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.

My 12 year old has her friends round for a sleepover this evening too, they are also making a bit of a mess. No burst squishies yet, but in the past we've had accidents with slime etc. I don't think I'd send them all home, it was obviously an accident and they tried to clean it up, poor kids probably feel awful. Fair enough to ask parents for a contribution the next morning I suppose (I doubt if I would).

Which room is it in? You say you were downstairs, so is it upstairs in your daughter's room? If so, she can just live with a stained carpet.

But yes, house insurance as others have said.

YABU, obviously. You knew what was happening and allowed it to happen. Why on earth should the other parents pay?

Assuming you are in England- you should of sent them out into the garden. I don't understand why you let them continue to play with them when you knew they had them indoors. You are responsible -not the parents who weren't anywhere near them and had no idea what they were doing.

Where was your child in all this?? I really don’t think you can expect anyone else to fix this one. You knew what they were up to. Your own child was involved. This is really on your. An apology would be nice but unless young no of for sure which child was ultimately responsible there’s not much to be done. This happened on your watch.

I agree. You saw them and even commented, that was the time to direct them elsewhere. I suspect they have not told their parents and whilst I sympathise that it's not what you want to hear it really isn't for the other parents to pay for.

Sorry forgot to mention it’s actually in the hallway which is probably why I feel the way I do

You can't expect other parents to pay for your carpet! You saw what they were doing, you even anticipated the issue and then walked away from them! This is completely on you.

Unfortunately your update is another example of abdicating responsibility to 12 year olds and just hoping it'll turn out okay. Not a strategy that's working for you.

You’re not being unreasonable to be furious. But I think it might be part of being a parent. Unless a person had unlimited time/money, houses aren’t going to remain pristine with kids about (esp teenagers in my experience). Sorry. I understand it’s really annoying.

If my kids had let me know what had happened, you’d get an apology and an offer to help pay for it. But if not expect you to take me up on it unless it was very specifically my child that had done a very specific thing.

Yeah, this falls into the category of a regrettable mistake on the part of the responsible adult. You could see what they were doing and you left them to it without explicitly telling them to either stop it or take it outside.

Everyone knows kids can’t squeezing those toys to their limit as that’s what makes them fun to play with, and they’re made from cheap materials and usually last weeks at best.

You are the parent so why didnt you parent?

This seems a bit over dramatic. Why not get some carpet cleaner out and ask the girls to help clear it up instead of ordering them all home for doing something youd left them doing.

YANBU in my opinion! You let them keep the toys in your house and you didn't supervise them playing with them, or direct them to play with them in a room with a more easily cleaned floor (a tiled kitchen or bathroom for example) or to the garden.

If I were the parent of the child who tried to get the Zoflora to clean up and my child told me how you'd spoken to her, I'd be waiting for an apology message from you. What an awful way to speak to anyone, let alone someone elses child, and one who was trying to solve the problem.

I've got now experience with these toys personally but the Dr Beckmann carpet stain remover is my go to.

It would take a while for me to not be a bit cross, with them and myself for not stopping them. I had a similar thing anout a month ago, although only my DC nobody else involved and now they have pink splatters on their bedroom carpet they can live with it as they did it and cover it with a rug if they want. Where is the carpet?

Has your DD apologised and thought about how to clean it properly?

I agree with everyone else that you were the adult present, it’s no one else’s fault you thought they’d make a mess but decided to watch tv and leave them to it. Screaming would obviously have been completely unreasonable.

Your own child was there, making a mess, not fessing up or trying to clean it.

YABU - your daughter was also involved. You are completely over the top

Cream carpets in an adolescent's room was always going to be a disaster. I'm not sure it's worth trying to professionally clean or replace the carpet. As your daughter gets older I'm sure she will drop make up, hair dye and everything else colourful associated with teenage girls, along with straighter and curling iron burns. Just wait until she moves out and you can enjoy a nice clean house.

Your poor daughter. This is on you.

Cream carpet in a hallway!!! 😕

Why didn't you tell them to play in the garden when you could see what was going to happen? Its not like its icy and snowing outside!

They are 12, not 5. They are certainly old enough to know better. Yes their parents should stump up.

i did say that they could go in the garden and they said they didn’t want to because it was too hot

It's annoying but entirely predictable. I think you over reacted by sending them home. Accidents happen. You have a couple of different options for stain removal
Washing up liquid & white vinegar
Hydrogen peroxide
Vanish.
Have a glass of wine and give your daughter a hug. We've all been there she's probably feeling sick about it.

I don't know exactly what's in this, but if it's like the stuff dropped on my mate's cream carpet, it doesn't come out with cleaning-and she got a professional round too. It was one girl who was at fault and the parents did pay for it-can't remember how much it was.

Is it in your daughter’s room? I’d leave the stain in their that’s a result of her own actions I’m afraid

Edit sorry missed the message where you said it’s the hallway. Kids make a mess I’m afraid tell her she has to do some chores to help “pay off” the cost it’s a life lesson. She’ll have been embarrassed anyway from it all. Also try renting a carpet cleaner first!