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 😕

Really? I am 63. At no point in my life did keen gardeners rejoice to see local children entering their gardens and picking their flowers. You are the one who seems to have lost perspective here.

But you are saying that stealing is OK if one can make up some sob story to 'justify' it.

And many responses demonstrate why some children become feral, there's always someone to make up excuses.

The people who are excusing this type of behaviour are the ones who will be in despair about their teenage children running wild with no respect for them or other people in a few years time.

Beat me to it 😁

You said you love having fresh flowers in the garden. Presumably you have paid for these flowers, to give you the joy of having them? If someone just walked in and took every one of them you wouldn't mind? No longer there for you to enjoy? As long as they were giving someone else joy, no matter that they took away yours?

It's alright for you to walk into someone else's garden and take theirs then, obviously?

Angry? I didn't agree with you. That doesn't make me angry with you. I'd be bloody annoyed if I were in the OP's position, admittedly.

Well Mamaofboys you certainly do have a different view to other (normal) people. I suppose you are bringing "your boys" up with your strange viewpoint

This thread shows the need for a Bollocks button.

Picking flowers from someone else's garden? Flowers where you have planted bulbs and waited for them to come up? And when they are in a garden they last for weeks, so to see them all gone because some feral kid picked them all is awful.
Do you have children? If so, do you teach them not to take things that aren't theirs?

Only yesterday my son gave me a daffodil on our walk to school. I thought he had picked it from the public display in the park we walk through, so I reminded him that we must not pick those as they are for everyone to enjoy. He was horrified and said ‘oh no Mummy, I picked it up from the floor!’ He is 6 and knows that we do not pick flowers except daisies. My 3 year old also knows that we don’t do this, and both certainly know to keep out of other people’s front gardens!

If one of my children had done this in your own garden OP I would be mortified, apologise and definitely offer to buy you some new bulbs/even plant them myself!

i often roll my eyes on the teachers' threads on here because i worry that if parents aren't teaching the kids right from wrong then teachers need to try to help mitigate that.

I am so sorry, Teachers. I had no idea that so many people are utterly batshit and teaching their children that trespass and stealing is ok. You all deserve medals and a million quid a year, at least and to only work part time if these are the yobbos you're getting in your classrooms.

I’d love that.

I’d be annoyed too. Years ago we planted some crocus in the front garden to grow through the lawn and saw next doors kids stamping on them when they flowered 😡

Apologies, I completely misunderstood and thought you implied that post was in any shape or form reasonable. Agree, no chance she would do that herself

What brats! Did you tell them off or complain to their parents?

I am gobsmacked at posters on here saying it's OK and each to their own, what joy how sweet to see a child steal and trespass.

I hope they don't have children and if they do, don't live near me!

Do those posters think it's OK what I related in my first post? A 10 year old picking all the flowers on the gravestones in our local churchyard. I presume that's 'sweet' too.

as a few suggested I’m going to have a quiet word with their parents and let them know what’s happened and that I might not be so forgiving if it happens again

That's sensible OP; no need for any nastiness but you can do without her coming back for the tulips, summer flowering stuff and whatever else

The mention of Mothers Day reminded me of our local park though, where if the daffodil flowering coincides with the date every single one disappears

I would have a word with the parents just to ask her not to do it again, I'd feel annoyed by this but wouldn't blame the child.

@wishingplenty In the world I live in, once upon a time not so long ago, any child stealing someone else’s property would have been given a smacked bottom and sent to their rooms. They wouldn’t have had people on an internet forum condoning thwir behaviour and calling them sweet!

At eight? Really? I know many people believe it to be too young, but in England the age of criminal responsibility is ten years old, so from that age on a child can face charges in the juvenile court. The law therefore assumes that long before the age of ten a child should know right from wrong. Not all parents make sure their children are taught this, unfortunately.

Last year my dh strimmed my tulips before they had flowered

My goodness, why on earth did he do that? I'd have been extremely upset. Tulips are lovely.

I don't know why so many posters think the girl picked them for her mum. There are daffodils in her own garden. Why would she decide to go into a neighbour's and pick them?

@CustardySergeant because she knew full well she shouldn’t be picking them I expect and knew she’d get into trouble if she picked her parent’s daffodils.

Precisely. Yet this is apparently so sweet and innocent according to a lot of posters.