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 is a gateway to grafeetee. It's everywhere. No respect.

Graffiti. And no, it isn’t, don’t be so ridiculous.

The pavement is public property. Your neighbours dont need to justify why they don't like your little princess's defacement of it.

If it annoys your neighbours, it is by definition antisocial behaviour!

I can assure you that as a child who chalked in the pavement, I grew up into an upstanding adult without a blemish on my record and no penchant for graffiti!

Wow how mean spirited of the neighbour

This is a joke surely?

Our neighbour's kids do this every so often and it's fine! Reminds me of childhood long ago, a carefree time. Not a gateway to graffiti, lol.

Noone would care if they were chalking their own driveway.

I’d think it was lovely but maybe tell her it’ll have to stick to outside yours alone!

What a miserable person… There’s always one!

I always allowed it, but only on horizontal surfaces, not walls. I also allowed it in the park.

Sorry - even if the colour the path for the whole street it shouldn't ever be an issue.

How exactly do kids 'take over the neighbourhood'?

Kids are the neighbourhood. The more chalking and playing the better. Away from screens and in the fresh air.

I'm even <<gasp>> happy to lob footballs back to them when they kick them over.

Not everything that annoys people is antisocial

Not everyone has a driveway

Honing in on the football post, I found a football in my garden, my garden backs onto a fairly busy road. I said “Ah, someone’s lost their football” I then noticed it had broken in half one of my azaleas. My view then changed to “Little bs, kicking their ball
into my garden 😡” 😂😂

It is funny how on this thread and so many others people believe that it has to be 100% one view or 100% the other...

If you want to live sociably with neighbours, it is worth being aware that not everyone thinks the same, and being sensitive to not upsetting people...

of course there is no issue with a kid using chalk on a pavement - but at the same time, for some people it does change their feel for the neighbourhood, so they won't like it...

being sensitive to that is just good manners, it doesn't harm to have a kid colour with chalk on the pavement, equally it doesn't harm to teach a child that the world doesn't revolve around them and they need to be thoughtful in how they do things... so you might get them to do it in some areas and not others - it isn't anti-kids to observe that there are boundaries and some of those boundaries you might not understand or even agree with, but for others they are important... learning tolerance for other views is a good life skill

this insistence on polarisation of views is what breaks down society not builds it up...

Many, many children chalked on the pavement in the 60's, 70's and 80's.
Particularly for the game hopscotch.

So, in your view, thousands of children were "little princesses" ?

You do know that chalk washes off in the rain, don't you?

Sometimes it doesn't rain for days and you have to put up with the hideous grafiti for a long time. Parents shoild be fined and made to wash it off.

It's absolutely lovely that your kids are outside being creative.

They're not causing any harm.

I’m glad you aren’t one of our neighbours. I’m happy to see children having fun in the outdoors!

Very well said.