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

Do you take pride in how the public pavement outside your house looks? Do you sweep it clear of mud and leaves, get rid of any weeds the pop up?

Maybe you do, in which case I apologise. But I don’t think everyone on this thread with a sudden interest in the public pavement, or “enjoyment of a tidy pavement” as a PP said cares about it all the time. Just when someone is having some fun.

Why would you have been annoyed - it was a public area and not outside your front door?

Kids doing what kids should be doing I love to see kids making their own entertainment outside it’s what we used to do !!!
Your neighbours are absolutely killjoys !!
Let your kids keep doing what their doing because it’s better to be outside in the fresh air than cooped up indoors watching tv x

we used to do it all the time in the 80s on a public footpath people are jut miserable

You could have the enjoyment of a tidy pavement the other 360 days of the year once this is washed off?

But the majority of people, judging by this thread, would find it joyful. It's not like they drew on that neighbours path.

This used to be so common and it was never an issue. We used to do it in the 80s, my parents in the 50s , my kids in the 2010s etc. People just seem much less tolerant of children playing outside these days.
We have a childhood obesity problem coupled with screen ‘addiction’ so anything safe that gets DC outdoors is generally a good thing! I loved to see local
kids running around playing in the trees behind my house during the summer holidays. Let them chalk on the pavement & play hopscotch!

Because I just don’t like it. The way I wouldn’t like it if a dog did its dump on the pavement outside my house. It’s something I’d prefer to not have there.

Not everyone wants kids drawings everywhere. It just looks messy, even though it’s temporary. The broadband people coloured our pavements with lines when they were here planning the cables and I thought that looked a mess too. So it’s not just kids stuff.

And that’s fine. But I don’t find it joyful. We are all different.
I’m simply offering an alternative view.

We all did this as kids decades ago. Not one person ever complained about it, people can be real miseries nowadays.

I think the examples you gave in your post are fair enough. Protecting a fragile tree and not wanting your vehicles isn’t being joyless.

I do think it’s joyless to wash away a child’s chalk drawing while they’re still out there though. If you really hate it that much, fine, but maybe wait until the kids have gone in to wash it away. I think that’s the part that makes the neighbour sound like a massive grump - it’s the timing for me.

You know this is the same neighbour who’d be judgy if they saw your kid on an iPad. What a grumpy idiot.

Tell your five year old I think their pictures are FABULOUS and I haven’t even seen them. If they can draw on a hopscotch for me to hop down on my way home from work I’d hugely appreciate it.

‘Enjoyment of a tidy pavement’

What sad lives people must lead if this is a concern. Need to get out more!

I absolutely couldn’t care less,-lucky, as our garden soil is almost 95% chalk 😆.

OP’s the neighbour may have their own personal reason for not wanting chalk on pavement beside their home?
could be simple as; it treads in onto the carpet?

There are no weeds outside my house. I moved in about 2 months ago, but if there were I would get rid of them.

Your joyful children are allowed to chalk public pavements and miserable gits are allowed to wash them. Not how I’d choose to present myself in the world (as a miserable git I mean), but I’d take a pretty c’est la vie attitude to this.

This post is pure projection. What happened with OP’s kids is separate to your experiences and they are not comparable.

You wouldn’t have liked my DC’s - I encouraged them to chalk on the pavements, in the park, on the way to the Tube.

We can't pander to your children, we much prefer pandering to sour-faced adults.

Strange isn’t it. It’s like accusing someone of not being a dog lover when they complain about their neighbour’s dog barking 10 hours a day. Children can be a real nuisance. A toddler blowing a recorder all day is just playing. I don’t know a mother in the land who would happily smile and indulge that, but if they did it in the garden and the neighbours complain, they are joyless. 🤷‍♀️

Some people are just plain miserable.

Our car was at the garage for a few days. The children up the road had run out of pavement for their chalk art so as our driveway was free we let them decorate that too.

Happy creative kids away from screens. I can't see a problem with it at all.

I used to love chalking on the pavements when I was little! I agree with pps, the neighbour sounds joyless. As you said OP, the rain washes chalk art away soon enough.

Quite!

These people must have not enough real world problems to worry about - and a lack of social connection/empathy.

I think if I’d got to a place as low as looking to stamp out things like this, I’d feel like my soul had died.

And yet, I’ve already been called joyless for them.

It’s also relative. My red line is vandalism of trees and cars, someone else’s might be vandalism of pavements. It doesn’t make them joyless, they are allowed not to want scribbling on the pavement outside their house. It doesn’t matter whether that’s done by a child with chalk or an adult with a spray can.

Your neighbour is a bit of an arsehole I’m afraid. Why on earth would anyone be upset by this? What a shame they’re not more community-minded!