Would you be irked if a friend's child deliberately cut up one of the letters in your DC's copy of the Jolly Postman?

[DowagersHump]

I am a bit. I should get over myself shouldn't I?

yy, from nickel

I'd see my arse.

I'm still gutted about Naughty Girl breaking my TIny Tears doll and stealing the earrings and ring from PEaches and cream BArbie when I was six.

I get really cross when other kids take stuff off ds when he's playing with it. I dread the dcs being old enough to start having friends round and breaking thier stuff.

HipHop - you must buy it from Hive instead :)

I still feel a small amount of rage every time I see the coat rack that ds's friend broke a hook off of (on purpose that is). 6 years ago

I am enjoying the oh dear God...a book was damaged gasps of outrage.

I still think it is harsh to assume that the child was malicious or does not respect books or things. I think children can be infuriatingly dense.
DD also carved 'are you torking to me' into my bedside table once. No idea why. She never damages things. And the spelling was unforgivable.

Pag has no idea of value or damage - don't forget this is the one that threw good wine all over my socks and shoes

I know some children that gave the vintage rocking horse a hair cut

That did not go down well..........

Pag. Children can be indeed be infuriatingly dense.

Ds once cut the cat's fur. I have only just re-allowed him free access to scossors 9 years later

My point upthread ( the problem here surely isn't about an unreasonable attachment to material things ) was meant to be directed at HipHopp btw.

And I demand that the parent purchase a new one from nickels shop too as she won't say it herself

True.
Fucking hell! I should have bought you new shoes and socks, shouldn't I?

I think I am odd. Sorry.

DS1 had a party when he was 18. Some of the partygoers were in our dining room as one of the boys played piano. One of them sat on our £4,000 pedestal table. Broke it.
I never even asked who did it. They were guests in my house. It was an accident.
Am I odd? I am aren't I?

I once kicked my shoe off at a friends house and it went straight through the closed window rapidly followed in the same house spilling ribena all over a cream carpet.

we are still friends though 30 + years later

www.redhouse.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10151&catalogId=18201&langId=100&productId=176251&searchTerm=jolly+postman. £6.49 for replacement copy. I would have been upset too.

I think accidents are different...it's wilful distruction that irks me. We had a beautiful kipper book with loads of flaps and a little light at the end that switched itself on when you opened the last flap. A friend's 5 yr old kid came over and while they were upstairs he systematically went through it and ripped out every flap and totally decimated it.

Mind you, this is the child who's sister I found with a pillow over the face of my 18 month old DS. Psychopaths in the making???!!!

Oh yes Id be annoyed. ds is 5 and would not DARE.

dd would but shes 19 months so thats normal right?

Sitting on a table and breaking it accidentally is a bit different - that is accidental. Cutting a letter in half is a bit more deliberate. However, I should have put it away if it was that important to me.

I do fully accept that I'm incredibly anal a bit precious about books. I won't lend anyone a book if they fold down the corners when they're reading and most of my books look unread because I try not to crack the spine

I'd be cross at purposefully breaking stuff, though tbh I bloody hate that sodding boring never ending fiddly Postman story so I'd have been pleased in a way. DS had a friend round the other day who broke some things and his mum didn't bat an eyelid. I was gobsmacked.

Oh see now yabu, books are made to be read, why would you want a book to look unread? I love a book with a cracked spine and turned over pages.

you are anal

I would be very annoyed, particularly as I recently waited 3 months for Amazon to send it to me - they struggled to get a copy and in the mean time the book's price shot up. It was over £50 at one point!

If you want to keep a book (or a toy) in pristine condition then put it away and don't use it. a 6 year old child will do things that seems deliberate to us but not to them, it happens.

It's fine to be irked about it but to expect a full replacement seems a bit ott.

Oh I know what you mean Dowager.
To be honest i just think that a five year old cannot really be expected to be always reliable even if they are behaving perfectly most of the time.
An 18 year old is arguably big enough to understand that a formal dining table, especially one with 8 chairs around it, is not where they were supposed to sit.
But they were relaxing with their friends and the sensible part of their brain disengaged. Like 5 year old brains do. That's all.
But I understand why you are miffed.

It always confuses me when someone says in response to this kind of thread "we don't damage books in our family" (or similar)

Is there some special category of heinousness (heiniosty?) that is damaging books thats so much worse than anything else.

Is there some research showing a link with book damage and serial killers?

Yes it would piss me off OP, but I'd probably get over it. In the end. (But then I'm a spine cracker)

I would offer to replace it if I were the mum, as the child is old enough to know better. There is no way my 4yo would do that.

I loved my Jolly Christmas Postman as a child - I haven't bought a copy for my DCs yet though as my 2yo is not old enough to know better!

your friend should buy you a replacement copy

Kew - well the Nazis burned books

Yay - Godwin's law. I win the thread :o

I used to think I was a book lover, until I moved upteen times and ran out of space to shelve the things. Not to mention dusting .....
Now I'm a kindle lover.

But the DD's do have a huge home library. DD has always been very good with books, never ripped one even as a baby, though DD2(12 months) looks like she may be a natural ripper requiring some non-ripper training.

Some of our favourite books are tatty and ripped (being hand me downs). I think it adds to the story rather than detracting from them.

I seriously can't see what there is to be precious about. the letter was torn in half by a naughty or thoughless 6yo. So stick it back together.

I think actually it is the non-perfectness of the book that is now bugging the OP in which case keep them in cellophane/on a high shelf or somewhere else equally useful in the pursuit of keeping things perfect.