What are your treasured moments of family chaos? Tell Bassetts Vitamins for a chance to win a £300 John Lewis voucher! NOW CLOSED

[RebeccaEMumsnet]

Family life can often be chaotic at times, but often chaos can create the best family memories. Bassetts Vitamins would love to know your stories of when things didn’t quite go to plan, that you can look back on and laugh at.

Here’s what Bassetts Vitamins have to say: “At Bassetts Vitamins we know that family life is colourful and rarely straightforward. However, whilst family days out are a great opportunity to enjoy precious and active time together, families need to be ready and set to go, to deal with whatever challenges the day may bring. Our intention is to support families through the ups and downs of family life.”

So, tell us about a moment of chaos in your family which (eventually) made a funny story. Have camping trips been cut short by a tent collapsing in the middle of the night? Or an attempt to present yourself as a perfectly normal family went horribly wrong.

Whatever your treasured family chaos, Bassetts Vitamins would love to hear it, so post your story below.

All those who share a story below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 John Lewis voucher.

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

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On a regular basis we have family chaos , just trying to get the children off to school in the morning is a job in its self.

When we are packing to go away on holiday it is totally nuts! the youngest daughter is wanting to take every toy she owns, the eldest is worrying what outfits to wear and well the husband he goes into total melt down on house security , unplugging, checking windows are locked etc! I need a holiday just to get over the packing!

Its all worth it though as its very funny watching the family have a crisis over packing :)

In preparation for our long train trip to London, we took the children and my parents out for a day trip to Manchester by train. All went well on the way there but on the way back, 3,year old ds had his jacket over his arm as it was warm and when my mum held onto his arm to get him on the train, the jacket fell down the gap between the train and the platform. DS did such a blood curdling scream. I thought he had fallen down. Then he screamed "no!" and was hysterical. The train set off and I spent the rest of the journey trying to get a phone signal and a phone number to get in touch with Lost property at the train station. We got home that night and DS said he never wanted to go on a train again. After he went to bed, I managed to get hold of somebody at the train station and I arranged to go out later that night to pick it up.
We washed the jacket and luckily it was ok and ready for DS the next day. That managed to convince him that going on a train wasn't a bad experience and we all remembered to wear jackets rather than hold them, the next time we stepped onto a train!

DD1 and her great grandmother colouring with chalk outside our house, bonding. Started drawing up the walls as well as floor with pretty drawings, flowers, doors etc. It just will not come off the walls how ever much water we chuck on it or scrub. Nice to still see her artwork when we park in the driveway.

The moment when I went to stay with friends in London with my son as a toddler stand out, I had intended to go into central London to visit former colleagues and on unpacking the car at my friends house I realised I had packed everything but the pushchair... note to self/others, London/toddlers/carrying them do not mix, was hard work lugging him on various transport and up and down numerous tube station stairs in the summer heat.

Organised chaos reigns in our family. We've had tents blow away whilst we were in it, moments of chasing run away toddlers down our road, mixing up pe kits so bigger child has smaller child's kit and visa versa, setting off on a car journey only to return two minutes later for something that's been forgotten (sometimes we return more than once). I think one of our best though was after a long drive for a day trip discovering that out then 6 year old had climbed into the car in bare feet and we had no shoes for her. We had to find a shop where the only thing in her size were some flip flops which she wore all day in the pouring rain. What a fun time that was!

Anytime we go to the supermarket - my DDs (4 & 6) like nothing better than tag-teaming their mischief up and down the aisles! The worst time was last year when we were in a large superstore and DD2 headed off down one aisle and DD1 went down the clothes aisle and hid behind a rack of t-shirts. I went into panic mode when I couldn't find her and just as I was about to march off to customer services when she jumped out and said ''boo''! I was so relieved I couldn't be cross with her.

I'm usually very organised when it comes to family holidays. I was feeling like a highly organised super-mum the night before our trip to Hungary for a cultural Budapest city break, with bags packed, tickets and directions to our hotel and lots of activities sorted. I set out our passports on the table to check I had everyone's and, hyper and excited, DD picked hers up and was running around the house yelling "I'm going on holiday tomorrow!!!!!!!!"

...fast forward, checking in the next morning, that excitement didn't look so certain. DD's passport was out of date. I was sure it wasn't out of date until next year, but I was wrong. So much fof being extra organised super-mum! Had to re-arrange our flights, organise a later hotel arrival and get the train into London to get a super fast passport turnaround. So much expense and inconvenience and stress, it was truly chaos!

But it was so chaotic, we eventually just had to laugh about it. In the end, our holiday to Budapest was unbelievable- we fell in love with the city, and it was worth every moment of chaos it took for us to get there :)

There was the time we headed to the coast for the day and met up with my mum and some friends. We parked up and got everything out of the boot. As I shut the boot realisation dawned that I'd locked the keys inside.

We managed to find a garage where a lovely man came and opened it back up for us with a magic probably illegal key. He then charged us £50 for the privilege which meant that we had no spending money.

So far so shit. Then DS had a poo explosion resulting in ruined clothes and a shitty buggy and no toilets with a baby change nearby so I had to sort him out behind a hedge.

Fun times.

Years ago when my youngest DS3 was about 7 we stayed in a tiny village in Normandy. We had got to know the neighbours quite well. The first night there we were woken about 6am by DS3 who was having a nose bleed. He had them quite often so I did the leaning forward, frozen peas on the bridge of his nose while pinching it for 5 minutes. It worked for a little while then started again from both nostrils. By then I had blood on my hands, arms and clothes. At about 7.30 I desperately knocked on the neighbours door. When he answered all bleary eyed he looked at me aghast. When I explained about DS3 he threw on clothes, phoned a Dr and said to follow him in the car. The Drs was a house, we went into a small room where he decided to corterise DS3's nose. He'd had it done before in the UK but not this way. I was shocked to see him light a bunsen burner & hold a needle in the flame, he promptly treated DS but I needed to sit down as I was about to faint. Later we went back & saw the neighbour, he told us that when he first saw me all bloodied he thought I had attacked my husband. Thankfully DS3's regular nosebleeds stopped after that day.

Missing a flight to Frankfurt as DS had locked himself in the bathroom of the airport hotel by accident.

Chaos starts early in our house - usually with both boys piling in to our bed. Although we manage to keep them contained for a short time with stories this usually descends into them both using the bed as a crash mat for early morning gymnastics!

Preparing for a family holiday, no matter how short, is always chaotic - trying to plan weeks in advance to ensure you have absolutely everything you need (and you still end up forgetting something ) Making sure you have enough drinks and snacks for the journey, and plenty of activities and DVDs to keep the lo's entertained en route etc etc

Trying to do all of this for a recent break away with DH and DD in the sweltering heat whilst lugging around a pregnant belly and suffering from morning sickness was no mean feat! But who should have the break-down, throwing a tantrum, in the middle of the theme park?? Not the pregnant lady, not the pre-schooler, but the 38 year old DH

Telling friends and family upon our return helps us to see the funny-ish side and put it into perspective (it was only 20 or so minutes out of an otherwise fantastic 3 days away) and made all the more special with my DM commenting, dead-pan in front of DH, on how I managed taking 2 DC's away on my own X

We went camping in the Yorkshire Dales. The pitch had the most prophecies of sweeping hills but, as night time descended one evening, it became clear that we had chosen the most exposed spot on the field. As the winds whipped up, our dome tent was literally concave at the front, so much so that we seriously contemplated sleeping in the car. How it stayed upright I'll never know!

The kids finding the zip on the beanbag chair that was filled with tiny white foam balls, we are still finding the balls two years later in random drawers and under beds. They were pretending it was Frozen and leaping around in them when I discovered them.

Always the school run!

Chasing a runaway child through the airport

The one where my toddler had somehow turned the tv on to an adult channel and was watching a preview while I hoovered- with the curtains open, on our busy road, while the lights went down and our house was lit up perfectly for onlookers.

Having waited patiently for my Calippo to melt enough to eat, it went flying over my shoulder on the first squeeze! I cried, my parents bought me another (after they stopped laughing), and the story still gets told every time anyone even thinks about buying an ice-lolly on a day out!

My favourite moments of family chaos are always Christmas - every single year! This year there will be 5 adults and 3 kids and hours and hours of happy chaos!

Trying to dry underpants out of the car window after an impromptu beach stop in Ireland. The underpants went flying, hopefully not onto the next cars windscreen!
All part and parcel of a normal day here

Travelling across Germany in car with a one year old in potty training isn't fun when that said child refusing to put a nappy and having to stop every 45 minutes or so and when your not always able to stop the accident occurs and there is a screaming child a grumpy husband and a stressed out mother in a confined space in the height of summer tensions get high and chaos of trying to clean and change child wash car seat and dry it pleading with a one year old to put nappy on just until we get to the ferry in the end having to put one on under duress to make the ferry is just one of the many chaotic journeys we have made

We returned from a weekend away in the middle of the night with 2 sleepy 7 yo twins to find a burst tap had flooded our entire ground floor. We carried kids to bed and spent the night trying to salvage what we could.

Next day whilst they were at school we continued the clear up and insurance negotiations. Within 24 hours it was already clear that everything downstairs would need replacing and the house needed major restoration. DH and I were like zombies.

That night we had McDonalds for tea, all sitting on our double bed and DD announced this was the best day of her life as daddy was home from work early and we were all snuggling up together with a takeaway.

We actually camped upstairs for a month before moving out for 6 months while everything was fixed, it was horrendous.

Years on we still say "best day of my life" whenever disaster strikes!

One week old DS and 2 year old DD and I thought it was a good idea to tidy the spare room by bringing everything downstairs to sort. Place was in complete chaos with DD amusing baby in his cot. I heard the doorbell ring and DH saying "come in". Horrified I came downstairs to find my boss! He had come round with a present for the baby. I never quite got over it.

When I was younger, my parents took me and my brothers to a water park when we were on holiday. I tried to run the wrong way up a small water slide and proceeded to smash my face into it and shatter my tooth. Went to a local dentist to get it sorted, 2 days later my brother fell off some monkey bars and broke his wrist!! Not the best of holidays haha