Fox News
Published March 22, 2023 3:15pm EDT
Reddit user called ‘curmudgeon’ after not allowing kids to 'make memories' in yard's freshly poured cement
A Reddit user erected a sign to protect drying cement — leading to neighborhood drama
By Deirdre Reilly
A Reddit user took to the social media platform to share a vexing neighborhood issue, asking if he or she (the gender wasn't clear in the post) was in the wrong on a property issue.
"I wanted to pour a new walkway from the end of our driveway (which terminates in our front yard by the sidewalk) around the house to our backyard," Reddit user OK_Discount6992 posted on the AITA ("Am I the A--hole") subreddit.
The property has a "nice little garden and gazebo set up" in the backyard, the original poster also said.
The neighborhood is full of kids and "stroller moms and dads," the poster continued.
But when some of these neighborhood children "saw the wet concrete drying," the Redditor noted, they "stuffed sticks and rocks into it," while some "carved their initials in as well, along with their palm prints."
The poster was "not thrilled" by the neighborhood kids' actions — and proceeded to dig out the debris and "then smoothed the concrete back over and put
up a sign reading, ‘Please do not disturb, drying.'"
However, a mom whom the Reddit user is "usually friendly with" called out the homeowner as a "mean old curmudgeon" who was "ruining precious childhood memories for the kids," the Redditor said.
This same neighborhood mom then told the Redditor that the children "may want to go back and look at their initials and palm prints one day and ‘reminisce,'" the individual shared on Reddit.
The next day the sign had been taken down, the poster continued.
The Reddit user added, "It was lying in my yard by the birdbath, far away from where I'd placed it."
The Redditor asked others on the social media platform what they thought of the situation — and whether he or she was wrong for posting the sign and trying to keep kids off the new concrete.
"It's my private property. These aren't my kids," the poster added.
One mother and grandmother in the Baltimore area said the neighbors were "outrageous" for berating someone else about that person's property.
"It does not mean you don’t love and care about the neighborhood’s children when you want nice property that you work hard to own and maintain," the grandmother told Fox News Digital.
"How awful to be called a name after kids ruin your walkway project," she added. "This may fall in line with the idea today that kids are always right."
A mom of three in Scottsdale, Arizona, said that the kids in question are learning the wrong lesson.
"What the parents should have done was to march the children back there and make them clean up the mess," she told Fox News Digital.
"Why is this neighbor responsible for the kids’ memories?" she added.
The Reddit AITA community was quick to come to the Redditor’s defense, with the post garnering almost 4,000 votes in under 24 hours.
On the AITA subreddit, people on Reddit can reply to posts and indicate the poster is "NTA" ("Not the A--hole"), "YTA" ("You're the A--hole"), "NAH" ("No
A--hole Here") or "ESH" ("Everyone Sucks Here").
Users can "upvote" responses they think are helpful and "downvote" ones that are not — and in this case, the Redditor was deemed to be in the right.
"NTA," commented user Katja1236.
"Tell the mom in question that vandalizing other people's property isn't ‘making memories’ and there are plenty of plaster mold sets she can buy for that
purpose."
That user added, "Ask her if you can spray graffiti all over the front of her house and require her to keep it so you can revisit old memories later."
The neighbors sound "delusional and entitled," said commenter Sea-ad3724.
"It’s your private property and [you are] well within your rights to not be OK with kids messing up your work."
That user added, "Maybe look into getting a camera in case they decide to do more than just put a sign in your birdbath."
A New York-based mom of sons told Fox News Digital of the situation, "This mom who chastised the neighbor for taking steps to protect the person's own private property has aimed her anger in the wrong direction. Instead of teaching her own kids an important lesson about responsibility, consideration and concern for others, she's firing away at someone else — maybe because it's easier to aim outside the family than inside."
She added, "Teaching kids right from wrong is a parent's job. And on this point, she flunked."
Deirdre Reilly is a senior editor in lifestyle with Fox News Digital.
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