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 😕

and if the child is taught not to steal that will get the child better karma

I would be furious OP.
The daffodils in my garden come from my late grandmother's house. If anyone trespassed and took them they would be lucky to leave with their fingers (lighthearted of course).

If you know which house go have a friendly chat with Mum n Dad to educate the 8 year old bot to trespass on peoples gardens and pick flowers.

My 3 year old tried to do this at the town park and I told him they were planted by the council for everyone to enjoy. Since he could walk on his own i always told him to never walk into peoples gardens and to never picked anything from anyones gardens.
He picks wild flowers and buttercups / dandelions etc etc in public spaces only.

And so that everyone is able to enjoy the space; not just those who get there first and destroy it.

So why didn’t she pick the ones growing in her own garden instead of stealing every last one of the OP’s? “Just not worry about it” my arse.

I don't think you are wrong to be upset, OP. It is not acceptable to pick flowers from someone else's garden.
I once caught a woman hurrying down the pavement, having uprooted a flower from my garden! I couldn't believe it.

She/he probably thought it was a nice thing to do for their parents or something. I would just not worry,

No matter how little she worries, the fact remains she now has none of her own flowers to look at.

Maybe the mum wanted the flowers and sent her kids around to do it so you felt you couldn't complain. I'd have a word anyhow.

Eight is quite old enough to know what stealing is and it's not sweet. I'd definitely be having a word with the parents - particularly as their own daffodils are intact!

God, it's depressing how many people think the world's just a playground for their children and other people are just there to curate it for them.

No wonder I now live on a street where the Easter/Christmas wreaths get nicked and hardly anyone bothers to do it anymore. The communal areas have flowers planted in them every year but they never last long, either - now I know why.

I wouldn't have been in agreement with the fines before this thread but I am now.

I'd have been understanding if they'd picked the daffodils which were growing in their own front garden and if they hadn't cleaned out every single one from the OP's garden.

Yes, they should be used. By many people, with their eyes, for their enjoyment. That can't happen if one person takes them all away.

Nobody thinks it's a playground for kids.

Just many see it as in the grand scheme of things it's pretty minor and probably done with good intentions, even if it wasn't right. There is much bigger things in this world to worry about.

She's done it once, mums apologised.

I can't believe the over reactions on people advising to go to the police - really!!

And everyone's kids on the MN world are perfect angels 😇 never did a single thing wrong since the age of 2.

@NeedspaceforlegoActually the mum didn’t apologise and didn’t make her thieving child apologise either - she didn’t even have the decency to knock on the door when she came round to leave the plant pot on the doorstep.

i would never suggest that my daughter was perfect when she was a child but she had known better than to go onto private property and steal someone else’s belonging since she was two or three, let alone eight.

More wilful exaggeration. 🙄

@Needspaceforlego Just many see it as in the grand scheme of things it's pretty minor and probably done with good intentions, even if it wasn't right. There is much bigger things in this world to worry about.

You are not wrong about that but you could apply it to anything, lost your job? Had your car nicked? Fallen down a well and broken every bone you possess? Ah well. Chin up, worse things happen at sea.

The OP is probably extremely grateful to not be living in a warzone and have such small thing to be upset about. But she's still entitled to be peeved about the loss of her property from her own garden.

This happened to my parents daffodils that they had planted on their verge. Dozens of them. Their opposite neighbour saw the child doing it and had words with their parent. Something along the lines of 'X and X' have specially planted those for the whole street to enjoy. Not for people to pick and take home.

I'd be pissed off and I would mention it but then I think I can be quite 'chippy' and don't really mind if I'm liked or not.

My kids learnt very early on that it is not OK to pick flowers from someone's garden or from the park, that they were there for everyone to enjoy and the result of someone's care and hard work. I think most children would be the same.
My daffs etc are in my tiny strip of front garden so would be only too easy to vandalise...so far, so good this year.They look lovely.

What if she thought her parents would like something else of yours. Your garden ornaments? Christmas wreath? Your car? Also, RTFT.

Kids will be kids, everyone knows that.
Parents and guardians are there to teach them right from wrong. When kids are 2 they are not alone, they have someone to guide them. When they are 8, as this girl was, if they are deemed sensible enough to be out alone, they should know right from wrong.
It is an over reaction to talk about reporting her to the police, but it's not an over reaction to be upset, as the OP obviously was.

It's a principle. The discussion has evolved in a philosophical discussion about theft and vandalism.

Some posters think it's OK (sweet) for a young child to help themselves to anything they fancy. At what age does it stop being sweet?

Some posters think flowers are not valuable. Leaving aside monetary value (which is not insignificant) the real value may only be appreciated by the person who bought and planted them and gets joy seeing them every day . If you, personally, don't care about the flowers in your garden and are happy to allow a free for all consider that most other people won't agree with you and the child will eventually get into trouble.

Most posters agree that it is never too young to teach your children not to trespass and to leave other people's plants (or anything else) alone. I am one of this group.

Just many see it as in the grand scheme of things it's pretty minor and probably done with good intentions, even if it wasn't right. There is much bigger things in this world to worry about.

There are always bigger things in the world to worry about.

I just wonder how you know it was done with good intentions? Posters on here have talked about having flowers in the front garden, just the heads picked off, trampled on etc.

Yo! Pick your own flowers kid!

I didn't say they were. I said that children oftentimes won't realise that daffs are purposely planted and not just like buttercups. That's why they pick them. I did similar (from a verge) when I was a kid.

I often wonder whether the ‘worse things happening in the world’ brigade walk their talk in real life. Broken leg? Worse things happening. House burgled? Worse things happening. Made redundant? Worse things happening. If they wouldn’t utter a word of complaint about these things happening to them then crack on with the sanctimony, I guess. But I don’t believe they would suffer even minor inconvenience in silence, much less any of this stuff.