Mom Has Clever Response To Neighbor Who Complained About Her Son Playing With Sidewalk Chalk In Their Courtyard
New Africa | Shutterstock In a post shared to X, a mom named Ashley Woodfolk attracted attention from thousands of other social media users after sharing the message that she wrote to her neighbor, who apparently had nothing nice to say about her son drawing with sidewalk chalk in the courtyard of their building.
Part of neighborhood life is, hopefully, kids playing and laughing outside together. Sadly, even when kids are simply existing, some people struggle to accept their presence. Woodfolk's neighbor was clearly one of those people because you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who would find a child's chalk drawings something not to smile about.
A mom shared her clever response to a neighbor who complained about her son playing with sidewalk chalk.
"GOOD EVENING TO EVERYONE EXCEPT the woman at my co-op who complained to the board about me and my toddler using sidewalk chalk in the courtyard," Woodfolk began in her post. "So I wrote her a little letter. In sidewalk chalk. In the courtyard."
In the sidewalk chalk letter Woodfolk wrote to her neighbor, she explained that this would be her last time using the sidewalk chalk in the courtyard since she made it such a big problem. She expressed her (sarcastic) apology that seeing a toddler experience joy and have fun drawing art with chalk that would immediately wash away when water hit it was now such a big deal.
"I'm sorry harmless fun that brought my toddler joy (and has actually helped him learn all of his letters and most of his numbers - his favourites are E and 8) causes you so much distress that you had to complain to the board and waste everyone's time when our building has so much bigger real problems," Woodfolk wrote.
The kind responses from strangers online had this mom truly grateful.
New Africa | Shutterstock
This incident between Woodfolk, her toddler, and their neighbor happened back in 2021. It was peak pandemic time, and Woodfolk pointed out that she couldn't take her son to museums or the movies because of the lockdown. Instead of parking him in front of a screen, he found joy playing with the chalk outside.
"Sometimes even local parks are more crowded than I'm comfortable with. The courtyard was a safe space but now there are limits on that too," Woodfolk continued. "There are only a few weeks of nice weather left, and I sincerely hope that you enjoy the use of the sidewalk-chalk-free courtyard for the remainder of the fall. And I hope that every time it rains, rain that would have washed away any colourful ABCs I wrote on the ground, you think of me. All my love, Ashley."
In the comments of her post, Woodfolk further explained the situation and that the board in charge of her apartment building had tried to ignore the complaint made by her neighbor for as long as they could, clearly understanding that it was ludicrous to try to reprimand a child for doing normal kid things.
It was a harmless activity that her son was partaking in, and his drawings were not inappropriate in the slightest. If anything they likely brought others joy. A Reddit post regarding a similar incident as Woodfolk described had one user stating what we are all probably thinking: "Something I love about my apartment complex is that there are kids outside playing and drawing with chalk and just being kids it makes me feel like it's a safe place."
Despite how frustrating the situation initially was, Woodfolk expressed her gratitude for everyone on social media being so kind. At the end of the day, kids being kids shouldn't ever be something that a parent should feel the need to apologize for.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
