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.

Totally on you. I can’t believe you are expecting other parents to pay. I voted YANBU by mistake!

Yanbu to be upset and good on you sending them home but I'd have sent them outside with the squishy toys right away. It's not like it's the depths of winter, they'd have been happy enough outdoors.

They are just normal children doing what they do, hammering the general household environment due to high jinks. Get the stain out as best you can then live with it. It’s just a carpet, just stuff really.And I’d tell people to wait to have cream carpets and cashmere cushion till they retire.

I would be more worried about the recent stories of the dangers of some of these toys. Maybe stop thinking the parents should be apologising about your carpet when they could be waiting for an apology that you let their kids get possibly dangerous chemicals on them?

You completely overreacted by sending the girls home. You could have really damaged those friendships.

It’s unfortunate but it’s just one of those things when you have kids, you cant expect them to pay. Don’t host if you don’t want to risk mishaps

Massive overreaction. It’s just carpet. You can’t be precious if you chose cream!

You're even more unreasonable than the OP & that takes some doing.

I doubt the parents even know, I doubt the girls went back and were honest about the whole thing. Honestly this is on you, cream carpets in a hallway are a bit bonkers BUT if you could see this happening and you let their daftness run anyway… more fool you! Annoying, but it is what it is.

Batfuck to expect parents to offer to pay for it.

I wouldn't let my own kid play with that crap out of sight in my own house never mind someone else.

If you've been daft enough to permit it then it's quite literally your mess to clean up.

And to be really explicitly, what I mean is why should I pay for your poor decision making. I'm not the gun house because I'm not fun!

You knew they were tugging and jumping on the toys and you knew that nasty stuff was probably going to spill out all over the carpet. Why didn't you put a stop to it or get the kids out in the garden. It's beautiful hot weather, why were they inside anyway? This was on your watch, in your home and your own daughter. The other parents will think you're bonkers if you ask for money.

Do you expect children to pay for a parents lack of parenting?

You are being ridiculous - you allowed the children to play with toys that they bought while with your child, under your supervision, you foresaw that they would cause a mess but let them play on regardless and now you want other parents to pay?! Madness.

This is fully on you.
kids are in your house, you’re the responsible, supervising adult.
you chose to let them play inside with something that could ruin your carpet and then got mad when it happened…

expensive lesson for you, I guess

Is it the carpet in your room or hers? If it’s hers she’ll have to live with the consequences of a multi coloured carpet

My DD’s bedroom carpet was multicoloured. She loved to paint, use glitter and crafts on her own, in her space, she’d spend hours painting, spilling glue . Sometimes she’d spill it outside her room,
Once she changed focus. I replaced with a wooden floor. .

“They didn’t want to play outside” - oh dear, well those are outside toys, so you’ll need to stop playing with them and do something else.

It's not the DD's fault, she's 12, a toy broke. It wasn't deliberate.

why would you punish a 12 yo at all, let alone for a whole summer??

YABU just because you have a cream carpet when you have kids!

@Parky04

Quite. You can only have the most forgiving poo brown coloured carpets in existence once you have children. Everyone knows that. Why didnt you know this, OP? @MyOwnBestFriend1989 Only your self to blame really in all this.

At least now you won’t have to worry about them hanging around your home as teenagers. You are not that mam. There is always one home teenage friend groups hang out. The one that makes them feel welcome.

Is this how 12 year olds behave? This sounds like primary school behaviour.

Love this.

Some of the suggestions on here are ridiculous and frankly abusive.”no friends for a year “ “no outings over the summer “

Really hope these posters don’t have children of their own. They sound worse than OP’s original nuts post

I am your daughter! My mum cried when I spilt dark green paint on my light pink carpet in my bedroom when I was 12. I felt terrible. At that age you just don’t think it’s going to happen to you! We just put a rug over if for years and then when I moved out at 18 they redecorated. If it’s her room just do this. If a communal room then bit different. My best friend was also there at the time but my mum didn’t bother her parents about it, it wasn’t their fault or their responsibility. Worse things happen OP.

They're only 37 school weeks out of primary school. Some might not even be 12 yet.

It is absolutely normal daft behaviour for 12 year olds, especially in unsupervised groups.