When Colorado mom Sarah Cohen found out her 3-year-old daughter was being banned from doing sidewalk doodles, she chalked it up to a misunderstanding.
“My initial reaction was, ‘You have to be kidding me,'” Cohen told the CBS affiliate in Denver.
But the crackdown on sidewalk chalk was no joke to Cohen’s local housing association in the Denver suburb of Stapleton, which said little Emerson’s scribbles are violating neighborhood rules.
The Cohen family was shocked, since they thought their daughter was just enjoying a fun summertime activity in their front courtyard, which is shared with neighboring homes.
But neighbors have apparently complained about the chalk drawings, leading the homeowners association to intervene.
“The association is trying to go down a path of do no harm and prevent the sidewalk art as opposed to — until such time if you can get together and discuss it,” attorney David Firmin told CBS.
Cohen thinks the outcry is ridiculous, and says her daughter isn’t doing anything disruptive.
“She’s not bothering anyone and it’s actually pretty neat,” she told CBS. “She’s learning how to spell her name.”
She also told the news station no one has brought up any complaints to her personally, so she’s going to let her daughter continue for the foreseeable future.
Fines could be imposed if residents continue to object, CBS reported.
“I think at the end of the day there are bigger fish to fry,” Cohen told KSDK.
