It's not a sight you see very often these days - a traditional hopscotch grid chalked out on a pavement, a clutch of laughing children hopping and jumping down the numbered squares.
And no doubt 10-year-old Lilly Allen's parents were pleased when their little girl went out in the fresh air to have a hop, a skip and a jump rather than being cooped up indoors in front of a computer.
Probably the last thing on their minds was that their child would be spoken to by the police about committing criminal damage...
Lilly had marked out the hopscotch grid in chalk on the pavement outside the family's Ramsgate home, and was happily playing when two police officers reportedly pulled up in a car.
Her outraged father Bob says they then approached Lilly and warned her that what she was doing was against the law.
"Two policemen in a car drove up to her and said it was illegal to draw on the floor as it was criminal damage," furious Bob, 51, told The Sun. "I am absolutely seething they have done this."
Bob has now complained about the officers to Kent Police, who are said to be investigating.
"'We are trying to trace the officers who are reported to have made this comment," a police spokesman said. "From the circumstances described, it would not appear to have been necessary to advise the young girl that chalking a hopscotch grid may be criminal damage and illegal."
Considering how we parents battle to get children outside to play, how completely over the top is this?