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.

The burns are caused by children putting them in the microwave. It's something that they were getting off TikTok. Just as well the girls didn't do this

I think op isn't normally like this. I've got a weird hunch she's wound up about dh's business trip and this was a last straw. Just something in the way she phrased her op.

You had the opportunity to prevent this. The other parents did not.
It was over dramatic and nasty of you to spoil everyone’s night just because you were incapable of telling a bunch of children that they couldn’t play that way inside. It is ridiculous to expect other parents to pay for your mistake.

This x 1000

yes, I'm getting this too.

The OP didn't seem to care what the children did. She preferred to catch up with Eastenders and couldn't be bothered to supervise.

Until her cream hallway carpet was destroyed.

The carpet contamination happened when you were the supervising parent, and after you foretold that it would happen.

Your DD was left in charge of her friends.
You should have banished the toys as soon as you saw them being mistreated.

Hire a cleaner a.s.a.p.

Don't charge the parents but do not allow your DD to have guests over nor to visit her friends for six months.

They will remember the consequences.

Can we all at least agree those toys are totally annoying?

I wish there was a MN campaign to ban the sale of them.

Imo you relied on children throughout this 'event'. You're the adult.

Of course they won't have told their parents what happened

Chalk it up to experience. Don't allow children to run the show again

I don't think there's much point going over the rights and wrongs of the situation.

Is the carpet wool or synthetic? My relatively new synthetic carpet is bleachable, and frankly was the only reason I dared risk an oatmeal coloured carpet. I don't know if there's anywhere you can test it, but if it's bleachable you may be in luck. I spilt a whole jar of chilli jam on the floor which was a bright red, heart in mouth, type disaster.

What sorted it out was a fair amount of water which I used to loosen it up, with an ancient plumbing towel that I then trod into the carpet like someone tredding grapes, which got out a good load of it. I kept doing that over and over until I had got the majority of it out. Then I used some very very diluted bleach which sorted out the rest of it. Obviously you need to know the carpet is bleach safe to risk that though!

White vinegar works a treat! I know from personal experience. Soak the goo on the carpet in white vinegar then you will be able to scrape most of it off and then you can scrub it with soapy water.

These things happen OP. Definitely try the white vinegar- magic!!

DD’s friends haven’t destroyed your carpet. Your DD and her friends have destroyed the carpet accidentally doing an activity that you knew they were doing and knew had a high chance of destroying the carpet.

Stop looking for blame in others and look closer to home.

Your title says "daughter's friends", your daughter was responsible too. If it was a potential scenario (which you knew or you wouldn't have had the conversation), then it should have been an absolute "no way, get outside". Considering the recent reports of these things bursting and the contents causing burns they wouldn't have even made it into the house. As you witnessed them essentially playing tug of war with them and didn't put a stop to it, you are to blame.

I'm sorry that your carpet has been destroyed (and I do mean destroyed as I don't think you're going to be able to recover that toxic blue from a cream carpet). So I think you'd be wasting money on a professional clean to get it out. Try to minimise it by one of the self-help cleaning solutions, but you're best off covering it up with some sort of runner carpet or replacing it altogether. Like others have suggested, make a claim on your house contents insurance if you want.

But, as for getting the other parents to cover your costs, you're only going to ruin whatever relationships you have with them, and most likely many of them will refuse to pay. I would. You had responsibility for ensuring that the girls were behaving. Telling them that they "could" go outside and play with the stupid toys was a suggestion, not a directive. Had you said, "You can only play with that squishy thing outside" and one or more of the girls got your daughter to agree to disobey you, perhaps you might have a justifiable reason to contact those girls' parents and ask that they split the costs with you. But in this scenario, it's really all on you. Sorry. And good luck.

It’s 50/50 here 12 is old enough to be responsible! They shouldn’t have done it, OP you also should have insisted they weren’t allowed to play with them in the house!

If its a cream carpet with a blue stain does it matter if it is wool or not bleach safe? It's ruined anyway!
Instead of ranting at the kids I would have instantly got a bucket of hot water and as much bleach as my eyes/lungs could stand and scrubbed the stain for dear life.

Shouting at your 12 year olds mate and making her cry….pre teens are brutal, they will probably throw this in her face for months or fall out all together all over an accident.
seems a bit rash

Your poor daughter.

Shes entering the most difficult phase of her childhood where friendships are notoriously hard to navigate and teens, especially girls, can be incredibly cruel and the effects can be damaging and lasting. You’ve embarrassed and isolated her over a carpet.

If your daughter is scared to tell you they’ve spilt something on the carpet for fear of how you will react , what will she do when she has something really serious she needs to tell you? She just won’t.

Awful.

Text the parents by all means , but make them apology texts for your behaviour.

They are 12. It’s just a carpet.

So you parent and say "sorry but you cannot play with those inside".

Just get the carpet cleaned and give the bill to your daughter. She can sort out with her friends about paying it between them.

You massively over-reacted.

Of course you’re not unreasonable to be upset, but you are unreasonable to a) expect the girls to have told their parents and get themselves in trouble and b) to have foreseen the problem and not physically stopped them. They are 12, if you could see them using the stress toys inappropriately you should have removed them or told them to go into the garden.

Insofar as any of them are truly responsible, just keep it between yourself and DD. If I got a text off another parent who had seen my daughter playing with a potentially semi-toxic substance and not intervened, I’d be expecting the apology, not offering one.

I think the op’s reaction is spot on. They are 12 and were warned. The majority of posters who don’t understand this is not surprising. I work with children and I’ve found so many children do not understand about respecting others property/items.

You need to own the fact it wasn’t an absolute no they go outside or they go away situation. But the posters making excuses and worrying about the 12 year olds. They were stupid. Sweet about the Zoflora girl but on the whole they deserved a consequence for being so thoughtless.

You let this happen. You were in charge. You are responsible.

other people can not control their children whilst they are in your care.

OMG, are you left handed and have attended an event with greek food recently? Your post has a distinct style. YABU to make such a nonsensical drama out of nothing and come to MN for validation.

Eastenders, Zoflora and cream carpet, yeah? Wow.

Grow up.

As Judge Judy would say, they were on your watch. They should have been supervised more closely especially as you saw the potential for what might happen. Sorry, but comes under ‘lazy parenting’….

As frustrating as it is. It’s mess in your house so it’s your problem to fix. I think the parents should be made aware but it’s not on them to pay to clean your carpet.