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.

Agree with this. It wasn’t the kids’ fault, they tried to make it better. OP made a daft decision leaving them to it. She knew it would happen and just let it happen.

Oh my goodness, had a break from MN today and I’ve come back to all these messages having a go! Chill out!

Er, sorry …. You brought it up …

That’s pretty funny, given that you responded to a stained carpet by congratulating yourself on ‘not screaming or shouting’, sending all your daughter’s friends home, and planning to ask their parents to pay you!

@MyOwnBestFriend1989 You asked whether you were being unreasonable to have sent the kids home or not. So people are giving you their views. Some agreeing with your actions, but most are saying you were over-harsh. Not sure where I stand on it to be honest.

I think you also needed to chill out with your daughters friend to be fair!

It’s lots of mumsnetters have loads of money so they can afford to simply shrug and just buy more. Meanwhile in the real world…

@SuddenLightbulb

errr she was right to send them all home! What would you have done?! Smiled and baked them all a cake?!

Well said 👏

Thats annoying and i understand why you are upset, but honestly, you consented to them playing with these awful things indoors knowing the risks.
i think you were harsh sending the girls home and i think this will stay with your DD for a long time.
I had a similar carpet debacle with my DD (a bit older than yours) with fake tan on a cream carpet.
There are some great carpet cleaning options around.
Having said that if my DD had been sent home in these circumstances i would have messaged to apologise and offerred to share the cost of carpet cleaning.

Sorry it was just getting a bit overwhelming reading all the messages back so I snapped, but you are all right this is partly my responsibility. Anyways I got a quote for a professional clean… and it turns out the cleaner is the parent of one of the girls. I lied and said I’d spilled some Blue Curaçao on the carpet because it’s not really worth snitching, what’s done is done

@MyOwnBestFriend1989 I don’t think it was necessary to tell the parent that the stain is blue curacao - their daughter will have told them about their experience when you chucked them out. I doubt there is a single child in your daughter’s year group who doesn’t know that you gave all your daughter’s friends 30 minutes to get out of your house for causing damage that you could so easily have prevented 😆😆

Lying about the stain is ridiculous. A) it’ll be obvious it’s not blue curaçao, and B) it will need a very different technique to the slime so may do the carpet even more damage.

Why did you lie? The girl probably told her mum all about the situation. Mine would have and we would have agreed you’re bonkers for going OTT.

I hope your DD manages to forgive you for humiliating her. It’s tricky enough for kids to navigate friendships and fallouts without mothers causing them problems.

Oh no, this is when it becomes ok to say what happened - you say oh the girls were being silly with a squishy and got slime on the carpet and the parent hopefully gives a discount.

I’m struggling to understand your position op.

from what I can read, it’s in your house, you were in charge, you knew they had the toys, you knew they were rough playing, you left them to it, an accident occurred and you wish the parents not there to apologise to you?

Don't lie about the stain ffs! The chemicals to remove it need to be tailored to the stain...

You're so weird, OP. 😂

Why lie about the type of stain? You just don't need to say how it happened. 🤣

How is it snitching - your attitude is scary OP, if it was my 12 year old you made cry for accidentally spilling something on the carpet i wouldn't be happy.

It wasn't an accident as the girls were told to behave.

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.”

I can’t believe you spoke to one of your daughters friends like that. No wonder she burst into tears.

They’re kids. Accidents happen.

And if you don’t want your CHILD buying silly toys then you shouldn’t have let your 12 year old go to B&M alone with her friends.

I bet all the girls were telling their parents what a horrible and unwelcoming woman you are so no wonder would they want to text you to “apologise”.

I don't think that OP can reasonably ask the other parents to pay, but nor do I think there is anything wrong with a cream carpet in a family home or that dc should be expected to "hammer the general household environment."

We have cream carpets and the only real stain has been a visiting child; ours have managed perfectly ok because we teach them awareness. I grew up in a home with quite a bit of antique furniture and was just taught from an early age that interiors are respected, not hammered. I think it is quite ok to teach children respect for their environment, be that cream carpet or antiques or not polluting rivers or woodland etc.

But if OP wants that respect instilled (and cream carpet!), she needs to step in decisively before the spillage, not after.

OP i have seen your update and think I would be honest with the cleaner about what is on the carpet..

I understand we have all made you feel bad about blaming the children, and that is why you have said it was something else, but in that context the "snitching" is justifiable because they need to know what the substance is to treat it properly. It is different from ringing and snitching to get them to pay out of guilt.

Just be honest and say you felt bad you were cross with the girls at the time so were trying to limit and more mentioning of the toys, but then realised they will need to know how to treat it.

If any of the girls have said something about what it really is, you will look like a liar. And if they haven't, you look like you were staggering about sloshing alcohol! There is no real win there!

I understand your motivation but it is the wrong moment for downplaying the incident now.

ETA and while you have had a hard time on here you will NOT be the first parent to have had those hideous trashy squish toys explode ruinously. They will probably be able to respond with their bottle marked "daft, mindless squish toy fluid remover." Honestly I wish the trend for these things would move on!

So the cleaner is conveniently one of the parents and you've lied about what the stain is you're so desperately upset about so they won't know what to clean or how?
Ok OP....

Why on earth did you lie. Be truthful about what it is so that they can apply the right techniques to clean it, just don’t tell them in an accusatory or angry manner