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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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What's the worst thing your kids have done to make you want to break down?

426 replies

Burnt0utMum · 06/04/2021 16:56

I'm working from home and kids are off for Easter holidays. Ages 6 and 5. I'm working downstairs and they were quiet for a while upstairs. I went upstairs to check on them and they had locked themselves in the bathroom. I told them to let me in but they refused to open the door. Eventually they opened it and they've used every single product in the bathroom. Soap and water everywhere to the point it's leaked through to the dining room ceiling (which is brand new plasterboard and skim only painted 2 days ago). My new make up that I hadn't opened yet and Lush gift set from my sister that I hadn't used yet have been opened and emptied. I've dried the floor and just had to walk away because I'm just so upset. They know they weren't supposed to touch any products in there and they know they shouldn't have done it but it's done now. I don't even know what punishment to give because I just feel so spent with trying to work while that's going on. DH will be moving the lock out of their reach when he gets home later and I've said they're not allowed their ipads or any of their Easter chocolate. Feeling like a failure. Please tell me I'm not alone having kids causing so much trouble!

OP posts:
Ameanstreakamilewide · 08/04/2021 09:31

@Carrotcakefiend

Locked us out of the house, panicked, lied and said she didn't have the keys. Then buried house keys in the back garden and denied all knowledge. Had to break back into our house and get all the locks changed. I dug them up a year later when gardening.

DD massaged my sourdough starter into our curly haired dog. It dried solid, and I had to shave the poor dog as it was during lockdown 1. Then she cried because I'd stopped her dog being fluffy, and called me horrible. My DH bought me my dog as a pup when we first moved here. It took everything I had no to scream at DD that she was ruining my joys in life.

I thought of this straight away!
Ameanstreakamilewide · 08/04/2021 09:33

@stressbandit

I can't find the tv stand photo but here is one when I left them alone to go to the toilet and in a minute my eldest had OPENED a bottle of fake tan and gave it to my youngest. Shock had to keep checking the carpet and baby every hour to make sure they wasn't developing tans!
Lovely wallpaper! 👍
Ameanstreakamilewide · 08/04/2021 09:48

@Pandoraslastchance

I was hanging shopping out. Little gits poured 5l bottle of blue comfort over fairly new cream bedroom carpet and all dh shoes including his brand new suede boots.
Please tell me the shoes were blue! 😉
TomPinch · 08/04/2021 10:05

What’s that AA mantra? ‘ Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference.’

It's actually a prayer written by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.

imsanehonest · 08/04/2021 10:30

Youngest DD aged 2 painted leather sofa with nail varnish. ExH tried to get it off with nail varnish remover before I could see it 🤦🏼‍♀️ Honestly, that sofa looked like the kind you find in skips by the time we got rid of it.

Same DD at about the same age, climbed on chair next to the tropical fish tank. Chucked in some Post-It notes, a few Boggle cubes and....a full tub of fish food.
All was fine till 9pm that night, I was sat next to the tank when my eyes were drawn to a commotion in the tank - all the fish had swam to the top and were gasping for air and, in a matter of seconds, all died one after the other. 😫

Pandoraslastchance · 08/04/2021 11:59

Nope beautiful green ones that had been hard to find as dh has strange sized feet.

NeverDropYourMoonCup · 08/04/2021 13:29

I decided that, as I'd had my first ever haircut and looked nice and neat for once, my cat deserved one too. So she had perfectly even, expertly trimmed, 2cm long white whiskers, complete with my graduating them to mimic the shape of her white bits around the nose and deciding upon 2cm because it was just long enough for them to be seen against her black fur.

Cat was fine, albeit a little less confident going through gaps for a while. She also sat and let me carefully snip each whisker with the baby nail scissors, so as far as I was concerned, she wanted this haircut, too. Never did find out whether she had any plans for a holiday, though.

Certainly better/less damaging than my half brother's;

Telling 4 year old half sister that we were going to pretend to be superman and slide down the stairs on our fronts. He didn't tell me that I needed to make a turn at the end of the stairs, with the result that I slammed headfirst into the wall and was knocked out cold.

Chasing 4 year old half sister round the garden and as I reached the corner, pushing my head so I walloped it directly against the edge of the bricks. Not quite knocked out that time.

Got 4 year old half sister to come and see what he was doing around the side of the house. Sprayed me with lighter fuel and set me alight.

No, no SEN. But he had been neglected, abused, despised by our mother and his only protector, his father, died when he was 10 and I was about 6 months old. So he'd had 4 years of her knowing there was nobody to stop or question here about his multiple non accidental injuries by that point - whilst the new baby 'sister' was an adored little toy until she started arguing back and history repeated itself with her.

EarringsandLipstick · 08/04/2021 14:01

No, no SEN. But he had been neglected, abused, despised by our mother and his only protector, his father, died when he was 10 and I was about 6 months old. So he'd had 4 years of her knowing there was nobody to stop or question here about his multiple non accidental injuries by that point - whilst the new baby 'sister' was an adored little toy until she started arguing back and history repeated itself with her.

I'm so sorry Mooncup that's just 💔

timeforanewnameagain · 08/04/2021 16:36

Not my children but my brother and I. Aged about 8 and 9 ish (so far far old enough to know better!) decided to lock ourselves in the bathroom and have a wet toilet paper fight. Which then turned into getting handfuls of soggy toilet paper and throwing it so that it splatted and stick to the ceiling and walls. It was everywhere and my mum went absolutely mental. I remember thinking she was a bit OTT at the time. We got grounded and had toys confiscated plus lots of yelling.

Now, as a mother myself I'm not sure how she stopped herself from strangling us both! Confused What naughty children Blush Sorry mum!

timeforanewnameagain · 08/04/2021 16:39

Oh and I also tipped a pint of water out of my bedroom window once. When my mum was sat underneath it having a coffee with her friends and I was supposed to be in bed. It hit the parasol and went everywhere. I was a little horror and I don't know why because I was well brought up.

lifeinlimbo2020 · 08/04/2021 17:07

@SignMyStookie

Oh and joined the dots on my dalmatian with permanent marker.
@SignMyStookie 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 sorry. Very naughty but so funny. Did you take a photo?!

MrsKoala · 08/04/2021 17:18

Youngest DD aged 2 painted leather sofa with nail varnish. ExH tried to get it off with nail varnish remover before I could see it 🤦🏼‍♀️ Honestly, that sofa looked like the kind you find in skips by the time we got rid of it.

Ds1 tipped a pot of orange nail polish on one cushion of our oxblood leather Chesterfield and I stupidly cleaned it off with nail varnish remover. It took all the colour off to a bright red. So now the middle seat is a contrasting fire engine colour!

H is currently on the way to a&e to have ds2 chin sewn/glued AGAIN! He has tripped and gashed his face because he was running and not concentrating as usual. It’s like cats. I often wonder how children ever made it to adulthood, they just don’t seem evolutionarily sound to me. Grin

KisstheTeapot14 · 08/04/2021 17:29

@SignMyStookie sorry I just had to laugh at the joining up of dots on the dalmation, so bad, yet I can see it may have been irresistible. Made my day, though possibly not yours at the time.

Did it grow out as the hair grew?

BunsyGirl · 08/04/2021 17:38

DS2 had terrible tantrums. Age 2 he had a massive tantrum and pulled over our 50 inch widescreen tv. He’s lucky he didn’t seriously injure himself or worse. He’s now age 7 and regularly wins awards at school for his “impeccable” behaviour. Who’d have thought it?!!

FancySomeChips · 08/04/2021 17:41

Opened their car door while we were moving and going round a corner on a horridly busy road. They were in the back I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
How no one got hurt I don’t know.
Turns out we were passing their friends and they wanted to show off our new puppy who was strapped in between their car/booster seats.
Felt like such a failure of a parent. I had watched a Casualty episode where everyone was stuck in the car after the doors had been central locked/had child locks turned on. Clearly you can’t win.

What made it even worse was the friend’s mum putting it on the class WhatsApp group so everyone judged me for years after.

OhFFSMum · 08/04/2021 17:45

My husband has just this second sent me a photo of a big red drawing our 3 yr old has scribbled all over nanny and grandads wall this afternoon (we've been at work). He's shocked that our son 'isnt even sorry!!!!' ... well duh? He's 3

Middersweekly · 08/04/2021 17:53

When DD1 was 2 years old (she’s now nearly 18), I put her down for an afternoon nap, normally she messed about for 10-15 mins then fell asleep but this particular afternoon she did an enormous poo in her nappy and decided she would quite like to redecorate her room in turd. She didn’t have a paintbrush so she used her hands! There was a poonami all over the room including, bed and bed linen, the carpet, fireplace and bedroom door! DD1 was also covered in poo, her hands being completely caked! I always remind of this when she gets a bit big for her boots! I nearly had to throw the whole baby out with the bath water! Honestly it was rank!

tolerable · 08/04/2021 17:54

ds2 very kindly cleaned the floor in bathroom with(absolutely ludicrously expensive)£85 face cream my mum had bought me. she accidentally left receipt in a bag,i remember feeling a bit sick as was on around £85pw income at time.ida got jeans,a top,and a niight out for 85quid!/fuull new face. i never confessed ,filled the pot with aqueous and she snuck a wee pearl every visit for months/swore by it too!

Notagoodtime · 08/04/2021 17:54

Lots of different moments!

DS when 7 was asked not to touch the tester pot of Cuprinol. Opened it anyway and it sloshed all over his new school uniform , my brand new coat (which I had saved up for). I sent him to his bedroom to write lines as I didn’t know what else to do!

DD is a little minx too. I told her off for something so she decided to get her own back. She decanted the sugar from the bag and replaced it with salt. The next day I made a lovely batch of cupcakes only to find that they tasted vile!

maddiemookins16mum · 08/04/2021 17:57

DD cut the cats whiskers off.

FunTimes2020 · 08/04/2021 18:06

@SignMyStookie

Oh and joined the dots on my dalmatian with permanent marker.
Grin
Anastar23 · 08/04/2021 18:08

Feel for you, really don’t understand how you are expected to work from home and look after children!

MissConductUS · 08/04/2021 18:32

I had a laugh reading the first page, then remembered a habit of my DD when she was a toddler. If left alone in a room, she would open all of the drawers, pull out the contents and pile everything up in the middle of the floor. After she did this in the kitchen we started calling her Meggie of Mass Destruction.

bellocchild · 08/04/2021 18:33

Makes you rather nostalgic for the days of smacked legs and early bed with no supper?

Myfriendsays · 08/04/2021 18:34

Drew all over my leather settee with Biro. Luckily found a company who could get it out. Cost me £250