Did this couple get of lightly?

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/5ud6fjk

So this couple and their kids think they have been harshly done by?

Once again it seems that they have got off lightly.

If every Tom, Dick and even India was to pick the flowers as soon as they appeared there would be none left for others to enjoy.

We know that kids do not know differently, but adults should and their kids should have been chastised upon picking the first flower.

/// 'If we'd seen it we would have stopped them, but all it needed was for whoever complained to have approached us and made us aware.///

Firstly 'If we'd seen it we would have stopped them'

Obviously they were not keeping their eyes on their children,

And 'all it needed was for whoever complained to have approached us and made us aware'

Yes, and could you imagine the barrage of four letter words he or she would have received in return?

[ChuckFickens]

Yep, call the police right now.

Abducting Dutchmen is a serious crime.

[anotheoldgit]

pinkilady

/// I also picked a load of daffs the other week on my way home from the pub.///

I wouldn't think that is in anyway, anything to boast about.

Having read yours and others posts on this matter, it is little wonder that the phrase "I blame the parents" has become such a popular saying, when remarking on how some present day children turn out?

One ABer said that I was pre-judging this particular parent when I said "if someone went up to tell this parent to stop her children from picking the flowers, all they would most likely get is a barrage of 4 letter words"

Now having read most of your responses against me, I am now saying it would not be 'most likely', but definitely.

Today a bunch of flowers, but without the teaching of right from wrong, tomorrow who can tell.

[andy-hughes]

The issue here is the way in which this issue was dealt with.

Perhaps a better response would be for the officers to approach the parents and confirm that picking the flowers is an offence, and they should advise their children accordingly.

It would be nice to think that parents would know that - but not all parents know that - indeed a lot of parents don't know a lot of things!

Actually AOG - your failure to respond about whether you have children is entirely relavent - any reasonable parent of a reasonable child knows that a telling-off from a policeman in uniform is sometimes a sledge-hammer / nut interface, as it was here.

[Kromovaracun]

"Today a bunch of flowers, but without the teaching of right from wrong, tomorrow who can tell."

You're being more than a little melodramatic - the fact that somebody picks flowers does not mean they're incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.

Your accusation towards these people's parents is also childish and not a little rude...

[ummmm]

Kids do naughty things. Not all...but most. That's how they learn right from wrong.

[chelle7272]

aog I think you're being a bit ridiculous and quite rude.

My son picking a few daffs from the park at the end of my garden, which has hundreds, is a long way from stealing, and no I would not abuse anyone who told him off.

[Joolee1980]

Hmmm... you asserted that a direct approach would have most likely resulted in a barrage of abuse; then you revised that to would definitely led to a barrage of abused, based on some of the responses in this thread? Stuff that people have said here leads you to increase your presumption about this couple? You'll have to explain that one.

[pa___ul3]

AOG - just to debunk your lil theory - I've 'stolen' a flower or two yet my mum doesn't swear. Apart from ar5e, she once said that, my brother and I never let her live that down!

[boxtops]

Why didn't the councillor just go up to the parents and say "hey, your kids are picking flowers - can you ask them to stop, they are public property paid for by the council for everyone to look at" - and leave it at that? I agree that if kids were hauling up the bulbs and throwing them round, that could be vandalism - but this seems a bit extreme and jobsworthy.
I must admit my mum taught me that other people's flowers were their property and I was to leave them alone, but it never stopped her in her dotage leaning over people's fences "just to take a cutting" - I don't know how she got away with it.

[mazie]

and if Chelle's son told anyone that was telling him off "I'm picking them for my Mum for Mothers day" they would probably go "Awwww how sweet." Picking flowers makes them stronger for the next year anyway, so everyone benefits

[ummmm]

My Mum doesn't swear either....or smoke...or drink.....or judge people she doesn't know.

[whiskeryron]

suffer the little children to come unto me ( & ask them to bring a few Daffodils, after all I invented them )

[Joolee1980]

boxtops - "Why didn't the councillor just go up to the parents and say "hey, your kids are picking flowers - can you ask them to stop, they are public property paid for by the council for everyone to look at" - and leave it at that?" - the OP has already answered that; it's because he would have DEFINITELY received a barrage of 4-letter abuse from these nurturers of future criminals. He knows this because of stuff we've been saying.

[MrIncredible]

According to the local paper the girls picked 70-80 Daffodils Whilst the mother was apparently to busy to notice!
The way they posed for the picture I would imagine it was the mother who contacted the local paper for feeling aggrieved for being reprimanded by the police and looking for a bit of public sympathy! looks like its back fired a bit! quite a few comments left and not many of them on her side!
.
http://www.dailymail....g-daffodils-park.html
.
http://www.bournemout...ys_councillor/?ref=mr

Saw a sign in a park once that read "take nothing but i picture leave nothing but a footprint"

[boxtops]

70-80 - what were they doing, wholesaling?! Six or so I could forgive!

[boxtops]

That article says the family come from Lilliput, LOL. Are they weeny?

[ummmm]

I must admit that I hadn't read the whole article when I first posted. Who keeps their eye off the children long enough for them to pick 70-80 flowers?

[boxtops]

Why assume they would swear, they might have been mortified. Mind you, I don't think I'd go to the paper over something like this, they come out of it looking as if they don't care what their kids get up to.