Taking painted rocks on holiday

[Rolle]

I recently went on holiday to Centre Parcs and am still in the facebook group for that particular location. I've seen numerous posts from people about to arrive, showing off the 100+ painted rocks they have prepared and will be hiding around the park during their holiday.

We didn't have room in our car for a spare gnats nadger, I can't imagine the look on DHs face if I went "ah, just the rocks to squeeze in".

I guess on the positive, it's a free activity for others to do at CP, where it feels like if they could charge you for farting whilst on the park they would. And it doesn't do anyone any harm. But I just don't understand the compulsion to paint hundreds of rocks and hide them around. I can be a miserable c**t though, so maybe it's that!

@ThorsBedazzler actually, landfill waste cells are lined and capped, with methane capture and toxic water capture required by law. Otherwise there would be a risk of the methane causing explosions. The rocks themselves are inert.

You are right that landfill does not mean ‘away’ and that we should do our best to avoid putting things in them. However a polluting painted rock will do less damage (but not none!) in a landfill waste cell than it will do in a forest or on a beach.

I agree that all the other sources are harmful (don’t get me started on artificial grass!) but painted rocks are just unnecessary and are easier to limit than say the sadly ubiquitous artificial fibres in clothing (which we should also be doing!). It is possible to care about all of these things.

This.

My DC have painted rocks (that go in our own garden) before but that was very much a deep lockdown thing when I had exhausted every other fun / crafty activity I could think of. So yeah.. painted rocks for me are the act of a desperate parent!

I love seeing painted rocks, but I hadn't thought about the environmental impact of the paint before.

There is some irony is being all holier than thou about not taking painted rocks on holiday.
How are you getting to your holiday destination? Flying, driving?

Isn't there just!!

I've never seen one, but if I did it would put a smile on my face 😁

Its absolutely horrible, I can’t understand why people can’t just leave things that aren’t theirs be! It’s on par with people stacking up rocks to make their mark whilst causing erosion, disrupting ecosystems and changing water courses.

It doesn’t matter either that plastic grass is more polluting, leaving rocks covered with plastics in the environment is contributing to completely unnecessary pollution for absolutely no reason what so ever.

and do you have literally nothing in your life that is 'just because' - ornaments, tat won at the arcades, driving somewhere when you could walk?

Do you think every thing we do should only be entirely necessary.

It was a craze that drove me crazy during lockdown. Usually done by the same ppl who go to climate protest marches in our town. They can't seem to make the connection that painted rocks and twee fairy houses fitted around the woods is a) littering and b) damaging to the environment.
The fundamental thing that bugs me though is that our local woods is full of beautiful plants/trees/bugs/fruit. These ppl have to put something man made in there. Why?!

The irony of whinging about damage to the environment and pollution on the internet 😅

earth.org/how-social-media-habits-are-contributing-to-internet-pollution/

@TheOrigRights no, I don’t purposefully damage the environment. I do spend my time managing nature reserves, SSSIs and National Parks though so know what damage can be done by people taking rocks away and rearranging them. I also know how long rangers spend tidying them up and removing painted rocks.

You just damaged the environment to let us know you don't damage the environment

But I'm not just talking about rocks, I'm talking about everything.
Yes, we're all trying to do our bit, but I suspect there are a lot of people throwing stones (painted or otherwise) from their glass houses.

This has become a 'thing' at the beach near me, normally during school holidays.

Given how much we moan about kid's addictions to screen, the idea of them being creative, being outside and spending time on a (virtually free) activity is brilliant.

When my step-daughter was younger we did this (we used Sharpies rather than paint).

Could never see the point, we have a amusement machine in our arcade, full of water & ducks & many of those rocks have been known to find ways of getting through the vent holes, trouble is , the paint plays havoc with the filter system

Well that solves a mystery. We have been perplexed by finding these shoved in our dry stone wall for a few months. Dh is raging about it - no one who knows anything about DSWing fucks with another mans DSW.

I can fully understand that badbaduncle the last thing you want is this sh*t in your DSW which you have gone to great trouble to construct. Totally thoughtless.

I haven't come across one of these eyesores in the wild yet, but when I do I will happily relocate it to the nearest bin.

@Lanneederniere TBH a major worry now is some child is prob doing the shoving and we don't want any missing fingers if the wall above collapses!
DH will be making one of his helpful informative signs I imagine 😂

badbaduncle You can just hear the performance parenting involved in Mummy explaining to her little spirited darling that the nasty man has now got to come and use his tools to release his or her digits 😂

One's a necessary evil to go on holiday. The other is completely avoidable.

@badbaduncle you just need a polite sign.
It doesn't have to be a big deal.

Love all these environmentalists thundering out about painted pebbled and fairy doors.

The fact that landfill cells are lined and capped doesn't stop all the little painted flecks from gathering together with the other waste amd generating yer old methane and toxic whatsit. Natural degradation of the material in the wild is what I call for.

Of course we could just not paint stones or do anything colourful or interesting. But where would we be without whimsy and joy?

(Obvs not hurtling towards environmental disaaaaaahster caused by those stones)

I am being facetious here.

DD used to love finding and hiding them when she was little, she'd spend hours painting and then hiding them in the park on a Sunday, we'd come across loads of other families doing the same. Some of the ones we found were amazing. :)
Not come across one in a few years now but then that's probably because we don't look for them anymore.
Don't think it's all that different from geocaching.