Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

Would you be livid - ruined clothes?

86 replies

deliakate · 05/12/2011 17:12

Quickly popped with ds, 2.5, to the local shops for milk and he was pottering about on the way back. I was watching him closely on a particularly narrow bit of pavement when he plonked his hand onto a very wide, 4 foot high thick wall running alongside the pavement. I looked down and his hand and arm was totally covered in sticky, stinky white paint - very thick rendering stuff that you use on outside walls. Impossible to get off - maybe unless you have swafega (sp) which when we ran home I found out was all gone :(

Its ruined his Gap puffa (about £45 worth) and he reached up to his wool balaclava, so that's another £20. There was no sign in sight, and the wall is pretty long and unavoidable for toddlers. Its on my lovely purse too, and I'm just so peed off. I think the owners of the house have builders there, but there should have been something to let people know it was wet surely? AIBU ?

OP posts:

Methe · 05/12/2011 17:14

I'd be really pissed off too :(

CarolCervix · 05/12/2011 17:15

2 years olds gereally can't read though (except me, but then I was very precocious) and would still have touched it.
and £20 for a toddler hat? blimey.

gamerwidow · 05/12/2011 17:15

Yes, YABU it's a pain but just one of those things. Perhaps this could be a lesson that toddlers don't belong in expensive clothes because they will alwys find new and creative ways to ruin them.

chrimblycompo · 05/12/2011 17:16

well.....

even if there was a sign he'd have hardly been able to read it

but I guess you could have hung on to him

maybe take it to the dry cleaners, they might be able to help

hellhasnofury · 05/12/2011 17:17

If you need swarfega and have none mix a teaspoon of granulated sugar in with some liquid soap and use that.

Popbiscuit · 05/12/2011 17:17

YANBU. I'd ring the bell (calm down first!) and show them your son's jacket and explain. It's common courtesy to post a 'wet-paint' sign and they failed to do so. I would go in with low expectations and see what they come back with. Fingers crossed that they are decent sorts!

Original poster

deliakate · 05/12/2011 17:21

Update - my mum has been round and tried to speak to them. The au pair answered the door and she is also mad that she has it on her trousers and the children's school bags.

Re. the hat - its a really warm German balaclava from picapooh. DS gets lots of ear infections, so I felt it was worth investing in one that would really protect him and not fall off.

OP posts:

Original poster

deliakate · 05/12/2011 17:21

Family are home at 6:30, we will go back then. Grrrr

OP posts:

CarolCervix · 05/12/2011 17:30

but you don't get ear infections from hats

squeakytoy · 05/12/2011 17:33

Keeping your ears warm in cold weather helps when they are hurting though! :)

pigletmania · 05/12/2011 17:43

YANBU that is terrible. But that will teach you for paying £45 for a coat and £20 for a hat for a 2 year old.

more · 05/12/2011 17:49

Does it really matter how much the clothes cost? It is still extremely annoying having to replace the kid's jacket and hat. It could have been someone on an extremely low income struggling to make ends meet, just having spent their last money on kid's winter jacket. The cost of the jacket is completely irrelevant, it is the inconvenience, and I think most people would be rather grrrr at this happening to them.

Fayrazzled · 05/12/2011 17:51

Why are people being so snippy about the cost of the coat and hat? Neither is outrageously priced for decent winter items. And even if they were, the OP is entitled to spend whatever she likes so long as she can afford it, and still doesn't deserve for them to be accidentally covered in paint.

WaitingForMe · 05/12/2011 17:52

TBH I don't expect people to touch my property and if someone came to complain I'd be rather taken aback before telling them to go away.

I'd also be annoyed if your child smudged the paintwork.

more · 05/12/2011 17:53

so you wouldn't demand compensation from the council if they painted a wall or a bench and they didn't put up signs to warn you?

susiedaisy · 05/12/2011 17:54

YANBU they should of had a sign, but I think all you'll get is an apology if you're lucky.

Kormachameleon · 05/12/2011 17:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

slavetofilofax · 05/12/2011 18:00

I don't believe the wall was unavoidable, and if it really wasn't, a sign would have made no difference.

You should teach your child not to touch peoples walls anyway. I know you can't expect them never to do it even after they have been told, but hopefully your ds will now see why he shouldn't touch.

You can't go to the house and ask, it's not their fault.

ScorpionQueen · 05/12/2011 18:00

I hope they do the decent thing and offer to have them cleaned or replaced.

Can't believe the comments about the price of the jacket and hat- jealous much?

spiderpig8 · 05/12/2011 18:03

It is annoying, but is their wall which your child had no business touching.It is completely different situation to a council putting a 'wet paint' sign on a bench which is provided for the public to sit on.

winterfox · 05/12/2011 18:05

at your child has no business touching!

of course they should have put up a sign of some sort.

hope they give you some sort of apology/compensation

charitygirl · 05/12/2011 18:06

Also only on MN - people saying that you are in thr wrong for 'touching their property'. Does it make me a frothing berserker to say that attitude, if shared by the whole population, would lead to the wholesale destruction of civilised life in the UK?

JinglePosyPerkin · 05/12/2011 18:09

Sorry, it was a private wall. The owners are entitled to have it painted if they want to. Yes, a sign would have been the thoughtful thing to do but it probably didn't cross their minds that other people's DCs would be running their arms along their wall .

If I was my wall you wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting compensation from me.

JinglePosyPerkin · 05/12/2011 18:09

If it

babybythesea · 05/12/2011 18:10

I think go round and see, without expecting much. I think that something in a public area should probably have had a warning sign, and no he wouldn't have read it but I'm betting you'd have made extra sure to keep him away from it. (For those who wouldn't want paint smudged, a sign would also help avoid this!)
I think it's a bit unrealistic to say he shouldn't be touching a wall, that runs alongside a public pavement. I do - if someone wants to come by me and especially if the pavement is narrow I'd squash against the wall. And I'd be really annoyed to find that I was covered in wet paint as a result.

So go and talk to them, calmly and politely, and maybe suggest that a sign would be a good idea so that the paintwork isn't ruined, and so that someone who isn't nearly so nice as you doesn't get mad at them! And see what their response is to you helping them out of a potential sticky spot!

Flip

1 2 3 4