DD’s friends have absolutely destroyed my carpet.

[MyOwnBestFriend1989]

I don’t even know the point in posting this but DH is on a business trip and all my friends are probably watching the England match so have got no one to rant to.

my DD (12) had her friends over today and they went to B&M or wherever it was (honestly couldn’t care less at this point) and bought some of those stupid stress toys. They’re the ones filled with fluorescent, possibly radioactive, liquid and you squeeze them. when they came back they were instantly playing tug of war with them, jumping on them and just stretching them beyond their limits. I said, in no unclear terms, “if one of those pops and goes all over my carpet I’m going to hit the roof”. Obviously I got the whole “we’ll be careful!” reassurance, and please don’t ask me why I didn’t confiscate the toys off them because I honestly don’t know!

i was downstairs catching up on Eastenders and one of the girls comes down looking guilty and sheepish and disappears into the kitchen. She comes out clutching my Zoflora and I instantly ask her “what do you think you’re doing with that”, she claims the girls were “just making potions”. My response was “not with my Zoflora you’re not now what’s the real reason.” Cue her bursting into tears shouting “we didn’t mean to!”. My stomach dropped.

I’ve marched upstairs and there it is - a, what can only be described as marinated, ocean blue stain clearly smeared into my cream carpet. Not only that, there was also some scrunched up bits of toilet paper in it which had a faint blue tinge to it meaning they had obviously rubbed it in in an attempt to get it out.

i have to give myself credit for I didn’t scream or shout at the girls: I said “girls, you have half an hour to ring your parents and get them to collect you.” There were no arguments and rightly so.

it is now 11pm and I’m yet to receive an apology text from one of the parents - not that a “sorry” WhatsApp message will pay for my carpet to be professionally cleaned.

don’t know what the point is in posting this but just deflated to be honest. Unless of course anyone has any advice on how I can get this stain out or indeed on how to passive aggressively message the parents to imply that I do indeed want to be indemnified for a professional clean.

This is entirely your fault, it was an accident and I wouldn't even have sent them home. They tried to clean it up.

If I were the other parents I would be thinking you completely overreacted.

Lesson learned the hard way, OP. Next time, put a firmer boundary in place.

If i was one of the parents, I'd be mortified that my child had damaged someone else's home.

With the help of that persons child

Not being horrible but they are at your house and you weren’t watching so I wouldn’t really feel it was my fault as a parent of another child to replace your carpet. I would apologise and make my child apologise but they were under your care and you saw what they were doing and let them continue so I feel like the blame falls on you here. This is what house insurance is for…

Sorry, this is on you. It was your dd and her friends, so you and your dd are the accountable one here. You knew they were playing with them. I suspect one burst by accident?

It was an avoidable accident and my dc would be in trouble for letting it happen on their watch.

I agree with what many people have said. I would have been horrified if my daughter had caused damage to someone else’s property but I have to agree that you are largely to blame for allowing the girls to play with toys like this indoors. And I think your reaction was totally over the top. This will be all over the school by now and your poor daughter will get a really hard time when she goes to school tomorrow about her psycho mum.

They are 12yo. You were the supervising adult who let this happen. It’s got nothing to do with the other kids parents, it’s your responsibility.

you seem to be implying that the friends were entirely to blame and your DD had no part in it. Why on earth would you expect other parents to pay for your carpet cleaning?! Hire a Rug Doctor. Surely as parents we expect accidents happen from time to time?

No she hasn’t. You’ll see if you actually read her posts.

OP, I am sorry but YABU. You had the chance to remove the squishies and didn't. You were the adult in charge and had responsibility over what they were doing. You should have removed them.

When DD was growing up she would go round to friends houses who all had different rules , no slime, no playdough, no shoes in house etc. All you had to do was take them off them and return when they went home.

As so many PP have said, just claim off the house insurance.

Accidents happen when you have kids. I still have blue stains on my carpet from painting or playdough.

OP, you clearly knew that these toys can break and spout horrible stuff so you should have insisted the kids played outside. I know you said you asked them to and they said it was too hot, but as the parent it was on you to insist.

By all means be annoyed with the kids but be more annoyed with yourself for not properly parenting the situation.

You knew they had them but left them to it. Why didn't you tell them to go in the kitchen where it would easily be cleaned up? Who has cream carpet in the hall anyway especially not with kids?

Ace bleach is good for stuff like this. Get the one for colours though not whites.

Agree. We have four teens in this house and if a 12 year old turned on the waterworks with me after a fuck up, they'd be given short shrift.

I don't think I would be expecting the other parents to pay but I would be in a brutally bad mood about it.

I would never have cream carpet in my home.
Accident’s happen. If you are expecting a parent to pay, then all of the parents should contribute as all the children were playing with them, it happened to pop on one.
I wouldn’t shout at them either. The stain will fade.

What a fine example of emotional regulation and proportionate reaction that would set for children.

I confiscate these things all the time in class, they are a menace.

But, the liquid is water soluble.... I tested this after one burst in my desk draw. A good carpet cleaner and detergent should work.

Can’t you just be happy that they were having fun and being creative, OP? 😀
@MyOwnBestFriend1989

If you get this far OP, I’d be hitting up professional carpet cleaners, chat GPT, Nancy whatsername who can just about get any stain out of anything, and I’d try absolutely everything I could. You can’t possibly make it worse. Good luck.

Attempt to remove it yourself then professional clean and your DD pays for it.No friends around for at least 6months.

Duplicate

I sympathise. When my daughter wasn’t much older, she had a sleepover downstairs and they were ‘cat walking’ through our conservatory into the dining room, yanking the curtains open. I told them to be careful, but I didn’t stop them…. They managed to pull the curtain rail out of the wall. I wasn’t happy, but it was my fault for not being stronger and stopping them. The kids were very sheepish and apologised. I didn’t ask or expect anyone’s parents to pay, I just learnt from it for the future.

wait - what? Talk to me about bleach for colours ….. is that a real thing? How does it work? (Real question, no sarcasm)

Incredible how much some people appear to hate their own kids.

Its likely in this case however, that the DDs friends won’t have any intention of coming back anyway so the OP can rest easy on that front. Her DD on the other hand may wish her mother had handled it differently. I really hope this does not cause friendship issues for her.