A woman has shared how upset she was after catching her neighbour’s eight-year-old daughter on camera – and she’s not happy with what she saw, saying she was ‘sad’
Installing a doorbell camera can be a wise decision, as it allows you to capture footage of anyone engaging in suspicious activity around your property.
You will no longer be left wondering who swiped your package or dumped their trash in your front bin. With a doorbell camera, you can track down the perpetrator and even potentially catch them in the act if you see the notification fast enough.
While such incidents are fortunately rare, one woman was left dismayed when her camera caught her neighbour’s eight-year-old child doing something shocking in her garden. She confessed to feeling “sad” at what she witnessed.
Sharing her experience on Mumsnet, the woman explained that she had received numerous notifications on her phone alerting her to “movement on the doorbell camera”.
Upon investigation, she discovered that a youngster from a few doors down had been caught on camera clutching a handful of daffodils.
To her dismay, she found that every single daffodil from her front garden had been plucked. She concluded her post by expressing her disappointment, saying: “I’m just really sad, to be honest. I know there are bigger problems in the world, but they were a little spark of joy for me”.
Commenters offered words of sympathy but also suggested that the young girl may have had good intentions when picking the flowers.
One respondent wrote: “Ahh, that is so sad. I have daffodils, and they are lovely to look at, so I would be sad too. Hopefully, they’ve given the child some joy!”
A parent shared that if faced with a similar situation, they’d take action, saying: “If my child walked in with a bunch of daffodils, I would ask where they picked them from, though, and if they answered truthfully, I would be knocking on the door, with child, to apologise. They have to learn it’s not okay to pick people’s flowers. Not everyone would be so understanding!”
Another user offered an empathetic perspective: “I know you loved them and feel sad, I would too but maybe she wanted to give them to her mum or gran and couldn’t afford flowers. Not saying it’s right to steal, but thinking that they may have been picked for a good reason might take the sting out a little.”
One individual recounted their childhood mischief, admitting: “I’m sorry. I’d be annoyed, too. Kids don’t think the same as adults, though. When I was five, I picked all the petals off a neighbour’s rose bush for confetti..”
However, another Mumsnetter expressed zero tolerance, making it clear: “If you know which neighbour it is, I would go to them and say, ‘Your daughter picked my daffodils today – can’t do anything about it now, and I know children will be children, but I would appreciate it if you could explain to her that the daffodils in my garden – just like the wildflowers in the wild – are not to be picked.'”.
Adding more criticism, another commenter stated: “There is nothing super sweet about a child picking flowers from someone else’s garden. That little spark of joy – gone because the kid picked them.”