Deliberate Damage to sofa-wwyd

[Dailywalk]

Over the weekend my dd (6) had a friend over. They had scissors out as they were doing some craft project. I noticed today the sofa has been damaged . It’s been snipped in a couple of places. Tiny cuts but still they are there.
My daughter didn’t know anything about the cuts and I believe her. She’s the kind of kid that would cry and guilt would make her confess if it was her.
I don’t want to confront anyone but I suspect the friend has done this deliberately when she’s been on her own in the room. I’m fully expecting backlash that they shouldn’t have been left alone with scissors but they often get on with craft projects or games when I’m in another room. Wwyd?

Ah @5foot5 I love that, I can feel the enjoyment in that spree.

Get a couple of pairs of children's scissors with round edges and no pointy bits. Have a rule that scissors only used when sat up to the table. Chuck a throw over the sofa. Oh and have similar rule for felt tipped pens, glue etc.

Sue the six year old. Some dodgy lawyer somewhere will take your case ;-)

What can you do? Stitch it up and don’t leave six year olds alone with scissors again.

Completely your fault - you were the adult supervising. And doubt it's on purpose - it's vey predictable that a six year will cause accidental damage if they are doing artwork on a sofa - hence why my kids are only allowed to do crafts on the table or on the floor lined with newspaper.

In answer to your question, I’d do nothing. But I wouldn’t leave 6 year olds unattended with sharp scissors again. You can get rounded ones for children. I wouldn’t leave them unattended with those either though. Kids often randomly decide to cut their own hair! I definitely wouldn’t mention it to the parents of the other child, as you weren’t supervising and can’t know that it wasn’t your child, no matter how unlikely. It could also have been accidental if they were cutting leaning on the sofa.

Anyone naive enough to leave two six-year olds alone with a sharp sissors is probably naive enough to believe that her own six-year old could not have been involved.

I'd count my blessings that they still had all of their fingers.

Jesus wept.

There is no way you can let 2 6 year olds play with sicssors unattended in your sofa and ask the other mum for anything - it definitely sounds like a bad idea.

You might have accidental damage cover on your insurance but it's a push to decide if it was deliberate or an accident.

This is amazing. 5foot sicssorhands

Why would immediately think it was done deliberately and not by accident?

Oh the faux naivete.

What should I do if my sofa got ruined when I left two unsupervised 6 year olds on it with scissors, doing crafting?

Obviously, the only answer OP wanted to learn (That she had NO idea of) is: do not leave unsupervised 6 year olds with scissors doing crafting.

Surely OP wouldn't have understood this blatant fact herself.

That's the only reason she posted. Poor innocent OP. Just needed someone to tell her - don't leave kids with scissors on your sofa.

Hold on, you left someone else's 6 year old kid alone with scissors?! This gets worse the more I read! You're responsible! Wwyd - learn from making such a silly mistake and be grateful nothing worse happened!

Sew the sofa up or claim on insurance.
As you said yourself, 6 year olds shouldn’t be left alone with scissors

You've said they are tiny cuts - that could easily be accidental with one of the kids using the sofa in leiu of a table to lean on rather than deliberate.

Also, it really might have been your DD.

This OP.

Don't have that friend over again.

You can even explain it to your DD if she asks, that it's because when they were together the sofa got damaged.
Children learn best through natural consequences.

In your position I’d blame myself that I’d left 6 year olds alone with scissors sharp enough to cut upholstery! Those must be some sharp scissors, good job they didn’t cut themselves

Darn/repair/forget about the sofa cuts, chalk it up to a learning experience, supervise in future, move on.

If you came to me and said that last time my 6 year old had come over to play and left alone with sharp scissors bla bla bla had happened i'd only be hearing the first bit and i'd be bloody angry with YOU!

I'd say nothing at all to anyone and be thankful neither kid hurt themselves.

You're seriously suggesting punishing two unsupervised six year olds for behaving like two unsupervised 6 year olds?

I agree that people learn best through natural consequences - OP will learn that the natural consequence of leaving two 6 year olds unsupervised with scissors sharp enough to cut robust sofa fabric is that her sofa got damaged and she will need to repair it. And hopefully OP will learn to supervise playdates after experiencing this consequence.

OP should just be grateful that none of the kids gouged their eyes out or cut their fingers or skin - and that she was able to get her daughter's friend back home in one piece.

As a child of a similar age I purposefully caused damage to a piece of furniture in my family home when I had a couple of friend around. When my parents confronted me I convincingly lied and said I didn’t know anything about it. To this day my parents believe it was caused by one of my friends.

You don’t know how this was caused. It may have been your daughter. It may have been her friend. It may have been purposeful. It may have been an accident.

This is a lesson to you. Children are careless. Children are impulsive. Children can be sneaky. Children can be liars. Children won’t always respect furniture. Children don’t think through the consequences of their actions. Six is still very young. Young children shouldn’t be left unsupervised with sharp scissors. Be thankful it was only a sofa they cut and not their hair!

Moving forward the only real course of action to take is no more crafting on the sofa, crafting should take place sat at a table where damage is less likely to occur accidentally or purposefully. Crafting which involves anything that could cause damage or standing such as scissors, glue, paint etc should only take place under adult supervision.

Why on earth do you think the other child did it deliberately??

What I would do is thank my lucky stars that nothing far more serious happened while I left two young kids alone with scissors sharp enough to puncture a robust sofa. Like ending up in the A&E. Then I'd make sure I don't do it again.

It’s a robust sofa not with flimsy fabric. There are three definite cuts and a fourth where the scissors haven’t got straight through. These are not accidental.

If either child laid paper or other material on the sofa so they could cut it out with pointy scissors they could easily have cut right through it into the sofa fabric without knowing or noticing.

That's almost certainly what happened.

I remember doing this with a rug when I was small - it wasn't deliberate at all it was me cutting on the floor & not realising I was also cutting into the rug