Neighbour’s kid picked my daffodils

[Lucylooloo2]

Just that really, had lots of notifications of movement on the doorbell camera and lo and behold a kid (8ish years old) from a few houses down with a bunch of daffodils in her hand.

Checked mine in my front garden when I got home and Every. Single. One. has been taken.

I’m just really sad tbh. Know there are much bigger problems in the world but they were a little spark of joy for me 😕

Last year my dh strimmed my tulips before they had flowered and this year a workman fitting an ev charger stood on both the daffodils and tulips and flattened them, they are perking up again but some stems were snapped 🤬. Yanbu.

Are you nuts? Not sweet. Vandalism.

I guess it's easy to say when it's not your property that's been nicked.

Sorry but that is not sweet. I would definitely go and say something to mum and/or dad. They need to teach their daughter to have respect for others' property

If a child doesn't know by 8 that this is wrong, I would bypass the parents and speak sharply to the child myself.

Are you mad? She stole from someone's garden. And they'll be dead by Mother's Day.

Not that young a child. Certainly old enough to know better especially if her parents had bothered to teach her. Even worse that there are daffodils in the child's own garden but she purposely chose not to pick those.

The OTT responses are the crazies saying "oh that's sweet"

And no doubt the child will come back and pick them again, unless someone has told her it's wrong to pick flowers from other people's gardens by then.

Whatever is eating your daffodils, it's not woodlice. They only eat dead plant material, not living flowers. They aren't little buggers, they're a vital part of the composting system of breaking down old leaves and twigs into soil.

FWIW, it's probably slugs/snails going for the daffodils. Last year was terrible for this, I was relieved to find out it wasn't just mine that had been decimated.

I'd be utterly gutted if some undisciplined kid came uninvited into my garden and stole my flowers and I'd be having a word with the parents for sure. A lot of my daffodils are particular varieties I've scoured the internet for (and cost exponentially more than "cheap as chips" bunches of daffs from the supermarket to boot!) so I'd be deeply pissed off to have them snaffled.

There's another thread about people's bad behaviour in public these days and this thread just proves that.

OP you need to have a word with her parents and tell them she's stolen from your garden.

Stealing is sweet. OP clearly doesn't have enough to worry about etc. Some posters will excuse absolutely anything if it's done by a child. It's OK to assume the child did not know but how will she learn if she is not told. There is no need for an angry showdown but the child needs to know it's not OK.

The flowers were on private property. As an 8 year old I knew you did not go into another person's garden and pick their flowers. I knew this because my parents told me it was wrong and the flowers did not belong to me. Presumably I had been told this because at some point I had tried.

The suggestion that a child goes and knocks on random strangers doors to ask for permission to pick flowers is insane. Fine until someone with bad intentions tells them to come to the back garden where they have more/better flowers. What are we teaching children now? Don't speak to strangers unless you want to pick flowers from their garden?

There was a thread on here a few months ago where the OP’s MIL had mown their front “wildflower “ garden. MIL assumed they were weeds ( they possibly were to be fair)!!
The advice was to essentially go low contact with MIL.
This child is 8. Even if done gently, it should be explained to them that it is stealing. Likewise flowers in a public place are there for everyone to enjoy.
Surely one explains this concept to toddlers about protection of nature.

The OP doesn't have to come over as angry but she should let the child know how upset she is.

I just think daffodils are so bright and striking and signs of spring... to be left with a just green front garden is such a shame.

And FWIW my DCs when they were 8 would not have had the nerve to wander into someone's garden and pick flowers!

Hi OP!

Can I apologise on the child's behalf please? As I did the same at a similar age! My mother was not impressed!

Also agree that this is not sweet at all. Especially since you’ve said they have daffodils in their OWN GARDEN. I’d be absolutely furious!

Bloody hell

Of course it doesn't make it ok. It was a comment on how much awful behaviour is around these days. I had 3 little shrubs dug out of my front garden over a weekend. I was furious but people are just greedy and selfish. I have given up now.

Uh huh. So why didn’t she pick the daffodils in her own front garden?

It’s more than thoughtless to enter someone’s private property and strip every single one of their daffodils!

if they aren't old enough to understand they can't just pick any flowers that they want to then they aren't old enough to be out on their own.

8 years of age?
Their own garden full of them?
I would be very very upset.

Have you a local community policeman that can call on your behalf?

I wouldn't engage directly with them unless you are very sure as to the type of people they are.

OP, I can't imagine any person not being very upset at this. Daffodils are here so briefly.

We live somewhere we get a lot of camper vans visiting especially from March onwards. We have a very long drive and the driveway and the gates to our house have daffodils on the verges, all planted lovingly by my parents when they were alive. There’s a tree just inside our gates that’s surrounded by snowdrops, crocus, daffodils and tulips, we called it the fairy circle when we were younger. Every bloody year vans stop, every bloody year people think it’s ok to let their little cherubs pick the flowers, they’ve opened the gates at the bottom of our drive before or have climbed the walls to get to the flowers. One family with 3 children picked every flower around the fairy circle last year which was caught on CCTV. It’s infuriating. This year I’m letting the dogs roam, let’s see how they like barking slobbery labs bound towards them.

You need to have a firm word with the parents OP especially as this child never touched the flowers in her own garden.

Elsewhere, I told the story of how a boy handed me daffodils for my classroom. I displayed them - and then found out he'd picked them at the local cemetery. (I found out because he told me.)

I explained that he shouldn't do that. The thing is that - in his case - there was not only bad parenting, but an intellectual disability. However, it didn't happen again.

Thank you! Well put.

I would be putting a sign up, regarding trespassing, private property and to beware of the dogs.
Unsupervised child picking flowers once can be dealt with by talking to the parents, but actively stopping and picking all your flowers with the adults is disgraceful.