Toddler breaks $15K Lego sculpture - share your disaster stories here

[KateMumsnet]

Hello all

This morning at MNHQ we've been gasping at this story, in which a $15K Lego sculpture was accidentally destroyed by a child less than an hour after it went on display in China.

It turns out that quite a few of us have war stories about times our children very nearly - or actually - destroyed things while in our care, and we thought it would be good to hear yours too, in the spirit of mutual support and/or confession. So, if it's not still too raw , do share your experiences of times toddler met delicate object, with suboptimal results - close shaves also very welcome.

And that is why I hide my lego if other people's children are coming to my house.

The other story on that link page is worse about boy being left in the forest as punishment!

Sorry but that has tickled me My DC have broken More things than I can remember D's once dropped a whole tin of white paint on the floor when he was 3

When dS was about 18 months old I was in a rather "naice" farm shop as a treat. I was queuing and was carrying dS so his head was on my shoulder looking back. Then I heard the sound of breaking glass. He'd swept an entire shelf of fancy jams and chutneys onto the (stone) floor. About 30 jars, smashed. It was also extremely messy! The shop were great, but couldn't get us out of there fast enough! A year or so later he tangled up all the embroidery silks hanging on a display stand in a craft shop. That didn't go so well.

Took the kids to a local country estate, and nipped into the very nice cafe to hide from a thunderstorm.

I was taking dd's coat off, dh at the counter ordering drinks, ds strapped safely into his buggy, when I heard an almighty crash. Ds (about 18 months), had grabbed a shelf unit, and knocked it over. It was covered in glass ornaments of various animals, all made by a local semi famous artist, and all very expensive

When the manager had a bit of a go at me, and threatened to charge me for the damages (which would probably have run into thousands), I pointed out that if the unit was attached to the wall, it wouldn't have happened, and she was lucky it hadn't landed on ds and injured him .

We decided to go back outside and brave the weather, and I've never been back since. Not one of my finer moments!

My iPad 😣 And it was brand new and gift from DH. don't think I will ever get over tha trauma of that moment.

So far we have managed to not break anything anywhere outside our home. That's an achievement I am proud of

My diamond engagement ring - my 4 yo DD snaffled it out of my drawer, was playing with it, I didn't realise, called her for dinner and she left it in an old cloth bag in her bedroom then forgot all about it. 3 months later we found it again, I'd written it off, checked the hoover fluff etc!

DS4 painstakingly wrote his own name on multiple cards that went alongside entries into our local (quite large) county fair. So 'Queens son name aged 5' entered every single Victoria Sponge, each knitted cardigan, multiple decorative fruit baskets and a load of sketches in age group 5-7. We still don't know what happened to the original cards but a punch up nearly broke out when 2 folks tried to lay claim to the winning fruit basket.

DP was in charge during this period. I was happily browsing the food tent. I have still not got over the horror of it

2yr old DS left alone for 3 mins in the lounge (not our lounge!!) where he found a permanent marker and did this to a cream sofa!!!

Oops! I thought they usually glued those big things?

The worst either of mine has done is DS1 accidentally partially demolishing Tower bridge when it was on display in John Lewis. He did fix it, to the best of his ability, though.

That sofa one does remind me of when DS2 decided to dismantle the blackout blind in his bedroom. I'd forgotten about that! He was 8, at the time (but has severe ASD - hence the blackout blind in the first place!)

My 4 year DS found a treasured collection of untouched Dinky cars, and whilst I was having a quiet coffee with the owner's mother in another room, ripped the cardboard box off of every single one. He was simply 'taking them out of their rubbish'. I was mortified.

My God Foolish! What on earth did the owner say?!

My horror story happened in the shop pictured and is probably best left to your imagination. As in, imagine the worst thing that could happen in a crowded shop full of very expensive, fragile Christmas oraments in Bruges.

The worst part is this incident occurred when DS was in his buggy, only 6 months old and was entirely my fault

There was a story in our local paper about a woman whose son found her 4 urban decay eyeshadow palettes and destroyed them by covering himself in them. Dh got me a selection of stuff from Benefit. I had a Big Beautiful Eyes palette that I adored but lost. He bought me a new one. He left the bag at the bottom of the stairs. Dd found it and destroyed it. I only found out when I opened the bag. The third one I bought was lost in the mail. I gave up on it.

Hope they don't tread on any of it. The worst pain known to mankind

Glo - from memory, she cried. Then her husband came home from work and also cried. In my defence, they were in a children's playroom, at a level obviously easily accessible to a 4 year old. He thought he was being helpful rather than destructive. He's now 16 but the memory hasn't really faded.

We had a wondeful fresco painting- roughly 3ft high, 7 to 8ft wide. It was a family scene and very colourful.

Walls were just plastered (plasterer left 30mins prior) and drying, DD (3yrs) found felt tips.

The actual owner was their 8 year old son. The parents were both accountants, so I'm assuming the lost investment potential was a big factor... It was awful. But I do see her occasionally now and we get on fine. We've never mentioned it since.

DD managed to sweep a whole shelf of mugs onto the floor in Star Bucks when she was 3. The ones that were for sale. Needless to say 80% of them smashed. I don't know how she did it. I lost my temper with her as I stood ankle deep in china.

The staff were lovely and clearly decided the poor girl had been punished enough by my outburst as they gave her a lollipop and ignored all my suggestions I should pay for the mugs.

Let's be fair - he didn't exactly destroy it, did he, he dismantled it. It's LEGO! I get that it took the artist 3 days to make it, but he can do it again - it's not broken, it's just in component parts again.

Lego, people. Lego. Made to be built and dismantled and built again.

Unlike the other story mentioned where some little vandals broke wings off a glass sculpture - now that's actually breaking something.

DS2 has broken various things but nothing belonging to anyone else, that I can remember.

My child, aged 4, watched the gasman service the fire. The next morning I came down to find he had unscrewed the fire from the wall and dismantled it. I dread to think what could gave happened if I hadn't come down!

Took my son to the doctor who exhibition in Cardiff. It was a few years ago and they had a sleigh used in the Christmas special. He was 3 or 4 at the time and climbed into it as I was paying, cue loads of staff running (in slow motion in my memory) going nooooooooooooo. Turns out they hadn't finished filming with it. Obviously ds gets down, using a handy lever thing which promptly snaps off.

Christmas special airs and I can't help but try and work out if the sleigh is still damaged!

Not my dc but certainly noticed far too late someone's DC when they yelled ' Come and wipe my bum' in a bathroom showroom full of shoppers in Bristol 😀😳

Left eldest child aged 2 in the living room while I nipped to the toilet, came back to find he'd rubbed the best part of a large jar of sudocreme into an armchair. That was fun to clean up.

Left husband in charge of both boys while I went to have a bath. Came back downstairs to find we now had a large and colourful mural on the living room wall. Idiot husband looked at me when I screamed and asked "when did they do that?" I should have left the cat in charge...