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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Rude text from holiday let .. how to control children’s mess.

274 replies

Nogg · 14/11/2022 12:46

I feel a bit upset. I got this really rude shaming message from a short ( 2 month) rental owner I was staying in. Saying I left it a mess/ unclean with small damages. That it didn’t smell nice etc
I feel a bit mortified as the lady was nice. I thought I’d cleaned it ok but she disagreed. So embarrassing.
There was no dining table do had to eat on sofa . No hoover so I bought my own albeit cheap one.
So now I’m thinking maybe I am not making enough effort. I try to control kids 4 and 7. I wfh full tube plus extra. There is so little time with work, school and basics to cover. I try to stop youngest kid from making a mess but he (and actually both seem really messy eating ) and youngest is generally destructive. I’m always telling off, nagging and cleaning but maybe I don’t do enough or maybe I’m not very good at it.
how can I get kids not to make a mess. Feel really upset at myself! I am always nagging but kids don’t change or listen.

OP posts:
Itsabitnotcold · 14/11/2022 15:42

Also, I hate when airbnbs don't provide a functioning hoover but have high expectations of cleaning after your stay. If you don't provide a hoover, I won't be hoovering.

Vikinga · 14/11/2022 15:44

I wouldn't worry about it op.

When I stay at my parents' , they hover over the kids being completely anal about mess. Takes the pleasure out of eating.

What I did was feed them in the kitchen and they weren't too bad, just a few spills and grubby fingers on table. Easy to wipe and mop area.

Some people are messy eaters. My boyfriend is quite messy and I'm very neat.

I remember when my kids were younger some of their friends were very messy. Again, I made sure that they only ate in the kitchen and it wasn't a problem.

It's easy to forget what kids are like when yours are older.

Gumreduction · 14/11/2022 15:46

Vikinga · 14/11/2022 15:44

I wouldn't worry about it op.

When I stay at my parents' , they hover over the kids being completely anal about mess. Takes the pleasure out of eating.

What I did was feed them in the kitchen and they weren't too bad, just a few spills and grubby fingers on table. Easy to wipe and mop area.

Some people are messy eaters. My boyfriend is quite messy and I'm very neat.

I remember when my kids were younger some of their friends were very messy. Again, I made sure that they only ate in the kitchen and it wasn't a problem.

It's easy to forget what kids are like when yours are older.

What does a messy adult eater look like?!

amicissimma · 14/11/2022 15:46

It's hard to judge whether or not YABU or is the landlady being unnecessarily harsh without seeing (and smelling!) how you left the place.

Whatever, it's water under the bridge now. You may have to pay an extra cleaning fee. You may be more particular about cleaning another time (or you may be luckier with your landlady!)

I don't think you should have had to buy a hoover - better to insist that one is supplied or put in writing that you expect its absence to be taken into account when the place is inspected after you leave. And I really don't understand what your relationship with your ex, who was presumably not there, has to do with how you clean a house!

Pegasushaswings · 14/11/2022 15:46

Take no notice of the holiday let, more fool her for not providing a vacuum before letting it to you for 2 months. A holiday let should have some basic cleaning facilities available to guests and a table if there is room or what do they think guests do when they eat?
Also,holiday let’s will have cleaners, it would probably need a deep clean or at least a longer clean after 2 months, if they didn’t provide cleaners weekly as pat of the let.

GooglyEyeballs · 14/11/2022 15:49

Not sure what you're expecting OP. You've admitted your kids are messy, destructive and you didn't do a great job of cleaning. Telling your kids off doesn't make any difference to the land lady if you damaged and messed in her property. You should apologise and offer to pay for a proper cleaner. I think it's awful when tenants don't respect the property they're in. I say this as a renter. You can hardly call the landlady rude as it seems fron your own admission that you damaged her place and left a mess.

Gumreduction · 14/11/2022 15:49

Perhaps it was made clear in the terms and conditions that unfurnished and NO vacuum provided and tenant expected to provide

Johnnysgirl · 14/11/2022 15:53

Some people are messy eaters. My boyfriend is quite messy and I'm very neat.
Confused
That sounds deeply unattractive... Presumably he cleans up after himself, though, rather than offering some excuse as to why the mess should remain where it is?

WombatChocolate · 14/11/2022 15:56

It sounds as if this wasn’t a standard holiday let. Such a place is fully furnished and would usually have a hoover. However, a standard rental property probably wouldn’t and a tenant would provide their own.

When you leave a holiday place, there’s a tight turn around of a few hours. You’re expected to have washed up, swept up or hoovered major debris, but it’s usually expected that a cleaner will wash the floors and hoover and whizz round doing a basic clean in an hour or two. You wouldn’t expect to need to do a deep clean after only a week. Holiday makers don’t expect to do deep cleaning and spend hours on it before they leave, but food on the floor etc, overflowing bins are not expected either.

Rental properties are different. There’s a tenancy agreement and cleaning to a decent standard is expected…and you’d expect to use your own hoover and cleaning stuff. You’d expect to have paid a deposit and there to be an inventory and part if the deposit could be withheld for leaving for example, really greasy disgusting cooker and hood, damaged carpets beyond wear and tear, dirty curtains etc.

This seems to have fallen between a basic holiday weekly let where everything is provided, and a more typical longer term tenancy.

Either way, small children are messy but parents have to clear up after them. Having a small messy child doesn’t justify leaving a mess behind, even though sorting it out is difficult. It’s what parents do.

And I take exception to the word ‘shaming’ - this is used correctly as a way of suggesting that someone has been told off unreasonably and made to feel small beyond the thing they have done. It doesn’t apply to a case where someone has simply had a fact pointed out to them. Op did leave the place in a mess. That seems to be a fact. She wasn’t shamed in terms of personal comments being made, nor about her as a mother. It is her own attitude and failure to actually take responsibility for the actions and mess of her children, and not liking being called out on it, and an attempt to shift the focus of blame that results in the use of ‘shaming’ here. The LL was not wrong to comment on it. She did not shame the Op.

The Q is what the OP will do now. Will she reply and apologise at the very least, and think about how she can do better in future? Will she offer to pay for cleaning or offer to go back? Ie will she take responsibility and rectify her error? Or will she decide the owner was in the wrong for contacting her and that she herself is the victim here? That’s what some people do and why there is over-use of the word shaming - it’s often as excuse for bad behaviours and an excuse not to do anything about a situation and to allow oneself to develop a victim mentality. Unfortunately, many people often jump on he bandwagon and declare ‘shaming’ has happened too and we have a society which is heading towards no-one being allowed to speak a fact which is at all critical, and the idea that no-one should ever have to hear a hard fact or critical point about themselves. None of it bodes well for a future if resilient and responsible people.

Midge75 · 14/11/2022 16:02

Nogg · 14/11/2022 14:07

I feel spread quite thin. I probably should have don’t better.
I sometimes find it hard to get kids to behave, there is work, school, all house work all income. Moving long distance.paperwork etc also had a unexpected health issue had to get dealt with ( lump turned our benign) . Doing fun things with kids letting them settle in.
I try my best but now feel very upset like a failure .

Please don't feel too embarrassed. It's done now. It sounds like you cleaned, but some people aren't as good at others at cleaning. That might be you, it might not be - there's no way of saying without seeing the place. My husband is not good at cleaning. It's his job to do the dishes, but almost every plate will have bits or streaks or something. It drives me crazy, as I often have to re-wash. He told me once he'd blitzed the bathroom. I went in and without even inspecting I could see dust, hair (I have two daughters, all of us with long hair - it gets places!) and bits of limescale in places. He'd done an ok job - it looked clean on first glance - but his idea of blitzing is very different from mine. And I'm not a clean freak, so it's not me being fussy. It may be that you are similar - you don't see the smaller details maybe. Or, she was a fussy landlord - we've had that. I cleaned a previous house with my sister, then we got the landlord's appointed cleaning company in to do it again and the landlord still wasn't pleased. It happens. You have a lot on your plate and as long as your house is 'clean enough', that's fine. When you stay elsewhere, try to be extra clean. Use some of the tips nice posters have given you. Get people to help if necessary. But don't beat yourself up.

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 14/11/2022 16:03

I don't know why you're getting such a hard time when there was no table to eat from and no hoover to clean up with.

What was the damage exactly?

Honestly chalk it up to experience and move on.

Coyoacan · 14/11/2022 16:05

I don't know the rights and wrongs of it, but a box of chocolates or bottle of wine might help to smooth ruffled feathers

Johnnysgirl · 14/11/2022 16:07

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 14/11/2022 16:03

I don't know why you're getting such a hard time when there was no table to eat from and no hoover to clean up with.

What was the damage exactly?

Honestly chalk it up to experience and move on.

Well, there wasn't a hoover provided (and there should have been), but op did actually buy one herself?

zingally · 14/11/2022 16:16

If you honestly did your best, with what you had available at the time, then I wouldn't give it another thought.
But if you find yourself thinking, hand on heart, "yeah, I should have been better", then lesson learned for next time.

BellePeppa · 14/11/2022 16:19

Always take photos before you leave a rental. If there are issues either side you have photographic evidence.

BigSkies2022 · 14/11/2022 16:21

Hello OP. You probably caught the landlady/owner on a bad day, and between tenancy cleaning is hard work. Tenants, whether long or short term, always want to take over a property that is in a pristine state, and are seldom able to leave it in the same state. Would you steam clean all the appliances and floors? stand on a step ladder to scrub the top of cupboards? dust light fittings and bulbs? wash curtains, mattress protectors? remove all the limescale from the shower screen and taps, replacing the seal if need be? scrub all the grot off the grouting and restore the colour with one of those grout pens? check behind the kickboards under the kitchen units for grot and clean it all out? If the loo pan is stained, and regular bleach doesn't clean it, have you put spirits of salts down? Well, if you don't clean to this degree, then the place won't look and smell clean to the inventory clerk or the next tenants. It's a lot of work, and someone has to do it.

AloysiusBear · 14/11/2022 16:25

What was left broken/damaged by your DS? Were there any visible stains on carpets or sofas?

I'm afraid if you know he is "destructive" (clumsy?) you need to ensure he can't reach breakable items. If he's doing destructive things on purpose, you need to impose clear consequences, every time, and if necessary step in to gently restrain him/move him away. You can't just allow him to destroy things that aren't your property.

If there were things broken or damaged, you should have paid to replace/repair.

Branleuse · 14/11/2022 16:25

Were they just moaning or are they trying to charge you money?
If theyre just moaning then try and ignore it.
Kids being messy eaters at 4 and 7 while staying in inadequate holiday facilities during a massive upheaval, is really not anything to beat yourself up over. Now you are moved into your own place and its a fresh start. Im sure she charged you plenty enough to absorb the cost of a clean.

Nogg · 14/11/2022 16:44

Just moaning.
it was expensive nearly 5k for
two months.
she checked it with me before we left so it wasn’t really trashed on surface.
when she started cleaning she decided it want
that clean.

OP posts:
LondonWolf · 14/11/2022 16:53

I wouldn't give this a second though tbh.

LondonWolf · 14/11/2022 16:53

Thought

Saltywalruss · 14/11/2022 16:54

SantanaBinLorry · 14/11/2022 13:04

Give yourself a break OP... kids make mess.
Property owner should have said no kids if they dont want kid mess!

No, it's up to the OP to clean up after her children.

drspouse · 14/11/2022 16:56

If you did actually clean the leather, down the sides/underneath the sofa and wiped regularly, I don't get what mess could have been left?

Some people are just fussy. If she checked it on checkout then she should have spotted anything then. You have no guarantee she isn't just trying it on.

We went to a holiday let for the weekend, there are two flats in the building and the other one has tenants. Arriving mid-evening, we tried to get the DCs into the flat quickly but they were very noisy on the stairs and I tried to hustle them in but DS has ADHD and extreme sensory sensitivities so he perceived I was shouting at him and he broke down and had a meltdown on the stairs and I had to physically manhandle him inside. Next door complained but later in the stay I broke a pane of glass (totally my fault, just not looking what I was doing, thankfully not down to DS or DD!) and we rang the manager to tell them. Oh did next door complain to you? said the manager. He's always complaining about everyone, don't worry.

(I'm pretty sure any other loud behaviour wouldn't have been audible, just the initial arrival, as we didn't share any other walls with them and the floor was over a shop!).

SquishyGloopyBum · 14/11/2022 16:56

This isn't a tenancy, it's a holiday let and they didn't even provide you with a hoover!

Ignore her op. I don't clean holiday let's to a high standard when I check out. She should have known that a 2month let would entail extra cleaning at the end.

Go easy on yourself.

WonderingWanda · 14/11/2022 16:57

I suspect a holiday let owner won't be used to the same level of wear and tear that a longer term rental might do. For example, if people are on holiday for a week or weekend they probably don't spend lots of time in the property and don't have lots of stuff. As soon as you fill it with people, kids and toys there will be more wear. Also holiday lets are often small so you are concentrated in the space. Things like scuff marks on walls, dents in woodwork, marks on sofa's curtains etc. I imagine she isn't used to dealing with much of that but I guess that's what damage deposits are for. I would apologise to her and offer to pay for repairs / cleaning if required and then just move past it. Kids are by their nature messier than adults but they grow up and leave one day and then we too can become house proud again.