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Original poster

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:
EdersonsSmileyTattoo · 08/04/2021 23:07

DS then in Y8, engaged in behaviour at school that he knew would get him excluded as he absolutely hated the place, there were problems from the minute he started in Y7 that I’d tried to address with school but they treated me like “that parent”.

He was lucky to be offered a managed move to another, much better nearby school and is absolutely thriving which I’m so pleased about, but the period that he was suspended/in isolation for was horrific (for all of us).

Cleverpolly3 · 08/04/2021 23:09

@Parkerwhereareyou

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.

One day they will cross that rubicon That or you’re on glue Wink
Northernsoullover · 08/04/2021 23:11

@Parkerwhereareyou

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.

Hmm yes, what HAVE you been smoking?
swg1 · 08/04/2021 23:12

@Nobbynobbsknob

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.

I'm very sorry but this shouldn't be funny but I can't stop laughing.
HazelBite · 08/04/2021 23:17

Emtying a whole bottle of Fairy liquid on the cat was fun for the four adults it took to hold him and gently wash it off!
He was a friendly cat up to that point!

Trustisamust · 08/04/2021 23:17

At the height of the pandemic last year I was heavily pregnant with my fiancé's baby and my 13 yo told me I was an effing c*, that he wanted to go and live with his dad ft, and that he never wanted to see me again because he does not, and has never loved me.

That's what happens sometimes when you leave an abusive relationship - the kids are used as weapons Sad

Cardiffwales · 08/04/2021 23:21

YANBU but it’s been a tough year and you are having to work while they are home so go easy on them!!

lillylemons · 08/04/2021 23:30

ds 3 chucked a car at his sister's tv and smashed the screen.
dd put tomato ketchup in her dad's trainers when she was 4. she's 13 now and we still laugh about it.

SheenMcQueen · 08/04/2021 23:33

DS stuck DD to a chair.

She is 2 years older and was always bossing him around/being in charge of games/noiser/more confident/interrupting etc. DS reached 'peak frustration' eventually when they were about 5 and 7 and put superglue (actual, proper, superglue) all over a plastic kitchen chair just before she sat down for dinner. A whole tube.

Tea took about 15 mins which was ample time for her skirt and tights to be stuck firm to the chair. Once we realised what had happened, we had to 'cut her out' which was a fucking nightmare because the chair had arms and there was no visibility or space to cut so we were cutting blind so close to her legs and bottom. She was screaming hysterically and DS just kept saying 'maybe you'll shut up now' and 'I wish I'd stuck your mouth'.

This was nearly ten years ago and DD and DS are best friends and much more 'equal' so we can all laugh about it now, but fuck me, it was a nightmare at the time. Not least because we had to punish DS even though DH and I did have a snigger later that night.

1WayOrAnother2 · 08/04/2021 23:36

I can look back on antics from our past and laugh now - may it happen soon for you too OP.

One memorable shared horror:

A frend moved into a (just built) new house (new carpet - new paintwork - new woodwork - new everything) and invited the NCT group round for coffee. (Mistake - mistake- mistake!)

In the rush to get biscuits she bumped and scratched the new glossy-red garage door. Luckily she saw the builders at work on another house and they let her have some red paint to cover the damage. A quick swish of the brush and all was well.

When we arrived, she shared the bisuits and showed us the new baby (didn't come with the house - but just as new and fresh) while the toddlers/pre-schoolers played in the new garden (no new plants yet luckily).

I don't know who first noticed that the garden was quiet. It can't have been that way long.

We rushed out to find no children.
A door between house and garage was open and a trail of 'blood' stretched from it along the floors - walls -carpets all the way to the upstairs bathroom.

There a little huddle of 'bloody' tots were found attempting to wash off (or simply spread?) the lovely garage-door paint.

We haven't had another NCT meeting at that house.
We have vast knowledge of how to remove gloss paint from hair-nails-teeth-ears-shoes-clothes-coats-carpets-houseplants-mirrors...

Aberteifi · 08/04/2021 23:46

Eldest sons 2 and 3 at the time flooded the neighbors below me and destroyed there microwave.
same sons cant remember the ages got my Dp medication and fed it to the cat who was fine thankfully.
Dd aged 5 with her 6 year old friend wrecked his older sisters newly decorated bedroom make up in the carpet and bedding and all over the walls.
Dp decorated the bedroom for her after what happened only for them to be caught a couple of weeks later almost doing the same thing.
Ds 4 aged 7 last year was standing on my bed after watching Spy Ninjas on you tube decided to try a karate kick as i walked into the room and kicked me straight into the nose and i hit the bed blood pumpng out of my nose i thought he had broken it i was dizzy.
Ruined my new mattress now it has a massive blood patch on the end of the mattress.

Andi2020 · 09/04/2021 00:12

@Burnt0utMum hope your ok.
The worst part is the leaking ceiling the other parts will look minor when you get to teenage years. I know it probably seems so bad right now but when you see so many similar posts at least you know it's not just your kids.
My teen dd17 told me last night I'm only nice when she is doing something for me.
She painted the kitchen with me on Tuesday and said I was only nice to her cause she was helping so yes I had a good cry in bed.
She has broken doors threatenes to run away if she not getting her way.
Told me she hated me and rang the police to say I kidnapped her but hung up
This has all been this year so I have had quite a few breakdowns. There was plenty more in the past 5 years so just letting you know be prepared for teenagers

Milliepossum · 09/04/2021 00:36

My daughter when 2 saw a lolly pop stand positioned at a shop exit as we left, because we had to get somewhere and couldn’t go back into the shop to buy one she was screaming like she was being murdered and arching her back as I carried her back to the car all the way at the other end of the shopping centre. People stared, it was awful.

School made slime was secretly brought home by same child a few years later, some got on the cat and it matted her fur and hardened, I couldn’t shampoo it out (cat was hissing and scratching me as I tried to wash her) so had to cut it out of the cats hair, cat had a couple of large bald suede looking patches on her back until the fur grew back.

Same child and her brother were playing in the yard with a water table, when I wasn’t looking they had popped into the kitchen and took things like the blender, hand held mixer and measuring jug and other things outside to pretend cook with mud and rocks. I had to throw it all out because the dirt they sourced from the garden probably was used as a toilet by the cat.

Bumblebee1980a · 09/04/2021 00:48

Needed to read all these today Thanks

Charliecatpaws · 09/04/2021 00:49

When DS was about 6 he managed in one week to break a toilet seat, the letter box flap and pull down the shower curtain, I mean how the hell do you break a toilet seat FFS 😳

SunscreenCentral · 09/04/2021 01:09

Set up a secret “fly farm” in bedroom age 8.

Lunar2020 · 09/04/2021 01:22

This is outstanding!! Drawing a monster with certain...details, sniggering like mad here, trying not to wake anyone up!

PyongyangKipperbang · 09/04/2021 01:36

I was 20, a young single mum to a disabled three year old. I moved into our own home from my parents and spent a lot of the (not big) grant we got on his room. Beautiful royal blue carpet to go with his Thomas duvet, curtains etc. I managed without a lot of stuff in order to make sure his room was perfect.

3 weeks after we moved in....he found the massive Sudocreme (can we start an MN petition to ban the fucking stuff?! :o ) tub my aunt had bought me when he was a tiny baby. He had never suffered with nappy rash so it just stayed in the bottom drawer of his bedroom stuff and I never thought about it.

The gorgeous carpet was ruined and he was waterproof for about 6 weeks. I saw it and he was so proud of himself. I put him in the buggy, walked to my mothers (looking a right sight through the village, him white as the Snowman and me in tears) where she bathed him in everything up to and including swarfega and I went home and cried til I hurt.

Now its a nice memory of a lovely little boy. But only because he is 30. I would say up until his last birthday....not so much Hmm

PyongyangKipperbang · 09/04/2021 01:38

I should add that he is/was absolutely NT, he couldnt walk then. But he could fucking crawl to the fucking Sudocreme :o

ChickenGotLegs · 09/04/2021 01:52

[quote MrsKoala]@EarringsandLipstick thanks, they are real sweethearts even if they get it wrong a lot of the time. My favourite memory of this is when they were 5, 3 and 1. H was in the shower and I was choking on a bourbon in the kitchen. Properly, I can’t breathe on my hands and knees choking. The kids were watching and I was motioning to them to get daddy. Ds1 said ‘Mummy, do you need help?’ I nodded and gasped yes. They then ran off in the opposite direction to the playroom and returned with their toy drs bag and proceeded to examine me with plastic stethoscopes. As I lay on the floor expiring, with a plastic thermometer in my ear, I thought, this is so bloody apt. But I also thought how sweet they all were, trying their best to make me better. Obviously failing miserably though. Grin H arrived just in time and all was well. We still crack up at it though.[/quote]
This just made me proper laugh! 😆😆

Zakana · 09/04/2021 04:58

@SunscreenCentral

Set up a secret “fly farm” in bedroom age 8.
That is simply......disgusting, dirty little mites, aren’t they?
L3andlosingit · 09/04/2021 07:49

@Dishwashersaurous

Thats awful. But who was looking after them, if you are working and husband is out?
Did someone put on their JudgyMcJudge pants today?
Mumkins42 · 09/04/2021 08:34

It's unfair on you to work and have to care for two kids at that age alone on your own. So that's the problem, not them and not you. Punishment is not the answer. The answer is, can anyone help you at all in any way over the next week whilst you work. Punishing them is unfair as it's so much to expect two kids that age to just behave alone upstairs whilst you're not engaged. ( Not your fault btw!) When you're totally calm and chilled you could talk to them and try understand what happened and why. Keep it all out of reach so they can't access it next time. I think we expect way too much ofkids these days. I have done the same myself with my own. Hope you get some time to yourself soon, it's tough on you doing that all day whilst husband has luxury of 'escape'.

thebillyotea · 09/04/2021 08:45

It's unfair on you to work and have to care for two kids at that age alone on your own.

Confused

seriously, from which planet do posters like this come from exactly?!?

Bananajuice · 09/04/2021 08:54

My dd picked up a bottle and threw it at ds...it was full of juice so quite heavy. It hit him on the face and split his lip open, blood pouring everywhere. Had to go to a&e to get it glued and it left him with a scar. That's just the immediate one that comes to mind- there has been lots more!