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

T&Cs Apply

The day DD2 got hold of the sudocrem and applied it liberally to her feet before walking through the house to show us. She arrived in the kitchen just as the toast started to burn setting off the smoke detector and the phone rang. Then she ran off as soon I yelled "don't move!"

Just moved to the countryside trying to be more earth mothery and so we spent the morning blackberry picking, then reverted to old form and sat dd (2) in front of the telly while I dashed round doing a quick tidy before lunch guests arrived...about 5mins in noticed she was being a bit too quiet...felt a tap on my leg...turned round to see Violet Beauregard...she was literally purple from head to toe...had got down the BlackBerry tin while I was in the bathroom...we have cream carpets...the house is rented....but it was the funniest thing I have ever seen :D (thank God for carpet cleaners!! And baths!! Guests also thought it was hilarious!!)

I went into town one day and left the twins aged 18 months at the time with their father. Well he decided he wanted a lay in so fed the twins and popped them back in their room to play. Well as i got to the front door and turned the key i got the most ghastly smell and though oh no whats happened. I went upstairs and opened the boys door and they were both sitting on the floor smiling at me with poo all over each other, its like they had a poo painting party. The walls, the floor, the bedding... little fingerprints everywhere. Funniest part about it was they both still had their nappies on so they must've thought it was a game and use each others poo to decorate the room. Obviously dad was in big trouble! I can look back on that memory and smile now but at the time it was vile #treasured family chaos.

So much chaos in my house.

Last year we were just moving into our new house, it had been very stressful, we had no furniture, there was me, my 14yo and 4 younger children all trying to sort things out, we had a table donated to us from WA, my 14yo and I took it in and I was very pleased with it.

Little did I know that it had been sitting in a shed for a couple of months.

A spider filled shed at that.

It was proper chaos as about 10 of the huge beasts emerged over the next 30 minutes.

My 14yo is the only one who isn't afraid of them.

Day 1 in our new home was spent with me and 4 children hiding in a locked bathroom screaming "Have you got them all yet" at my poor son

Warm day, so we got ready to go out, I was just getting the bits and bobs, snacks, picnic rug etc, when my 22 month oldd went very quiet... She'd sneaked upstairs and was sat in the middle of a snowstorm of sudacrem nappy cream, all over her, the carpet, the cot, the wall.... "Sun" she said, and I realised she'd been "helping" me by putting on "suncream".....

The one we laugh about most now, which we so didn't at the time was when we were having a new bathroom fitted. The sink top had been removed leaving just the long piping. My just over two year old son thought he would be helpful and took the screw driver into the bathroom and posted it straight down the long piping, where it promptly got very stuck in the bend at the bottom... I had to remove him from the bathroom very quickly as they then commenced 3 hours of dismantling pipework and using magnets to try and extract the 'helpful tool'!

4 hour drive to campsite with husbandand 6month old daughter for long weekend. Set up tent..no quilt for us..romantic idea of husband quilt cosier than sleeping bags but he forgot to pack it. Cold sleep deprived night. Husband phoned friends who were joining us that day and they bought a quilt down. Lesson...camping with a baby is not romantic What was I thinking?

The day all of us caught a virus when we went to a family event, we were all so sick & couldn't stop throwing up.

A 12 hour flight to Tokyo for my brothers wedding, with a 3 year old and a six year old in tow... chaos!!

The three year old didn't sleep throughout the whole flight

We got there though, and had the most amazing time!

I was making chilli for dinner one day and went into the lounge to speak to my mum whilst it simmered.

When I went back in to check on it I realised I forgot to put the baby gate up to keep the dogs out if the kitchen... my very tall/large Anatolian Shepherd had his head stuck in the pot, licking away.

We ordered people that evening! At least the kids were happy with unexpected pizza.

Going on holiday and facing a long car journey. Cue six-year-old whinging non-stop about the iPad not having enough battery, my husband snapping because he hates being distracted while driving and me sighing because I know how this journey is going to go already and then...

We fall to silence...

And the toddler pokes her tongue out and does a massive raspberry at us all.

Probably isn't funny written down but it just broke through the icy mood and had us all laughing and on the right track again :)

I was having my eyes tested. The plan was that baby DD1 would be asleep in the pram. She woke up and started crying. The Boots assistant came into try to calm her. We heard a pooping sound and this lovely woman offers to change the nappy. As she picked her up liquid poo shot out the neck of the babygro into DD1's hair, and onto the woman's chest.

She was lovely about it! People are very forgiving of babies.

its usually the family dinners that create the most wonderful chaos

Somehow when my partner was puting our daughter in her Car seat she managed to get hold of the car keys and was quitely playing with them. I've just got in and shut the car door after packing up the boot and he turns to me asking for the keys. After saying I didn't have them. He's got out and huffing and puffing pulling the boot apart thinking I packed them by mistake. Our daughter goes "what's wrong daddy" I said without looking at her as my head was in my handbag looking "daddy can't find his keys darling"
She goes "i have key mummy" I turn to her and start laughing. Her dad at this point in about to burst like a rocket and snaps "this isn't funny!" I said it is when the littliest person has had them all along and didn't say anything

We still laugh about this

I usually bath our two boys while dh cleans up after tea. I took our 10month old out of the bath and dried him then put him one the floor behind me while I took out the 4 year old to dry him. The baby crawled off into the hall. I saw as we left the bathroom he had popped on the hall rug. Dh said he'd sort it so I took the 4 year old to his room into pjs and into bed. I came back to find the baby crawling about with a poo bum, dh had trod in the poop and didn't know where to start!

Definitely holidays like Christmas - always a hectic, frantic mess of people and about 20 things happening at the same time (always something urgent). You have to laugh :)

It's chaos in our house every morning. All seems to be going along OK, then suddenly it's time we should be out the door and all hell breaks loose. Dog barking, boy playing but be hurried up and me grabbing all the bags I need for the day. I am just glad to get to work and have some quiet.

My brother's wedding ceremony and my daughter who was a bridesmaid and not quite two years old managed to remove her nappy in the middle of the aisle step out of it and lift her dress up to do a wee... 8 years later we can look back and laugh but at the time I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole

We went on short break to Center Parcs when DS was 18 months old. I was soo excited & had been planning the fun for months! Along for the ride (as well as husband, myself & the wee man) were my Mum, Brother & his wife. All very excited about our special break & making the most of the bikes, the pool, etc. Day 1 we hit the pool - cue much fun & splashing around, tired out after travelling & swimming, we headed back to the chalet to sleep..
Awoken in the middle of the night by LO screaming & sounding very stuffy & bunged up. Stayed up to soothe him & ended up bringing him in our bed where we all got a little sleep. Very tired next day & LO very groggy & grumpy. Tried to keep him entertained by some gentle games, encouraging a nap & walks in pram - he got worse as day got on - nothing serious, just a cold - but he was fed up! Eventually went to sleep in the afternoon so we let him sleep until he woke naturally. This, of course, led to another wakeful night which culminated in OH taking LO on a 4am walk around Center Parcs until 8am when the coffee shop opened! LO was having a whale of a time by this point & found the whole thing quite exciting!
However, we then both got ill & ended up spending most of the holiday in the chalet, luckily the accommodation was lovely! My Mum (Granny) couldn't wait to get out of there & we didn't see her for dust on the morning we were leaving! Brother & SIL were far more helpful, but we could see they were itching to leave & we had probably put them off kids for life!
We look back & laugh now though.. & we're heading for CP again later this year - praying no illnesses!!! We'll embrace it as it comes though, chaos & all! :)

i think our family is known for all things going a bit array from being late to not doing things when we are meant to,but to us we as a family have the best memories from them.from being stuck at airports and how we laughed and entertained ourselves.from the time we camped in a field and woke literally with the tents blowing away and us cowering in our sleeping bags whilst mum and dad chased them.
one time was skiing.we had the car and all the gear, and we had the hill the mountain should I say to ge tup to the chalet.and half way up every car in front started to lose their grip and like a domino effect we all followed suit.this was a Norwegian mountain so at the time SO VERY SCARY TO BE STUCK UP A MOUNTAIN VIA A HANDBREAK!! and my dad had to swap places with my auntie as she couldn't breathe never mind manoova up the roads.we did get there in a slalmon like fashion but my was it scary.but now,its talked and laughed and cried about.us kids in the back literally thought if we shoved forward it would help the car up so we plastered ourselves to the front seats.

Finding dd2 under the kitchen table just about to tuck into the dog's vomit. Or the time she came running to us with a toilet brush in her hand at centre parcs. Pube covered bog brush in child's mouth=panic for a week about awful diseases. All was fine that time thank goodness.

Travelling on an Isle of Man ferry from England to France because our ferry was broken, everyone being sick everywhere! Won't forget that in a hurry!

I took my DS to Bedgebury Pinetum with his cousins. We were all having a great time until my DS lost his favourite stick. He had a complete melt down. We had to retrace our steps through dense forest looking for a particular stick. A stick that he couldn't remember quite what it looked like but would know it when he saw it. We had to give up - cue tears for the rest of the outing until all the kids in the play area bombarded him with sticks from all directions until he was surrounded. Eventually he had to laugh and had a good root through the pile until he found an even better stick. (my garden is full of sticks - we bring them home from all walks. I daren't throw one away now in case mayhem ensues)

Mine was recently, when my daughter took some money out with my card (with my permission) to go on her holiday. She managed to leave it in the machine and when she went back. the money had gone. She came back sobbing her heart out from the supermarket. I went down and the lovely staff there checked the CCTV, where they clearly saw the money being 'sucked back' into the machine. Phew!

Any time cooking! Food everywhere!