The little scamp!

Question

My Daughter

She always does the right thing (the opposite is true as well; she's a good girl), and she'd be the first to tell you it's never right to jump a fence or steal a car. But it is right to obey traffic signs and be nice to people.

Sometimes she picks up things she finds, but I don't worry. Usually it just gets left down on the ground where she found it. Plus, anything she's holding (aside from her phone, which she would never let go of and always holds in one hand [kids!]), she might simply put it right down (or throw it right up, haha!), or even exchange it with something else she picked up! She'd even put it down just to pet a dog (she's crazy about dogs). She always bends down to pet them, and she never picks them up, but you better believe she'd never do anything to hurt one either. Of course, when it comes down to people, she's nice, too.

Luckily she's old enough to read and she obeys written rules (and the laws of physics) because if it was left up to her, she'd just go around doing what she wants.

Since she's so good, sometimes I let her go right on down to the ice cream store, but sometimes a little while after that she just throws it right up.

And she always listens to me, too. I told her to go right home after she left the playground (and she did). So, what did she do on the way home that got her into trouble?

I'm not sure about the tag for this one, so feel free to let me know if it fits another category.

Hint:

My daughter will touch each grid point exactly once. The text contains many rules about which directions she might (or might not go) based on what is there, and if she does go there, what she might or might not do when she gets there.

Hint:

Each line of the story contains at least 1 rule. The first line contains 3 rules. It will likely be easier to first build most of the path she took using rules for movement and then use the action rules to fill in the rest and build a story. Consider: if she could not pick up a brick wall, say hello to it, or pet it (because those don't make sense with respect to a brick wall), what are the logical directions from which she can approach the brick wall?

Hint:

Some rules my daughter uses:
left up to her, she'd just go around
throw it right up
The opposite of do the right thing is don't do the left thing

Partial solution:

Because Left/up means "go around" and she would not jump a fence (or, by extension, a wall), she will go around the fence and the wall. Since she "always" bends "down" to pet a dog, we know how she approaches them. She "Left" the playground, went "right" home, and went "right down" to the ice cream store. These moves are filled in below.

Hint:

There is a moment on her way home where my daughter exchanges the penny she picked up for a baseball that she encounters. She then carries the baseball with her until at some point later she sets it down.

Hint:

I think now that I might have made the rule building too vague and the puzzle a too hard as a result. Essentially the idea of rule-building is a rule is created when actions and directions are in the same sentence clause. And other than the dogs, wall, and fence, the rules do not describe where she must go, but what she does when she gets there and also (for path building) why she CAN'T go somewhere. The rule "when she goes right/up, throw what she is holding" can only be executed if she is holding something (unless she has previously at some earlier point eaten ice cream). Likewise the rule "when she goes left/down, any object she encounters will be left down on the ground" can only be enacted on objects she could possibly pick up (she cannot "leave a women's rest room down on the ground"). There is at least one rule per direction of the 8 possible directions.

Solved:

She leaves the playground, does not climb a tree, and bends down to pet a dog. She obeys a sign saying keep off the grass (does the right thing), says hello to the lady, picks up a penny, exchanges the penny for the baseball, walks around a wall and a fence, greets a fireman, sets the baseball down on the basketball court, picks up a plastic bottle, exchanges it for the hammer. While carrying the hammer, she does nothing with the flowers, cupcake, radio, sunglasses, and beer. She then says hello to both the guy with the beard and the nurse. Her next move is to throw the hammer she is carrying at the police officer and immediately pet a dog. She eats a piece of candy, picks up a can and throws it away. She gets some ice cream, does nothing with the donut and traffic cone, pets a dog, says hello to a kid on a bike, does not play checkers, goes around a stream, pets a dog, yarks in the ladies room, goes around the stroller and heads home.

Answer 1

Possible solution:

The narrative describes a set of rules for navigating the image grid.
One of the hints says that each image is visited exactly once; this means that only one image can lead into one other image. There cannot be any loops or forks.

- "Sometimes she picks up things she finds...or even exchange it with something else she picked up!": The daughter has one free hand to hold a single object. The carried object is a persistent state until something changes it. Sometimes, N = pick up the object in the adjacent N space.
- "Usually it just gets left down on the ground": At least once, she moves SW to a small object. But she does not obtain this object.
- "she left the playground": Start at the swingset, then go W.
- "go right home": Home is where the heart is (credit Sinc for the idiom). Move E to reach the heart.
- "throw it right up": Go NE = throw a held object.
- "She'd even put it down just to pet a dog... She always bends down": In any space N of a dog, drop any held object, and go S to the dog.
- "she'd never do anything to hurt one": Don't throw anything at a dog.
- "left up to her, she'd just go around": Going around = go NW. According to the hints, this refers to both the wall and the fence.
- "or even exchange it with something else she picked up": According to the hints, this refers to the penny and baseball. The baseball points to the wall, so the only option is penny to baseball.
- "right on down to the ice cream... while after that she just throws it right up": Go SE to the ice cream (and obtain it). Then, her next move cannot be NE. There next time she goes NE, she must be holding the ice cream.
- "never right to jump a fence": Do not go E to reach the fence. She also can't go S or SW without short-circuiting the map. According to the comments, she then moves E to the firefighter.
- According to the comments, she goes E from Dog B to the candy.

The result:

For the rest of the path, we need a story in which the daughter misbehaves and makes the most mischievous decisions possible:
- After leaving the playground and petting a dog, she walks across the grass, despite the sign saying not to!
- She picks up a baseball (after dropping a penny). She goes around a wall and fence, then greets the firefighter and passes various other objects. She sees a can on the ground, but doesn't pick it up. Later, she passes some friendly folks. To be extra mischievous, she then throws the baseball at a police officer!
- In a rush to flee the police officer, she passes the candy on the ground, and eventually reaches the ice cream store. She continues to run around, but this upsets her stomach, so she has to use the restroom and throws (right) up.
- By the time she gets home, she's in big trouble, and she's feeling ill. And it's all her fault!

Answer 2

Very partial

I've collected all direction words (up, down, right and left) in the narrative; hope i didn't miss anything.

rrruldrdruuddudlrdrurl

Answer 3

Partial answer:

Home is where the Heart is.

I'm new here, so make your own use of that.

Answer 4

A cheesy, simple solution that is probably incorrect, but the current wording of the puzzle allows it:

According to the text and hints, the opposite of "do the right thing" is "don't do the left thing". If she's a good girl for never going left, then she got in trouble by going left from the playground.

Answer 5

Self Answer. If anyone can help format, I would appreciate it.

The ruleset:

She has rules for each direction, which are created based on the direction words' proximity to action words:
UP: Pick up the object she approaches or exchange the object in her hand for the object she approaches
UP/RIGHT: Throw the object she is holding or (if she has previously eaten ice cream) vomit
RIGHT: Do the action implied by the picture or be nice to the person she approaches
DOWN/RIGHT: Set down the object she is holding
DOWN: Pet dog (always pet dogs) or be nice to a person
DOWN/LEFT: Do not pick up object
LEFT: Do not do the implied action
LEFT/UP: go around
Go DOWN/RIGHT to eat ice cream
she will not go RIGHT/UP to throw up immediately after eating the ice cream ("a little while") She will not release her phone (she will only go UP/RIGHT or DOWN/RIGHT if she is holding an object she has picked up) She will always obey a sign (to "do" is to go RIGHT, so she will approach the sign by going RIGHT
Obey the laws of physics (she will not try to pick up a tree house or rest room, etc)

Using these rules (and the logic of building a continuous path from A to B), it is possible to eliminate all paths but one. (black arrows for not possible movement, blue for possible, red for definitely the path, green for path insists due to eliminated options)

Based on what we know, we can fill in some easy arrows:
1. She obeys signs, so she goes RIGHT to "do" the action implied by the sign. The she must go RIGHT to the lady because if she goes UP/RIGHT then DOWN, she is stranded at this point. Now she must go UP then UP because those paths are logically necessary 2. And some easy black arrows: she will only go down for people or dogs (black all down paths that are not people or dogs). She will only go up for liftable objects (black up to restroom, up to bearded man).
3. She must approach the basketball hoop DOWN/RIGHT from the firefighter (set something down at the basketball hoop). She will not go there from the ice cream or treat it like a dog or person. Then she must go UP to the empty bottle (pick up the bottle, path logic insists). Now from the bottle she must go UP or she will create a dead point at the hammer (exchange the bottle for the hammer). And likewise she must go LEFT from the hammer (do nothing with the flowers, no other path remains). From the flowers, she must go LEFT (do nothing with cupcake) 4. Now we know the firefighter is approached after coming from the fence (she is nice to him) and we have connected our starting path, so we know she has set a baseball down by the basketball hoop. We also now know that the donut is approached from the LEFT (nowhere else to go from ice cream, does nothing with the donut, presumably because her tummy is hurting). 5. She must approach the ladies room at some point. Due to black arrows, there are only 3 valid approaches. We can eliminate everything but one by traversal logic. If she approaches from the dog C, the tricycle kid will be a dead end. If she approaches from the kid, the checkers game will be a dead end. So she must approach the restroom from dog A. Now the only possible move from the kid is LEFT (don't play checkers), and from checkers, LEFT/UP (go around the creek).
6. We also now know that from dog C, she can go nowhere but DOWN to the kid on the trike (she is nice to him). All other destinations are blocked.
7. So she must go LEFT/UP from the ladies room or she will create a loop (go around the stroller). This connects with home! 8. Now our gardening lady has only one way to leave and it gives us a hint at what this little scamp has done. She must go RIGHT/UP to the cop (throw something). This eliminates other paths and means also that she goes DOWN to the gardener (she is nice) and DOWN to beardman or else a loop or endpoint will be created. 9. Now only the sunglasses position can approach the beer from the LEFT (she does nothing with it. Also she cannot go RIGHT/UP (throw something) RIGHT /DOWN (set something down) after leaving the dog B because she has just thrown it at the cop and not picked anything else up. So she must go RIGHT to the candy (eat it, thereby doing the implied action).
10. This leaves the donut with only one exit, LEFT (do nothing with the cone) and the trash can with only one approach, DOWN/RIGHT (set something down). Now the moves from the candy and cupcake are forced. She goes UP to pick up the can (which she then throws away), she goes LEFT to do nothing with the stereo and LEFT to do nothing with the sunglasses.

At this point, her path is complete. Here is how things went down:

She left the park and did not climb a treehouse. She pet a dog, kept off the grass, said hello to a lady. She picked up a penny then immediately exchanged it for a ball. She walked around the wall and the fence, said hello to a firefighter, then for some reason decided she would put a baseball on a basketball court. Kids. She picked up an empty bottle then exchanged it for a hammer she found. While carrying the hammer, she passed and did nothing with flowers, a cupcake, a radio, some sunglasses, and a beer. She said hello to a dude in a beard then a lady tending to her garden. She then threw a hammer at a cop and went to pet a dog, after which she ate a piece of candy. She picked up a can, threw it away, got some ice cream, didn't eat a donut, left a traffic cone alone, pet a dog, said hi to a kid on a bike. She left the checkers game alone, went around a creek, pet a dog, puked in the rest room, went around a stroller and came home.

Solved: