Letting children chalk public pavement

[RainbowRanger29]

Hi,

So wondering AITA for allowing my young child (age 5) to draw with chalk on the public pavement?

My child was happy out drawing pictures and writing her name with chalk in the front garden with her little friends from the street. They ran out of space in the garden and continued there colourful chalk drawings along the public pavement outside the house.

No one owns the public footpath (its not anyone's actual property) and they drew along outside around 5/6 houses. They drew rainbows and houses and wrote their names and a hopscotch. Nothing offensive but not exactly amazing art (they are only 5!)

One of the neighbours arrived home and appeared visibly annoyed with the chalk, the kids asked if they like their art and they ignored them, went inside, got their hose and washed the chalk away from the public footpath outside of their house only.

The children were still out drawing and got upset that they had washed it away (mummy didn't they like our pictures? Why are they washing it away? Etc)

We live in the UK and it rains an awful lot! It would have washed away anyway later that evening when it rained ... I think it was mean of them to hose it away in front of the kids (surely they could of waited until the kids had stopped playing?)

Or is it me ... should I have not allowed them to chalk the public footpath?

Is it kids being kids enjoying chalking public areas? I used to do this as a kid and it never seemed to upset anyone? Or is it disrespectful to allow children to chalk on public footpaths outside of other people's home?

Interested on everyone's opinions

It wouldn't bother me. If I saw a hopscotch grid I'd want to have a go. Some people are very territorial about their house and it's frontage though so maybe tell your child to just chalk in front of your house in future.

I always have a go if i see a hopscotch

But it’s clear that the neighbour doesn’t like it so it’s reasonable to now tell the children not to do it outside other peoples houses

A considerate neighbour doesn't think they own the pavement outside their house

Lovely idea.

And agree, it's great to see kids outdoors having fun.

What a shame they behaved like that. The only time I've had anything close to a problem with it was when someone sent their kids to the bit of pavement outside my house (instead of their own driveway) so my kids couldn't put their own chalk drawings there! We said oh well and waited until it rained, problem solved.

Perhaps these people have their own big life stresses and overreacted to something small that felt like a loss of control (that's 'my' bit of.pavement). Perhaps they're just miserable. It's a good teaching moment at pausing to consider when you've upset someone else - did I do anything wrong that I should put right? If not, just smile at their silly reaction and don't overthink it.

Unfortunately, I've never had children of my own.

I love seeing wee ones playing like this. It's good for their development and does no one any harm.

@RainbowRanger29 the poor kids, I honestly don’t know what is wrong with people, it’s just chalk.

We used to draw on the pavement all the time, beats being infront of a screen!

You are not being unreasonable, your neighbour sounds like a grump.

Our street won the 'tidy pavement' award four years in a row. People came from miles to enjoy the serried ranks of grey concrete slabs, all neatly aligned and unmolested by any unsightly wildlife or feckless amateurish artwork.

(The trouble with children's artwork is that often they're not actually very good at it. My children did pictures of the family without a neck and with too many fingers, the proportions were completely wrong and the colours were garish. It was very upsetting, and I took away their felt pens to stop it happening again.)

Anyway, we'd have made the tidy pavement award five years in a row if it wasn't for Number 33 and her Bichon Frise with IBS.

We live on a tiny cul-de-sac of 4 houses with a private road. Many years ago my DC were playing with the boy next door and chalked all over our drive and next doors. The mother came out and went ballistic. I was quite shocked by her reaction. It was all gone within hours because it rained.

He was considerate by just washing it off outside his own house without making a fuss

Its a bit of chalk it will wash away. People need to calm down.

Chalk is fun but messy and can be walked into people’s homes. If they chalked over the width of five or six houses that’s quite a lot of chalk to avoid.

I think hosing the chalk away in front of the children was a bit unkind and unnecessary but they were making a point about territory. Your children didn’t know which of those home owners would mind and who would be perfectly fine with it.

I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t be thrilled.

I'm firmly on team Misery Arse.

It looks "cute" and "sweet" to the adoring parents, but it's usually a bloody eyesore .

Would I turn the hose on it in front of your little darlings, no, but my fingers would be itching so much I'd have to go inside and do a little rain dance.

Rain dances are also pretty cool, tbf. I'm all for a world with both chalk art and raindances.

Your neighbour is an arsehole

Making a point about territory? Oh yes, he definitely got one over on a group of five year olds. He's winning at life...🙄

I love this too!

My cat came home covered in chalk once after rolling around in a neighbour's kids' creations. What did I do? Laughed a lot and took pictures of her, before I wiped her down with a damp cloth so she didn't transfer it all to our furniture.

Some people are miseries!

I don't have kids and didn't want them, so I'm neither an adoring parent nor a wistful 'wish they were mine' type.
I'm also not a miserable fucker, so I like seeing it. I like the fact that kids play outside on my street, instead of being cooped up indoors. I like that kids still play games like hopscotch that have been around for decades (centuries? scuse my ignorance!) I like that the bigger ones look after (and boss about) the little ones. And that they make up imaginative and new things to chalk.

I think it's great to see kids using their imagination and creativity and, as you say, the rain would wash it away fairly promptly. However, I can understand not everyone wants chalk on the bottom of their shoes or to look at a 5year old's 'art' in front of their house. I'd tell the kids to stick to the garden or take them to the park and let them draw with chalk there.

I wouldn’t like chalk pictures all over the pavements BUT I wouldn’t say anything to small children creating these drawings and I certainly wouldn’t wash it off. I work in a school so know how much little children like to chalk draw 😂. All I would say is, make sure they don’t draw on walls as it doesn’t wash off in the rain for ages.

I'd have said something there and then. From what the OP said, they were ignored.

Miserable. Same type of people that complain kids aren’t kids anymore and they’re all glued to screens.

i agree with you, and I said upthread that as OP now knows they’re going to be miserable about it, she should advise the kids to avoid the pavement in front of their house. Not that they own it, but to avoid any further unpleasantness.

My question was more general as to how it’s deemed to be disrespectful in general to chalk on the pavement. I’m not seeing it, so interested in the reasoning.

Not quite sure what you mean. 🤷‍♀️

Look, I get you feel unfairly labelled as ‘joyless’ because someone IRL called you that about what you did. Like I said, in that situation your actions sounded reasonable and if I were you, I’d file that comment in my mental waste bin as a load of rubbish I don’t need to pay attention to. This thread isn’t about you, so there’s no need to be sensitive about what the majority of posters are saying.

Unless, of course, you’re saying you would have acted like the neighbours did over a bit of chalk drawn on the pavement?