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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:
Temp023 · 06/04/2021 21:32

I stood under my neighbour’s window screaming her name and waiting to catch her toddler who had climbed onto the windowsill of an open window. Couldn’t do anything but wait, luckily her DH ( eho was meant to be watching him!) appeared and grabbed him.
That child was a nightmare, and still is as a teenager. I used to run across the road a few times a week because I could see him committing some atrocity in the garden. He’d got hold of some secateurs and was chopping the roses off, at the great risk to his fingers or some other horror. He also used to pee into a bottle and chase all the little girls with it. She still cries over him, bless her!

thebillyotea · 06/04/2021 21:33

The only thing that ever broke me involved injuries. As long as I don't have to rush a bleeding child to A&E, I am not that bothered. They get told off accordingly, but as long as there's no blood/injury or possibly a fire, it's all good.

Faulksonline · 06/04/2021 21:38

@SignMyStookie

Oh and joined the dots on my dalmatian with permanent marker.
This is brilliant! Sorry, have a 4 & 8 year old & wfh so fully feel all the pain on here, but this one made me proper chuckle
MrsS92 · 06/04/2021 21:41

The two that stand out are my eldest aged 3 covering herself and the carpet in black poster paint, she had never done anything like it before so the paints were always accessible, I had not long had her baby sister and was stuck cluster feeding so I think she was a bit bored/ feeling left out. Then a few weeks ago she accidentally pushed our brand new stroller into a ditch filled with stagnant muddy water on the school run, I had literally taken it out of the box that morning ! Luckily her little sister wasn’t sat in it at the time, unfortunately my sunglasses, her school bag and lunch box were though..
My youngest is only coming up to 18 months and already runs me ragged so I’m sure she will get up to all sorts !

jellymaker · 06/04/2021 21:42

I would be showing them how it hurts to have something you value being trashed by removing something they value. If not permanently, then for a substantial amount of time.

crazymare20 · 06/04/2021 21:50

My brother when he was around 5 year old killed all my mothers fish by pouring bubble bath into the fish tank.

Scoobydoobywho · 06/04/2021 21:55

I had shampooed the living room carpet as it was a bit cold to have the windows open to help it dry I put the gas fire on and shut the door. I went to see how the drying was going, only to open the door to a room full of smoke. Our youngest ds who was about 3 had put a crayon in the gap at the top, which then melted causing the smoke and a patch of melted purple crayon on the beige carpet. I think it's partly pay back because apparently I tipped a can of blue paint over my younger db when I was 3ish and he was about 18 months. Although I only have my parents say so that it was me. Grin

fruitypancake · 06/04/2021 21:57

At least the bathroom will smell
nice Grinlittle buggers x

reginafalange2020 · 06/04/2021 21:59

I had a newborn and a sudden attack of mastitis - I felt so ill.

DP was at work and so I was on my own at home with 3 kids, the 2 older kids (8 and 3) were arguing, 3 year old was being all energetic and puked up her tea which I caught in my drink glass - one handed whilst breast feeding a newborn on a rock hard painful boob. I begged the 2 older DC to settle down as I was feeling awful, they started arguing and kicked the cup of bright orange puke all over my brand new carpet. I guess they weren't actually being naughty, just not really listening but it was a serious low point as a mum,

I screamed into a pillow that day

Macncheeseballs · 06/04/2021 22:00

5 and 6 is so young, don't punish them too much

Florencenotflo · 06/04/2021 22:01

Dd1 wanted to help me, so she 'cleaned' the shower for me. Which basically means she squirted about half a bottle of mr muscle shower cleaner onto the outside of the shower screen. Thank god she didn't get it on her face or in her eyes. This was at the beginning of the first lockdown. I was working downstairs, dd had gone upstairs. She was 4 at the time.

As a kid me and my brothers gave each other haircuts.

littlepeas · 06/04/2021 22:02

My youngest drew a shark with a pair of (children’s) scissors onto the seat cushion of our leather chesterfield when he was around 4. It’s still there 5 years later. Luckily it’s quite an old one, so was already a bit worn and battered.

SeaShoreGalore · 06/04/2021 22:04

The Dalmatian is brilliant! Grin

reginafalange2020 · 06/04/2021 22:04

@SignMyStookie

Oh and joined the dots on my dalmatian with permanent marker.
PMSL at this 🤣
Kanaloa · 06/04/2021 22:07

I remember when DS & DD were 6 & 4, DS cut a big chunk out of the front of DD’s hair. Sounds like a small thing, but I was a young single mum at the time, so conscious of being judged, and it was cut so short that she had to have a Jim Carey fringe cut in so that the hair all matched. It was awful at the time but now we love looking at her preschool picture from that year, it’s so funny and DD loves it.

Dorisdaydream2 · 06/04/2021 22:12

My children ‘smoothed’ our neighbours newly rendered garage. They were so proud of their hard work. That was an awkward conversation!!

sparklefarts · 06/04/2021 22:22

5 and 6 are too young to just be left while your work surely?

Are your work OK with you parenting whilst your logged on?

Timeisavirtue · 06/04/2021 22:24

My dd8 talks so much, it’s literally non stop from the minute I get up to the minute she goes to bed. Today I almost lost my cool, I’m trying to do some work and she just wouldn’t stop talking. I think she has excessive talking syndrome. I just needed like 5 minutes silence so I could finish an important email. In the end I went in the bathroom to finish it.

Ladesiderata · 06/04/2021 22:24

The time three years ago when I FINALLY got something beautiful and breakable in the house, after raising four boys, who were into football, MMA, climbing, racing, boxing etc.
I bought a real christmas tree and spent a fortune on beautiful handmade glass decorations....
Son 2 brought new girlfriend in the front door just as son 3 knocked the entire seven foot tree over with the awful sound of glass shattering. Every bauble shattered and I cried.

cricketmum84 · 06/04/2021 22:28

Worst was a full on autistic meltdown a couple of years ago. He hadn't been diagnosed as autistic at that point.

He put three holes through the walls, smashed his phone into pieces, punched me, trapped me behind a door and broke my finger.

Makes the toddler days feel like a breeze.

Disclaimer: we are now out the other side and doing a HELL of a lot better

Bobbots · 06/04/2021 22:30

My brother was about 3 when my DP took him to a friends for dinner. For some reason they let him wander round the rooms downstairs unsupervised ( to be fair my DPs friends knew he was doing this but they didn’t have kids at the time so perhaps didn’t realise it might not end well). After he’d gone quiet for a bit they went into the other room to find he had got hold of a nearly full bottle of red wine and attempted to “water a plant” with it which basically meant he’d tipped the entire thing over their cream carpets. My parents never heard from them again!

RoseMartha · 06/04/2021 22:38

One used lipstick in the bath on their hair. It was everywhere. I had to let water out then it looked like a murder scene. Made said child clean the bath out.
Then i had to run it again and wash my dc's hair. Dc was not 5 or 6 at the time, was in fact 12!

I was so cross I was calm if that makes sense.

lms2017 · 06/04/2021 22:43

5 year old son somehow has been uploading videos of me to a YouTube channel .... He has also been vlogging? Me doing things round the house looking a wreck on a few hours sleep, moaning about daddy not picking his clothes up, going through the drive thru, my road rages ! , I didn't realise until I got an email warning about copyright ... That a video posted in a country was not allowed that music !!!

Never letting him play with my phone ever again......

Tbf I had quite a few views and likes! Grin they are now (videos) all locked to private and my phone password changed!

Ihatesandwiches · 06/04/2021 22:45

I'm investing in second hand sofas until DD (9) learns to put the lids on her felt tip pens. Cushions are positioned strategically as almost all the cushions (arm chairs and sofa) have some evidence of her artistic flair!
Not her fault, but the nose bleeds!! She has allergies and hay fever. I don't think we have a single pillow case, sheet or duvet without a blood stain. I hang the washing out in the better weather and they fade. Roll on sunshine!

Deedeedocket · 06/04/2021 22:47

I was a single parent for a long time and my dd with ASD used to poo smear.

The thing that tipped me over the edge though was when she slapped me around the face in a shop. She was only little but it was a proper slap and there was something so humiliating and degrading about it.

I broke down because someone behind me tutted and said something about learning how to discipline a child.