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

Kids can’t win can they? Criticised for being In Their rooms playing games, criticised for doing something quiet and quite wholesome chalking outside. Criticised for riding bikes/ ball games etc. what are they supposed to do?

chalking is a harmless activity that literally disappears after it rains. For a moment on a sunny day, it should bring a smile to the face of people rather than complaining that someone might be moderately inconvenienced for 2 seconds to walk around them.

Not sure about the OPs but my kids have these amazing things called legs which mean if they are on the pavement doing something they can move if a person comes towards them. Same as if they are skipping, walking or on their scooter.

A load of chalk? It's some sticks of chalk which have been used on the floor, not like they're daubing it on people's shoes. By the time you've walked a few more paces it will have come off your shoes again. Because it's chalk, not tar and feathers.

@Bellaboo01 you know your kids walk past, through, among, round, past, with loads of other kids every day at school? Why don’t you want them passing some kids playing in the street?

As for you not wanting your dog to walk past some playing kids, my eyes could easily roll out of my head. Do you check with every person you walk past if they’re happy with your dog? Nope.

Elderly parents I can just about understand. But I’m sure an “excuse me” would sort the situation out nicely.

OP your neighbours are miserable gits. The dark evenings are coming in and soon enough the children won’t be able to go outside. Now those neighbours have shown you what they are really like

There really are some miserable people in this world…

The kids will remember. When I was a child my cousins and I accidentally kicked a ball into a neighbours garden (first time it had happened, we’d just moved to the street), nowhere near the house or anything. We knocked her door and asked if we could get it and she pushed past us to get the ball, took it into the house and came back out with it deflated after stabbing it with a knife. She was a miserable old b***d. She used to sit at her window and sneer if we were playing outside and loudly complain about it to the other neighbours, everyone in the street disliked her.

I think some people just become bitter and hate children.

@Moro93 that's evil.
While I don't think the average garden is suitable for big heavy footballs. Footballs can easily be £20-30.

Neigbhour is being a sour faced spoilsport. I say this as someone who isn't at all tolerant of kids being a nuisance in public. What the kids did wasn't wrong at all.

Well no one ‘respects’ the pavement putside
my house when dogs want to poo there. I’d have kids chalk any day!!

your neighbour is a miserable, joyless tosser. Like 14% of the people who voted YABU or gave you advice about how your children could behave differently so as not to upset the neighbours. Miserable bastards. I’m sad you’ve ever questioned yourself! What a sad little life they must have.

There is no point me even trying to explain as we clearly have been raised very differently.

Sounds confusing for you as a child 😔

"Yes, absolutely chalk on the floor".

"Absolutely not, don't possibly chalk on the floor."

We did that as kids, but we got told off by mum

"Having to walk through a load of chalk"

🤣 🤣 🤣

This is a bit rude, isn't it, if we're talking about respect?

I've also been intrigued by how you see it as 'disrespectful' and would genuinely like to understand your perspective. Not to tear it down, but to understand. If you're able to articulate why you feel like that it, and how it constitutes disrespect, I would be very grateful if you could explain.

It’s harmless fun. Sounds a ridiculous over reaction from neighbour, however, are the children being annoying otherwise? Screaming/shouting/entering others gardens. Etc? Could explain it if they’ve had enough…
or are they trying to sell their house? Had viewings booked and were worried about it looking untidy?

if not then yes they are just being really petty.

There are just some miserable people around.
It would make me smile if I saw children's chalk drawings while out walking.

I let my daughter do it in our garden years ago, and my husband was a miserable git about it too.

Yes, I was about to say this. I'm genuinely not trying to be provocative; I would really really like to try to understand what you're meaning by respect here and why it's therefore disrespectful to do what these children did.

I was allowed to play on the pavement outside my own house, but my mum always said not to play infront of other peoples houses because I might disturb them or they might not want children messing about infront of their house.

I guess it stems from that.

When I was growing up, there was an older couple who did this all the time about us kids playing in the street - constant petitions about, noise, running, laughing, playing on tricycles etc. All the parents were furious as they knocked on all doors and complained vociferously. One summer he died when they were on holiday. When she returned not one person gave her condolences, sympathy or help. She lived alone in the house until she moved six months later. I still remember the cheers as the removal van took her possessions away.
You get what you reap.

No one owns the pavement outside their house. little children playing outside should be encouraged not discouraged.

i think the people who probably get upset about the chalking are probably the same people who insist they are the only ones allowed to park outside the front of their house!

Thank-you for responding. I think I understand (but correct me if I'm wrong!). I was focusing on the end result of the drawing and a bit confused as to why it would be disrespectful for there to be a chalk drawing temporarily on the pavement, but it sounds like for you it was more based on the fact they'd been outside the neighbours' house doing their thing, maybe making a noise, being in the way, etc?

I can relate, we used to play outside our house when I was a child, and up and down the street with the other children who lived there, but I would imagine if we were consistently making noise, etc, outside a neighbours', instead of our own house, my mum would also have told us to be outside our own house in case we disturbed anyone.

My own DD unfortunately can't play outside, as we live in inner London and none of the kids play out on the street. It's a bit sad, really, which is why it makes me happy to think of children still able to play out.

I’m just answering people’s questions as to why I find it disrespectful. Im explained I was raised that way.

Nobody owns the air, but people still complain when there is a noisy nuisance neighbour.
I WAS allowed to play out as much as I wanted, but if I chose to play in the street, I had to stick to the pavement outside my house.

When I was a child, we lived on a hill on a side street, so when it snowed for the couple of days or so it settled for, we could get our sledges and slide down the road. It was enormous fun. Until our next door-but-one neighbour, an elderly lady who was always very unfriendly and miserable, came out and salted not only the pavement in front of her house, but the road and the pavement opposite, too, so we couldn't sledge any longer and that was that. Fun over.

It was so mean. My mother never said anything to her, but I like to think if that was done to my child I'd be telling the neighbour what I thought of her mean-spiritedness.

I'm not sure in this scenario that the neighbours disliked the children being there as such, or presumably they would've come out and tried to shoo them away. It sounds as though they just really didn't like the chalking.
If there was swearing, shouting, playing loud music etc then it would be different, but we're talking about little kids here. I personally really like hearing and seeing my neighbours' kids playing on our street; we're in London and I think it's nice that our street goes against the image a lot of people have of cities as being unfriendly.

You've also said that it's 'ruining someone's enjoyment of a tidy pavement'; does that also come from your upbringing, do you think, or do you have other reasons for thinking like this?

If you actually go back and look at my post about ‘the enjoyment of a tidy pavement’, that wasn’t my thoughts. I was simply explaining why a person might not like it because someone stated that people shouldn’t ruin other people’s enjoyment. Go back and read the post.

Thankfully we’ve always lived in child friendly areas where children playing out was the norm (central London) and neighbours got on well.