How do I apologise for washing away a child's chalk drawing without giving up my driveway?
NeighboursI washed the chalk off my driveway before my neighbour's daughter had finished showing it to her grandparents.
I didn't know the visit was happening. I saw a coloured track across the drive and wanted it gone before friends arrived. When her dad came over, he said, “You could have given her ten more minutes.” He was right about that particular ten minutes. I was irritated about the fourth drawing that week and took it out on the drawing in front of me.
She usually starts on their drive, then extends the picture onto mine. Her dad says the chalk washes away, so he hadn't considered it a problem. I don't mind the occasional border crossing. I do mind arriving home to find the space treated as part of their play area.
I would like to apologise to her for spoiling the reveal and tell her dad that future pictures need to stay on their side. That sounds, even to me, like attaching a reprimand to an apology.
Is there a way to separate those conversations? I can offer her time to redraw something on their drive, but I don't want that offer to become another afternoon of drawing on mine.
