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

[Burnt0utMum]

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!

The worst one was finding an ink stamp that says 'fail' and employing it all over the top floor of the house.
Walls. Doors. Wardrobes.

Several months later I found that the stairs had also been deemed inadequate.

It has proved to be a lasting testament to how I have in fact failed as a parent.

The glitter glue fight was a special moment too.

DD then 5 And her cousin aged 6, We were having a family gathering and I was rushing around getting last few bits ready and tasked them with putting paper cups outside with the rest of the drinks. They decided it would be really helpful if they poured all the wine and beer that was outside on the table into cups, they made delicious cocktails of red and white wine and a
lovely beer head with a few crisps chucked in as a garnish.

Thanks for this thread, if I was undecided before this has put me off having kids for life. I'd be livid if someone took my brand new make-up and wasted it all!

My DC went into the spare room to watch telly, age 5 and 7. My sister was staying with us for a few days, and her things were in there

We heard some giggling when they came down the stairs

DS 1 walking around like a drunk, and DS coming down the stairs absolutely unbalanced and fell over and was asleep

They had eaten my sisters zopiclone tablets as a dare

We rushed them to A&E. but all we could do was for them to stay 24 hours under observation as the drugs were already in their blood

We then faced an interview with Social Services before we were allowed to take them home

It was not funny, actually, at all

At least your DC just ruined “stuff” OP. Stuff can be replaced. Messes can be cleared up. I have learned along the way that “stuff” (material possessions) are not that important as they can be replaced

@SignMyStookie

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

I laughed out loud at that one!

Oh my word, how upsetting. My dc have always gone in for the mental torture rather than physical destruction as well.

EarringsandLipstick

With my kids, it's more the mental torture, than physical destruction, that has brought me to the edge.

My much-loved Grandma had died a few months previously at 100. She'd lived the last decade of her life with my DPs, and we (& my kids) were very close to her.

While visiting my parents, my phone rang ... Grandma's name popped up 😳 I tentatively answered to hear my DC laughing their heads off at the other end.

They'd gone to some effort to find the phone, that my Grandma didn't really use & call me. They absolutely knew what they were doing, tho I don't think they got the emotional punch of it. Some people thought it was funny, but I was really upset by what I know they knew was a mean thing to do.

(My mum who was a bit sick of my hyper children by that stage was distinctly unimpressed & it just added to the stress all round).

When mine were 2 and 3 - my nanny called in sick the day of a big presentation at work- I had a stairgate on the playroom and left them there while I ran upstairs to get ready while my inlaws were on the way to rescue me.. I came downstairs to find DS1 had taken off DS2's nappy which by this time had had a poo in it and was riding his toy car over the dirty nappy leaving poor tracks all over the new cream carpet ... the smell still haunts me🤢

When DS 1 was 6 - he got hold of husbands beard trimmer and basically scalped himself from front to back right down the middle - we had to shave his entire head on a number 1 and it took ages to grow back.

Pre Easter one year I found both boys (3&4)sitting under the dining room table with all 5 large bunnies I had bought to give family the next day / all missing their ears..

You are definitely not alone

I remember doing the same as OP’s kids at a similar age, I remember emptying everything into the bath with my brother, we then added cold water, some toilet roll and we got in fully clothed 🤣🤣🤣, then there was the time my brother painted me with brown gloss paint that my dad had left in the garden.

My youngest dd has ASD and has got up to all sorts, there was the time she made hot chocolate in the bathroom sink, when I walked in it looked like someone had been very poorly and pooped everywhere, there was chocolate powder up the walls, on the floor and on the towels where she had wiped her hands. This week she cut her hair off.

@Vio112

I am currently pregnant with my first... So far I have learnt 1) keep sharpies in a lock box 2) always keep sudocreme out of reach

Yep, but you need to understand that toddlers have telescopic arms.

DS2 smashed DS1's adult front teeth with a metal carabiner hook he threw across the room. The teeth shattered into tiny pieces and a couple of years later he still has the temporary rebuilt ones instead of new permanent ones.
I still feel sick remembering the moment.

Looking back my older DS was fairly good.
He once emptied a tub of emulsifying lotion over himself when he was supposed to be a sleep. When I found him he was really slippy from the lotion. I took him to have a shower and the water just made him even more slippy

Younger DS is not even two yet but he is a different kettle of fish.
He runs into the bathroom, turns on the tap as much as he can, then puts his hands under the running water to make it spray all over the bathroom floor.
He opens shampoo bottles with his teeth and leaves them upside down in the bath so all the shampoo runs out.
He nearly caused a flood by twisting the tap on by such a small amount that instead of the water coming out into the sink, it dripped backwards underneath and behind the sink.
I took him out on his ride on last week and while right beside me he decided to go down a steep hill. I was right beside him but he started going so fast down hill I couldnt catch him to stop him. He was just going faster and faster with me running beside him before falling off.
He insists on helping me turn on the dishwasher. Whilst standing right beside me, he took a bite out of a dishwasher tablet. He immediately pulled faces due to the taste. I put my finger in his mouth and pulled out the big chunk, then thd broken pieces started dissolving in his mouth and I could see his saliva turning blue. I had to get tissue paper and try to pat it out of his mouth while he was gagging. My instinct was to give him water but I knew if I did that hed swallow the water and dishwasher tablet and prob end up in a&e after being poisoned.
He has a black eye this week due to falling when climbing onto a garden chair.
We're moving into a new house this year and am dreading it now after reading the stories of ruined couches, kitchens and walls.

As a child we had wallpaper that had an almost plastic surface. I peeled a little corner and it ran up the wall so nicely. Once I'd done one strip I realised I could do another, and another and, would you believe it, it looked like a Hawaiian skirt once I'd done THE WHOLE ROOM

Nothing. I love them. They're my children. I'm their mother. They could not do anything to break me down. I'm strong always for them because that's my job. I'm their mother.

Yes sometimes crying, sometimes being annoying, sometimes accidently wrecking stuff, sometimes getting it wrong in how they say things as they learn how to grow up and be themselves but ... I have always started from absolute love, which is what I had too as a child. There's really nothing that can touch absolute love.

There's really nothing that can touch absolute love.

what exactly are you smoking?

"I’ve found it to be a really hard part of parenting as I’ve always been the type to look after stuff but the mess they create is unbelievable.."

I know this is what I try to explain to DH that it's a constant battle to keep the house looking the same as when he went out. I can't improve it or clean it, damage limitation only, especially in the school holidays ( I'm a toddler and reception child owner.) And they always seem to be hurting each other by accident.

@thebillyotea

There's really nothing that can touch absolute love.

what exactly are you smoking?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I’ll have some of whatever she’s on, I can only dream of being that chilled and serene!

Most of our worst behaviour is from Ds now 11...he has escaped every nursery and school he's ever been to, been permanently excluded from 2 primary schools, escaped school at least 4x and had the police out looking for him, stole my debit cards on more than 1 occasion and used them to buy stuff on PlayStation, cut up a mattress and chucked it out the window, also cutting his hand open in the process, used to wee in boxes of toys/out the window/in shoes, once coloured his Willy in with purple and blue sharpie, is/was a serial flasher, shaved half his head at about 6, got on schools roof and refused to come down and school had to call the fire brigade, has broken at least 6 beds and destroyed countless mattresses, once drew what looked like a pentagram on his dads car with a rock, punched holes in walls and doors....jumped off a water slide and cut his chin open.....my girls aren't angels and have done the more normal cutting hair/sudocrem/ bathroom products/1 daughter did smash a 4 week old 4K tv at the beginning of 1 st lockdown by chucking a water bottle at her brother and missed......oh and there was that time devil child son chucked his toddler sister in the the elephant enclosure at the zoo.......my kids are awful

I’m actually not going to be very sympathetic here - why are you working when they’re at home? They probably did it for the attention!

Hmm where to start? When my now 8 year old son was a toddler he:

• Fed coins into the CD player of our car so it never worked again (we were wrestling with a tent at the time).
• Sprayed the telly with a kitchen cleaner. That never worked again either.
• Did all the usual stuff of drawing on walls, emptying slime on the carpet under a radiator so it is literally welded on (actually that was last week)
• Dropped a 5 litre can of paint which exploded all over the floor in a department store.
• Kicked the car door in a hotel car park so it damaged the other car. We spent a morning in a said hotel filling in insurance paperwork after that one.

I'm sure there's more. I've just blanked them from my mind or tried to. Kids are horrors, love 'em.

I have the utmost sympathy for you as I think it's impossible to work from home and parent children at the same time, something has to give as concentrating on both at once is difficult, if not impossible

@gallileofigaro, I couldn't agree more.

OP, sympathies. My DC1 and 2 were very quiet one morning when they were about 3 and 4. It turned out DC1 had been giving DC2 a crew cut. Until then, she had gorgeous waist-length hair.

There was also an episode with DC1 involving a hole being made in a water pipe, with spectacular results.

The prize definitely goes to the PP whose child joined the dots on her Dalmatian, though.

@Matilda1981

I’m actually not going to be very sympathetic here - why are you working when they’re at home? They probably did it for the attention!

OP is no doubt working while her DC are there just because she loves her work so much she can't stay away from it for a single minute.

@Matilda1981

I’m actually not going to be very sympathetic here - why are you working when they’re at home? They probably did it for the attention!

FFS.

Some of us have no choice!

@SignMyStookie

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

Sorry @SignMyStookie but I had to laugh at this.

DS6, who very much knows better, wrote on his bedroom wall yesterday in massive red writing.
I was a bit stuck on the approach I should take to telling him off as it said, ‘I Love You Mummy’. Grrrr.

My DD wrote graffiti on the walls, signed by her brother. Sneaky wee mite.

@Matilda1981

I’m actually not going to be very sympathetic here - why are you working when they’re at home? They probably did it for the attention!

So, there's been this bug going around for the last few months ...