Children chalking over our land

[Charliec12]

Hi all, am I over reacting? My neighbours brought their children some chalks at the weekend. The children are chalking everywhere with them including on my driveway which we half share with them. My OH said to one of the children tonight that the area looked a mess. Said child started crying and then the Mum came out and was confrontational and annoyed with me that I don’t agree with it looking nice in the area. I also have 2 young children and I get they want to have fun.

It's a bit of chalk, they haven't shat all over the drive. I couldn't get myself worked up over this.. it will wash off as soon as it rains.

He sounds like a prat and you are both well suited going by your posts

I can guess who the talk of the street will be and it won’t be your neighbours

Children, I've found, generally aren't too aware of the nuances of title plans/deeds, so your first error was that you didn't sit down with them prior to The Great Chalking Incident and explain what is your 'land' and what is theirs.

The second error was that your DH should've had the minerals to go and speak to the parents, not cause a small child to cry.

Your third error is to be so pedantic about a bit of chalk on a shared driveway.

However, if the chalk bothers you so much, I suggest in future you and your husband behave like Proper Grown Ups and go and speak to the parents. You'll have done yourselves no favours using your current approach.

I think it's okay if it's done on the public footpath or road (if it's a cul-de-sac for example) or obviously in their own home but it's very rude to encroach on their neighbours. The parents are at fault.

You and your DH are both overreacting. Can't believe your DH made a child cry over a bit of chalk on your driveway.

Does it really matter, in the grand scheme of things? No. Not in the slightest.

Chill out a bit. Let go. It's good for you.

There are some very entitled people on here believing children can do no wrong- why should the op put up with kids chalking all over her driveway?
I wouldn't like it either, unless my kids had been involved too. It wasn't their space to draw on and her husband was right to say something, although he shouldn't have raised his voice. (He has apologised though, which many of you seem to have missed in your haste to hurl insults at him)
I get its only chalk and it will wash away when it rains but it was still on the op's private property. Absolutely fine on the pavements outside.

😂😂😂

It isn't just me then 😂

It's more the parents letting their children think it's alright to make a mess on other people's property, chalk today paint tomorrow, oil off their new motorbike in 10 years time. Teach respect, only chalk on our drive DCs, the neighbours might not appreciate your art. We used to chalk on a communal driveway between rows of houses, if I'd chalked on someone's driveway or path I would have been in deep trouble. And some of our 'games' chalked on the driveway lasted all summer it depends on the surface and the quality of the chalk whether it washes off easily.

This exactly 👍

You miss my point entirely @Charliec12 You say "land" like it's a country estate. In fact it's a suburban semi with a shared drive by the sound of it.

You are being utterly ridiculous and your DH sounds equally horrid.

"our land" "my land". It's a bloody shared drive not Chatsworth.

But the kid in their own mind DIDN'T do anything wrong.

So therefore, it needed pointing out to them and their parents that the op was unhappy about it and to please not do it again on her property....

Sure. All kids should be fine with being shouted at by an adult. 🙄

It is a shared driveway...

@C1N1C I don't have small children, so if you could stop with your generalisation about people who don't have kids, that would be cracking.

@Charliec12

along our terrace we haven't got fences between the front gardens & the kids play along the length of it. My neighbours 3 along & 4 along both have 4.5 year olds. They were playing out with chalk the other day & wrote on the brick work of each house the number & the name of the person/people who lives in there. I thought it was really cute ☺️. One of the mums came along later & apologised profusely & said she'd told them off & not to do it again... I told her not to be daft, they weren't doing any harm & I thought they'd done pretty well at their attempts to spell the name, it's chalk it'll wash off, she then offered to wash it off -again I told her not to be daft.

Can't you just enjoy the kids being kids?

Yes, half each. The op doesn't want her half chalked on, which is fair enough.

Presumably, as it's a shared driveway they haven't climbed over a barbed wire fence to get to the bit thst night not be shared.

As someone else pointed out, children might not have a copy of the Land Registry plans showing the exact boundaries.

Perhaps your OH could paint a red line across where it divides, Charliec12
and PRIVATE PROPERTY - KEEP OFF on your part of the drive?

Would that work?

@Radiatorbasket

oh come on now, don't spoil her 'lady of the manor' attempt!

🤣🤣🤣

Honestly it wouldn't bother me in the slightest, and while I wouldn't have a go at you I'd think you were a humourless type if you asked me or my kids to stop.

One persons mess is another's art. It's not like grafittii or something permeant, it's a splash of short term colour in an area designed to be enjoyed by children.

I personally enjoy seeing chalk in playgrounds and on public footpaths etc, and on private driveways, anywhere really. Adds a bit of colour and joy.

I can totally see your point that you would prefer not to have it on your side of the property, and I think that could have been communicated in a calm, neighbourly way pretty easily. What was done was done in that moment, but you're within your rights to ask it not to happen on your side again. You're allowed to have expectations for your part of the driveway which you own. Again, asking nicely would have been ideal. Sets a good examples of manners and how to treat other people to the younger generation.

Absolutely brilliant 😂😂

Exactly. It's about the parents teaching their children respect. Sounds like there are lots of entitled parents on this thread.

'Their creativity'. Omg let them be creative on their own side of the drive.

I wouldn't want feral kids scrawling all over our driveway either op, all the posters on here saying it's fine, it isn't. Control your kids!