DD’s friends have absolutely destroyed my carpet.

So you parent and say "sorry but you cannot play with those inside".

Just get the carpet cleaned and give the bill to your daughter. She can sort out with her friends about paying it between them.

You massively over-reacted.

Your poor daughter.

Shes entering the most difficult phase of her childhood where friendships are notoriously hard to navigate and teens, especially girls, can be incredibly cruel and the effects can be damaging and lasting. You’ve embarrassed and isolated her over a carpet.

If your daughter is scared to tell you they’ve spilt something on the carpet for fear of how you will react , what will she do when she has something really serious she needs to tell you? She just won’t.

Awful.

Text the parents by all means , but make them apology texts for your behaviour.

They are 12. It’s just a carpet.

Shouting at your 12 year olds mate and making her cry….pre teens are brutal, they will probably throw this in her face for months or fall out all together all over an accident.
seems a bit rash

If its a cream carpet with a blue stain does it matter if it is wool or not bleach safe? It's ruined anyway!
Instead of ranting at the kids I would have instantly got a bucket of hot water and as much bleach as my eyes/lungs could stand and scrubbed the stain for dear life.

It’s 50/50 here 12 is old enough to be responsible! They shouldn’t have done it, OP you also should have insisted they weren’t allowed to play with them in the house!

I'm sorry that your carpet has been destroyed (and I do mean destroyed as I don't think you're going to be able to recover that toxic blue from a cream carpet). So I think you'd be wasting money on a professional clean to get it out. Try to minimise it by one of the self-help cleaning solutions, but you're best off covering it up with some sort of runner carpet or replacing it altogether. Like others have suggested, make a claim on your house contents insurance if you want.

But, as for getting the other parents to cover your costs, you're only going to ruin whatever relationships you have with them, and most likely many of them will refuse to pay. I would. You had responsibility for ensuring that the girls were behaving. Telling them that they "could" go outside and play with the stupid toys was a suggestion, not a directive. Had you said, "You can only play with that squishy thing outside" and one or more of the girls got your daughter to agree to disobey you, perhaps you might have a justifiable reason to contact those girls' parents and ask that they split the costs with you. But in this scenario, it's really all on you. Sorry. And good luck.

Your title says "daughter's friends", your daughter was responsible too. If it was a potential scenario (which you knew or you wouldn't have had the conversation), then it should have been an absolute "no way, get outside". Considering the recent reports of these things bursting and the contents causing burns they wouldn't have even made it into the house. As you witnessed them essentially playing tug of war with them and didn't put a stop to it, you are to blame.

DD’s friends haven’t destroyed your carpet. Your DD and her friends have destroyed the carpet accidentally doing an activity that you knew they were doing and knew had a high chance of destroying the carpet.

Stop looking for blame in others and look closer to home.

White vinegar works a treat! I know from personal experience. Soak the goo on the carpet in white vinegar then you will be able to scrape most of it off and then you can scrub it with soapy water.

These things happen OP. Definitely try the white vinegar- magic!!

I don't think there's much point going over the rights and wrongs of the situation.

Is the carpet wool or synthetic? My relatively new synthetic carpet is bleachable, and frankly was the only reason I dared risk an oatmeal coloured carpet. I don't know if there's anywhere you can test it, but if it's bleachable you may be in luck. I spilt a whole jar of chilli jam on the floor which was a bright red, heart in mouth, type disaster.

What sorted it out was a fair amount of water which I used to loosen it up, with an ancient plumbing towel that I then trod into the carpet like someone tredding grapes, which got out a good load of it. I kept doing that over and over until I had got the majority of it out. Then I used some very very diluted bleach which sorted out the rest of it. Obviously you need to know the carpet is bleach safe to risk that though!

Imo you relied on children throughout this 'event'. You're the adult.

Of course they won't have told their parents what happened

Chalk it up to experience. Don't allow children to run the show again

Can we all at least agree those toys are totally annoying?

I wish there was a MN campaign to ban the sale of them.

The carpet contamination happened when you were the supervising parent, and after you foretold that it would happen.

Your DD was left in charge of her friends.
You should have banished the toys as soon as you saw them being mistreated.

Hire a cleaner a.s.a.p.

Don't charge the parents but do not allow your DD to have guests over nor to visit her friends for six months.

They will remember the consequences.

The OP didn't seem to care what the children did. She preferred to catch up with Eastenders and couldn't be bothered to supervise.

Until her cream hallway carpet was destroyed.

yes, I'm getting this too.

This x 1000

You had the opportunity to prevent this. The other parents did not.
It was over dramatic and nasty of you to spoil everyone’s night just because you were incapable of telling a bunch of children that they couldn’t play that way inside. It is ridiculous to expect other parents to pay for your mistake.

I think op isn't normally like this. I've got a weird hunch she's wound up about dh's business trip and this was a last straw. Just something in the way she phrased her op.

The burns are caused by children putting them in the microwave. It's something that they were getting off TikTok. Just as well the girls didn't do this

And yet none of what anybody has said seems to have sunken in does it love.

Better to get a professional in as they will know what to use. Some carpet cleaners will just set the stain.

Also, your message feels very full of stress. Are you stressed more widely? Perhaps you should evaluate whether the problem is actually the carpet or more that you are on the edge anyway with whatever other issues and this was just the straw that broke the camel's back, and why you reacted so harshly.

Your fault I'm afraid, you should have removed the toy or stood over them until they went outside. I don't say this unkindly, my child recently drew all over her bed with pens that I knew I shouldn't have let her keep playing with but felt too exhausted to argue about. We just have to learn from our mistakes. I'd get a carpet cleaner machine and then get DD to do the cleaning with it repeatedly as a learning point. I'd leave it with her friends, I think you've punished them enough.

As your own daughter was taking part in the 'game' that ruined your carpet (and you knew about it and didn't put a stop to it immediately), I don't think you should expect the other parents to pay. It would be different if the other girls were doing something without your or your daughter's knowledge.

ETA: I'd be furious with them (and DD), of course, but just as angry with myself that I didn't confiscate the toys or send them outdoors if they wanted to continue to play with them. If you specifically forbade them to play with the toys and they continued, fine to send them home early, too, imo.

The other parents are not going to pay to clean your carpet, you should have taken the toys away. They’ll already unimpressed with you for sending their kids home over this, please don’t embarrass yourself further.