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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Neighbour’s kid picked my daffodils

809 replies

Lucylooloo2 · 21/03/2025 22:48

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 😕

OP posts:
Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 22/03/2025 12:47

JudgeJ · 22/03/2025 12:05

This thread shows the need for a Bollocks button.

I was thinking this! The existing buttons don't often match what I think. I very frequently need buttons that indicate:

  • You're having a laugh!
  • Get a grip
  • FFS RTFT! This has been said a dozen times already.
  • Yeah, right
  • Use paragraphs and then I might read this
Vodkamummy · 22/03/2025 12:58

Whoops! I clicked you are being unreasonable by accident 😬😆 I don't think you are being unreasonable to be a little deflated having that little spark of joy vanish like that. Tbf if it had been a couple, no biggie, but all of them, yeah I'd be a bit sad too.

Killjoy124 · 22/03/2025 12:59

Saw my own little girl eyeing up a neighbors daffodils earlier this week and warned her they are already being loved and to please do not disturb them. We get to see them every day walking to school now, that's nice enough surely

IpsyUpsyDaisyDoos · 22/03/2025 13:01

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 22/03/2025 12:27

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.

My DH did the first strim of the year for the first time after we'd moved house a few years back. He didn't realise the flowers starting to show in the border were flowers and not long grass, down they went.

I was disappointed but accidents happen.

cate16 · 22/03/2025 13:02

this happened to me a few years ago- a young boy picked them all.
Then, when I went out in the car a little later I saw all my daffs, the young boy had picked them to put on a spot in the road where a boy had died crossing a the year before. I was more than happy they had gone to a good place.

CustardySergeant · 22/03/2025 13:03

Vodkamummy · Today 12:58 "Whoops! I clicked you are being unreasonable by accident"

You can change your vote. Just click the other option.

thankyounextplease · 22/03/2025 13:03

Lucylooloo2 · 21/03/2025 22:57

Thanks all - I don’t feel so silly about feeling so sad about it now.

I am also slight annoyed about it because they literally have their own daffodils in their front garden but they’ve been unharmed!

I would take the same number from their garden, then knock on their door holding them and explain why, but then I'm petty like that.

thankyounextplease · 22/03/2025 13:04

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 22/03/2025 12:47

I was thinking this! The existing buttons don't often match what I think. I very frequently need buttons that indicate:

  • You're having a laugh!
  • Get a grip
  • FFS RTFT! This has been said a dozen times already.
  • Yeah, right
  • Use paragraphs and then I might read this

that would be amazing, especially the last one.

thesoundofwildgeese · 22/03/2025 13:08

Saphire123 · 21/03/2025 22:57

This /

Kids will be kids, but they have to learn to respect others property.

I agree. We have a new estate in our village which is a mixture of private ownership, shared ownership and housing association properties. The developers planted daffodil bulbs around a sculpture within the grounds of the development.

Last year, the flowering daffodils were trampled on and most of them were pulled up and the bulbs scattered around.

There is also a great deal of litter scattered about - soft drinks bottles, packaging, bits of broken plastic toys. Residents must be aware that their kids are leaving litter on the paths and grass and shrubby areas rather than bringing it home for disposal, but they evidently don't care and it is spoiling a nice estate for everyone who lives there.

Children need to be taught from a very early age that you don't leave litter.

They also need to be taught that you don't pull the heads of flowers, or trample on them or pull them up by the roots or pick plants from other people's gardens (and it's another 9 days until Mothering Sunday).

I was brought up in a small village that regularly won the county's tidiest village competition, We had it drummed into us at home that you don't leave litter. We also had it drummed into us at junior school and at the end of playtimes we were all expected to pick up any sweet wrappings and we weren't let back into classrooms until the playground was tidy.

It is parents' responsibility to teach their children not to spoil the environment for everyone else.

If I was the OP and I knew which neighbour the child belongs to, I would have a quiet word with the parents. I might take round a pot of bulbs for the child to look after at home and encourage a love of gardening.

godmum56 · 22/03/2025 13:15

Alittlewordinyourear · 22/03/2025 11:03

I can understand a child seeing the pretty flowers and wanting to pick them. I cannot understand why a child thinks it’s ok to go into someone else’s garden to steal them. Particularly not ok when she has flowers in her own garden but didn’t pick them

I keep saying the same thing. If a child is old enough to be out alone they are old enough to know not to take flowers that don't belong to them.

godmum56 · 22/03/2025 13:16

thankyounextplease · 22/03/2025 13:03

I would take the same number from their garden, then knock on their door holding them and explain why, but then I'm petty like that.

yup this!

CustardySergeant · 22/03/2025 13:18

thesoundofwildgeese · Today 13:08 "If I was the OP and I knew which neighbour the child belongs to, I would have a quiet word with the parents. I might take round a pot of bulbs for the child to look after at home and encourage a love of gardening."

The girl already lives in a house with a garden full of daffodils! Why reward theft?

fitzwilliamdarcy · 22/03/2025 13:19

Mamofboys5972 · 21/03/2025 22:51

I also love having fresh flowers in the garden, especially daffodils. However, that little spark of joy they bring you? They clearly also spark that in others 🥰 maybe that little girl picked them for her mam for mothers day! Super sweet x

Jesus Christ.

Katemax82 · 22/03/2025 13:20

Aliceglass · 21/03/2025 22:54

Im sorry. I’d be annoyed too. Kids don’t think the same as adults though. When I was 5 I picked all the petals off a neighbours rose bush for confetti… 🙈

I have a vivid memory of being bollocked by a neighbour for picking their flowers when I was 3

Alliod40 · 22/03/2025 13:20

Im sorry Id be fuming,I love daffodils and I grow them as they represent my Mam who died suddenly as they were her favourite flower,Id be over after her parents and telling them to have a word,you cant ust go around picking flowers out of peoples gardens

JitterbugFairy · 22/03/2025 13:20

Sminty2 · 21/03/2025 22:53

I know you loved them and feel sad, I would too but maybe she wanted to give them to her mum or gran and couldn’t afford flowers.
Not saying it’s right to steal but thinking that they may have been picked for a good reason, might take the sting out a little.

Then they should have asked first.

SammyScrounge · 22/03/2025 13:23

Lucylooloo2 · 21/03/2025 22:57

Thanks all - I don’t feel so silly about feeling so sad about it now.

I am also slight annoyed about it because they literally have their own daffodils in their front garden but they’ve been unharmed!

If you Google 'Edinburgh Castle daffodils' you'll get loads of pictures of thousands of daffodils sweeping down from the Castle Rock. It's a spectacular display. Might lift your spirits to see them.

ZoeCM · 22/03/2025 13:31

Cancelthebreak · 22/03/2025 12:03

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.

"Her crime spree began at the age of eight, when she picked daffodils from her neighbour's garden! All downhill from there..."

BunnyLake · 22/03/2025 13:33

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 22/03/2025 12:23

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.

It depends. If there was a gate and boundary then definitely not but if it was like an open area frontage I might have picked a flower or two for my mum. I’m not saying I would have but maybe in a moment of thoughtlessness I might have. I was a very well behaved child but sometimes there can be moments of lapsed judgement (as seen many times on MN by adults).

Patterncarmen · 22/03/2025 13:35

Iwiicit · 21/03/2025 23:01

Mmm, my brother picked a huge bunch of daffodils from the council flowerbed on the corner of our street. He came home so thrilled to give them to my mum but she went ballistic and really told him off. I remember feeling quite sorry for him, but - he was only five and it wasn't a private garden.
Eight is usually old enough to know better and definitely if it's flowers in a garden. I think I would have a quiet and calm word with parents asking her not to do it again, but I wouldn't be angry.

Yes, I might gently speak to the parents of the child. OP, I’m sorry about your garden.

x2boys · 22/03/2025 13:36

Sminty2 · 21/03/2025 22:53

I know you loved them and feel sad, I would too but maybe she wanted to give them to her mum or gran and couldn’t afford flowers.
Not saying it’s right to steal but thinking that they may have been picked for a good reason, might take the sting out a little.

You csn get them for a quid in the supermarket.

CustardySergeant · 22/03/2025 13:39

x2boys · 22/03/2025 13:36

You csn get them for a quid in the supermarket.

Not only that, but her own garden was full of daffodils, yet she picked the OP's.

ClaredeBear · 22/03/2025 13:40

Hwi · 22/03/2025 11:40

Aww, and when your neighbours' kids steal your earrings from the trinket dish (when unfortunately the window was left open) and the little Borstal shites got in, maybe you can give them your pendant as well, so next year they will have a set? Are you seriously proposing to reward ASBO behaviour? I hope this is acing in in terms of sarcasm on your part and I am just taking everything at face value again?

Your aggressive tone is an extreme overreaction to my suggestion. Apparently these kids are around 8 years of age, so I’d be inclined to kill that sort of behaviour with kindness.

TheWombatleague · 22/03/2025 13:41

Send them an "Every time you pick a daffodil a family of bees starves to death" card?

Extiainoiapeial · 22/03/2025 13:42

x2boys · 22/03/2025 13:36

You csn get them for a quid in the supermarket.

Supermarket daffs last a few days. Ones planted in the ground last weeks. It's hardly the same

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