AIBU? Kid's kicking rotting apples in a field / parent had a right go

[TheZanyPanda]

Took my two boys (DS15 and DS13) out for a walk and a picnic in the Yorkshire Dales over the weekend. It was lovely—other families were around, everyone was relaxing, and we found a nice spot in a field to sit for a bit.

After eating, I wanted to read my book for half an hour while the boys let off some steam. Near the edge of the field, there were a few wild apple trees with a ton of bruised and rotting apples all over the floor.

The lads decided to have a bit of a kick-about with them. They spent about 30 minutes mucking about with the already-fallen/rotting apples, kicking them to each other like a football, and stepping / stomping on some. They were in my sight the entire time, weren't shouting or swearing, and were just genuinely having innocent fun.

Out of nowhere, another parent walked over and had an absolute kick-off at them (and then me). She was furious, claiming they shouldn't be "kicking fruit" or "making a mess."

I stood up for the boys and said they were just letting off steam, weren't being rowdy, and the apples were already on the ground rotting anyway so no harm was done. She wasn't having it at all—told me we were "ruining the area for everyone" and said we "shouldn't come back," before storming off.

It totally ruined the atmosphere and has left a really sour taste in my mouth. They're teenage boys having a bit of fun and letting off steam with mushy apples in a field, not vandalism!

Am I Being Unreasonable to think she completely overreacted and was way out of line? Or should I have stopped them?

YBU - They were making a mess and ruining the area, leave the fruit alone. YANBU - Harmless fun with rotting apples, the other parent needs to get a grip!

Can’t abide cruelty against fruit.

Sorry to hear this. I’m glad your boys were able to let off some steam and play in nature. There’s an attitude in this country that it’s an adult’s world and children shouldn’t be anywhere but school, home or some organised activity. I remember seeing a mum shouting at her children for running around in a field this summer. Push back against it (it probably comes from the Victorians!)

Try hitting a big oak tree with a small stick, let me know if you manage to make a mark. The stick will break first. He wasn't swiping down saplings.

It sounds like rowdy behaviour, perhaps the woman had been hoping for some peace and quiet.

Ah come on, you can hope all you like but kids are allowed to play in public, even big kids. If you need peace and quiet you need to go somewhere private or at least somewhere more remote.

Yea tbf me and my friends used to pick roses and daisies to make daisy chains and rose perfume, kick leaves around, and smash each others conkers to pieces and we're all absolutely feral as adults now.

I wasn't the woman 😆I've been in the office all day, not enjoying the Yorkshire Dales, alas. I was simply suggesting a possible motive.

If they were picking the apples i'd agree. This isn't the same though.

LOL at the suggestion of taking a ball for them instead though. Have you heard a boot on a ball over and over? That would be far less relaxing for anyone in the vicinity!

The apples would have spread much further away than they were in the first place.
If the apples were indeed rotten, they would made a mess - no way the apples wouldn’t have split when being kicked.

My rule for that sort of thing has always been - if you wouldn’t do that in your garden, then do NOT it somewhere else.

I do have a question though. Why are you insisting so much that you were keeping an eye on them etc…. It’s the sort of things I’d expect if the children were 8~10yo, not 15yo

It wouldn't bother me aslong as they where nowhere near me where I was worried about one of them hitting me or the kids in the head

The apples would have spread much further away than they were in the first place.
If the apples were indeed rotten, they would made a mess - no way the apples wouldn’t have split when being kicked.

We're talking about apples. Not ebola. In a field that already has apples in it due to the presence of apple trees. Please don't come to the countryside any time soon else I fear you'd have a fit of the vapours when you see what else gets deposited in fields - all those sheep and cows and horses don't wait 'til they go home at the end of the day to take a dump you know.

She was way over the top. I couldn’t get worked up about this.

Agree it feels a bit aggressive and vandalism.....

Yeah we used to make 'darts' and other projectiles out of grass flowers, stick goose grass all over each other, swish down stinging nettles, throw up sycamore seeds to see them helicopter, make fairy bed from thistledown and pop those little white berries that make such a satisfying pop. All the things you said too AND using old windfall apples for balls. Rural kids know all the wild plants and weeds that can be used for games.

I didn't go on to smash up the bus stop, but perhaps that's because I was a girl 🤔

It does sound like they were behaving badly.

But not all fruit would have been rotten. They would have ruined lightly bruised fruit making it unusable.

It's sloppy and antisocial behaviour.

I have a huge apple tree in my garden and it makes a huge mess; rotten mushy apples all around it, attracting flies too. Based on this, I would say the mess should stay as close to the tree as possible and not scattered everywhere in a place people may want to walk and sit.

@TheZanyPanda your boys were making an unnecessary mess. I think I would have asked my kids to stop and find something else to do.

I voted YANBU because it’s very minor but, I want to provide some perspective from someone who lives in a place very popular with tourists.

It can be a fucking nightmare. These parks, streets, fields are our home and they are constantly seized upon by people wanting to have a nice day out (walking 5 abreast along pavements, parking outside people’s homes in restricted areas to avoid pay & display, having picnics and leaving their rubbish either on the grass or by the bin which is overflowing (rather than taking it home), congesting the road network, letting their kids trample on flowerbeds etc.)

Tourists are very unpopular here for that reason and there is a lot of resentment from residents who feel that they cannot enjoy their own town on a weekend or bank holiday.

You probably stumbled across someone that had simply had enough and took the brunt of it.

You surely can't know that all of that behaviour is done by the dreaded tourists and never the locals, though. I live in a very un-touristy place and all those things go on.

I live in the countryside.
Family on dh side are farmers. In a national park.
I can promise you PIL wouldn’t have allowed my dcs to play football with apples on the floor

I can't believe the way the votes are going. Obviously YANBU.

I agree with the PP who said if you wouldn’t do it in your own garden, don’t do it elsewhere.

Also, I’m flabbergasted that this is an activity that a lot of people on the thread have enjoyed. What about the mess on your shoes? 😲 treading it back to your car. Thinking about cleaning rotten apple from the soles of my shoes is enough to put me off. And surely a quick wipe in the grass doesn’t get rid of it all 🙈.

People are mad. It’s a field, they are rotting apples, the boys were kicking rotting apples. It’s what kids do, my boys are now mid twenties and they kick anything vaguely spherical, if a body of water had been near by they would have thrown them in the water. It’s a total non event.
People complaining about a mess - it’s the outside not your kitchen table. It feels like vandalism - that’s just balmy! It’s disrespectful. What are you lot on?

Honestly sometimes MN beggars belief. Kids playing outside with something that will naturally rot down, hurting no one, causing no harm. “Rowdy behaviour” it was outside in a field not a church. Where are my pearls I need to clutch them to recover from this “Rowdy behaviour”! I need a lavender scented hankie and a chaise lounge to awake from the shocking scene of apples being kicked.

Folk on here acting like a couple of lads kicking apples are balaclava clad hoodlums running amok with their zombie knives.
They were being young lads and doing no harm in the fresh air.
Ignore the mad woman and the whinge bags on here.