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.

DS1 put a crystal bowl in my DMs brand new washing machine.

The bowl came out rounded off, the hand made lace table cloth was adorned by glass chips and the washing machine was scratched, dented and also covered in glass. :(

DS2 is a magpie. I lost my engagement, wedding and eternity rings (was wearing my gran's ring at the time) for over a year. Turned up in a treasure box in his room!

I was introduced to a couple, friends of boyfriend. First time I had met them. They nipped out with boyfriend for five minutes leaving me minding their crawling 6 month old PFB. Said child pulled over an entire wine rack. They came home to a kitchen of glass and me holding the screaming child under the tap in a bizarre effort to clean off the glass. I didn't have my own child for another 15 years.

Oh this is making me smile. DH had a bright idea to take myself (and DS1 as no babysitter then aged 20 months ) to stay in a lovely castle for Valentines weekend. Yup there was a wedding and damned but the bride didnt look just lovely standing beside the swan ice sculpture. Just after DS1 ran through the damn thing smashing it into a million ice cubes he made good his escape through the library - where he barrelled through two old guys who were only half way through a chess game that had been going on for 3 days! Later that evening he managed to destroy the table we were seated at - they eventually opened banished us to a smaller dining room where we ate alone for the rest of the time! DS1 is now 14 yrs old and has dyspraxia so the number of such incidents has been legendary in our family but that was the first and therefore most memorable.

DH "tidying the shed" which involves standing in shed and looking at everything. As far as I can tell no tidying involved....while DH is pondering two year old DS takes tin of red paint and emptied contents on patio. Once even distributed gets dog to walk through it and leads him all around kitchen and hall. Come downstairs to find a toddler very pleased with himself, a dog that was once black is now black and red and DH still standing in the shed. I was only in the shower 😳

I had a baby in a sling and couldn't see my feet. I was at a party of a very senior colleague and she had sculpture everywhere. I kicked and broke one piece of a matched set. It was mortifying and I couldn't even blame a child. After that I learned back carries.

Not me but my friend's DD did a nice drawing on the side of a relative's Porsche with a stone. It was a landscape and so covered three panels of the car. She even signed it with her name. It cost my friend about 2 grand to fix.

We were in a car showroom with our two girls who were 8 and 4 at the time. Me and my husband were looking at cars and talking to a very helpful man who suggested we let the girls play in the 'play area'. It transpired that this play area didn't have anything to play with but did have some enormous bean bags scattered around. The girls seemed content to amuse themselves in there while we discussed cars.

After a few minutes we heard hysterical laughter coming from the play area and when I went to investigate the girls had emptied out the contents of two bean bags.
You would not believe how far and wide the beads had spread. They were making feeble attempts to stuff the beads back in but it was a lost cause.
Several staff, along with me and my husband had to help clear up the beads and as a last resort the hoover was brought out.

We felt obliged to buy a car from the dealership, it was an expensive lesson that our girls could not be trusted to amuse themselves in unfamiliar places!

My plumber's son, aged 5, managed to raid his father's work tools and solder two pipes together when his dad wasn't looking. Apparently he did a pretty tidy job, but his wife was very cross with them.

Was it your ex or son who did a massive crap outside the macaw cage?

My DGD was 13 months old and had been walking for about a month. One morning,while her mum (my DD) was busy in the kitchen,she was left in the charge of her dad. He was too busy gawping at the TV to notice that she had got hold of a tub of nappy-rash cream and proceeded to smear it all over herself,the sofa,the walls and the cat 😂. Thankfully the cat made a hasty exit into the kitchen,alerting her mum to what was going on. Dad appeared to think it was not his fault,that the cream shouldn't have been left within her reach. True,but if he had put the lid back on it properly the last time he used it...... Oh what fun we had cleaning it up had to give the cat a shower.

OMG - Leta86 😂 That is absolutely hilarious awful!

Went into my son's bedroom one morning (he was still in a cot so must have been around 18 months maybe) to find he had pulled off every strip of wallpaper he could reach.

Our DC (aged about 2) saw dad (DH) one day brushing the house down with a big old outside broom. He was brushing the side of the house to get out cobwebs from certain corners and just giving it a general spring clean
Cue to the next day and we go outside to find DC with brush in hand and "brushing" (or scraping) the side of our brand new people mover
Ouch!

Whilst visiting an establishment (I won't say who in case they retrospectively decide to sue me), I left my son in the care of a friend while I took my daughter to the toilet. I came out to discover that he had climbed up the outside of the escalator, got carried along and knocked over a very large interactive screen (like a huge iPad!). I'm guessing the damage ran into the thousands. Fortunately it just missed the very expensive classic car on display right next to it

They seemed more concerned with making sure no one was injured (and perhaps wondering why they hadn't secured it to the floor) but I was absolutely mortified. He wasn't even a toddler, he was 7 at the time

Needless on say we haven't been back!

kimmy yay! Glad to be of service

Many years ago, when I still lived at parents' home, an older sister came round with her 'delightful' two boys. Our toilet was outside (old Victorian terraced house) and said nephews were in there squirting bleach about (discovered later!). Another older sister went in later for a wee and must have sat in some as a little later her expensive knickers started disintegrating. She was absolutely livid. (Am I wicked to be STILL laughing about it?😂)

I love the one about the ink stamps of Father Christmas! I hope it remains for many years!

My guitar! When DS was 2.5 and I'd just had DD, he picked it up then just let it drop and the neck smashed against the coffee table and snapped off. It was only £30 second hand and I'd had it for several years but it had a lovely tone and action and I really liked it. My new one is not as good.

DS aged 4, he's 30 now, broke the bone off a dinosaur in a big museum.
Not sure if it was a real one or a model but very, very big, didn't hang around to find out.
Not giving the museum name in case it was real and they're still looking for us.