not anti-social like spray paint graffiti.

It may make the road look undesirable and put off potential buyers.

That's hardly the idiot ex's problem as he doesn't own the house. My feeling is that if a potential buyer is put off by that I'm happy, as they would be people I wouldn't want to inflict on my nice neighbours.

@Ritascornershop

And, as someone asked, her ex is living with because he moved out, didn’t like supporting himself, spun her a sob story that it would be short term, a year later he’s firmly back in the spare room. I think he’s her life project.

Oh dear. Can't she be persuaded to get him out of her life? It sounds as if it would improve her life in a big way.

Plus the longer he's there the more danger there is that he will try to claim some sort of legal interest in the house.

Neither is unreasonable, it's pretty harmless for kids to do it but really they shouldn't on public footpaths. I personally never have seen kids doing it in the U.K. (it was common in the USA when I lived there)

@Plumtree391

I honestly don't know. Nobody chalks on the pavement where I live, neither do children play at the front of their houses, only in the back gardens.

It may make the road look undesirable and put off potential buyers. The children's parents ought to bring them indoors frankly.

Whatever, he must have his reasons and you don't live there, so why worry? It isn't your problem.

If I was viewing a house and the road had chalk drawings on, I would feel the exact opposite! It would make me think it was a child friendly neighbourhood and one where my children could actually play out with other children. A rarity in my area and one of the reasons we want to escape it.

@MidnightMeltdown

Oh wow, I'm amazed that people think it's ok to allow kids to do this. In your own garden maybe, but not in the streets. I remember doing similar with my friends when I was around the age of 6 or 7. When our parents found out, they were all really angry. We were all sent out with scrubbing brushes and buckets and made to scrub it all off!

Maybe it will wash off in the rain, but that's not really the point. Kids should be taught that it's not ok to graffiti in the streets.

Ha ha. Oh wait, you’re serious? You’ve got a hole where your soul should be.