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!

I actually think it is a nice thing to do. Nice for children painting the stones. Nice for people to find. Nice and cheap activity for families to do. Look for painted stone. My son painted a little stone to put on his Nan's grave, on the back he put love you Nan. It is still there 9 years later.

This. It comes from a deep sense of entitlement and self importance.

” Here I stand in this beautiful place which has been enjoyed for centuries by many thousands of others before me who have just stood or sat, and quietly appreciated and cherished the peace/ the grandeur/ the stunning view, and perhaps taken a picture or made a memory before they leave. But lo! Come closer and see, I will make it a better place for those who follow me by leaving a badly painted rainbow on a stone.Or a smiley face, or an inappropriate feel good slogan. No, no, please don’t thank me, a smile is all the thanks I need.”

I so agree with that, Viques.

I'm in my 50s now, perhaps it's generational? Growing up I would never have been allowed to leave anything anywhere outside. Not just beauty spots but just anywhere. It really wasn't done. Painting things was for at home or to be given to family whether they want them or not!.

I loath the current obnoxious practice of taking/defacing what was perfect and leaving the mess behind for other people to 'admire'.

caringcarer a stone from your son for his nan's grave is really not the same thing at all, it was something between him and his nan.

Mumsnet, 2010 : "But we ARE good parents, we took you to stately homes! "

Mumsnet, 2022: "But we ARE good parents, we painted stones with you, and littered the countryside, look at my Insta! "

A Tribute to your son's nan in a designated space for monuments and tributes isn't the same as littering the countryside.

Yes thank you bitter curmudgeons! I love you all.

Not generational though, I am 30. I wondered if it was a town/country thing.

I have a painted stone I found that had the number for the Samaritans on the back.
Sometimes those "awful" rocks can be a bit of light in the darkness for some of us. I also found one that was just a few rough scrawls of paint.. clearly done by very young child. It made my day.

God, does anybody in this thread find they don't often get invites to parties?! It's rocks, painted by people to either bring a smile to someone else's day, or to feel like they've got a connection to a place they love when they have to leave.

On the scale of harmfulness, its around the same level as leaving lipstick marks on the blarney stone 🙄

If you replicated the blarney stone millions of times over, painted it then scattered them everywhere, your terrible comparison would actually carry some weight.

Imposing your own aesthetic on wild areas and everyone else who visits them is arrogant in the extreme. Plus acrylic paint and varnish, yet more plastic on our beaches and in other wild places. The painted stones do not bring a smile to everyone’s faces, they make most people think oh ffs what is that eyesore doing there.

I'm just here to say that 'spare gnats nadger' is my new favourite phrase 😂

@Needmorelego you don't like rurally and deal with these people do you? I found a woman assisting her child to urinate into a brook in the summer. A brook she has climbed over a wall with a "Private Property no access" displayed and then gone past the sign which said "No trespassing" and on to the brook, which has a sign about 50cm from where she was saying "drinking water, do not foul". The average polite walker has no idea what we have to put up with. She was lucky that our Ram wasn't in the field as she could have been badly hurt. She was furious when told to get off my property. You see her son likes to wee in the 'river', it is 'fun' and I should 'not be so nasty'. Her son was pissing my my drinking water and this was her reaction.
So how many sighs do I need?

"No dogs"
"Keep dogs on a lead"
"No dog fouling"
"Don't steal eggs from the chicken coop"
"no trespassing"
"no pissing in my water supply"
"don't throw your dog poo bags in my field it kills animals"
"Don't park in the gateway blocking access"
"Don't wash in my animals drinking water"
"you will get sick if you eat those mushrooms, they are covered in fox shit"
and now "don't rearrange the drystone wall it can collapse and amputate your finger"

Or people could just stop being massive dicks for once. It's a small minority but they are awful, just awful.

@badbaduncle actually you have a very valid point.
Countryside, town or city people just CANNOT read signs.
I'm in a city...
No parking
No scooters allowed
Recycling only
No fly tipping
No leaving donations outside the charity shop when closed
Etc etc
No one can read these apparently 😕