Read the stain stories MNers shared with Tesco F&F

[EllieMumsnet]

NOW CLOSED

"Urgh. What is that on you?" They're home from school, nursery or the holiday playscheme you booked them into and the story of the day is written on their clothes. There's a bit of pink chalk on their shirt (a hopscotch grid in the playground at morning break), a custard dribble on their collar (the chocolate pudding was drenched in it) and mud on their ankles ...at least you hope it's mud.

So what stains have your kids come home from school or nursery with? Are they easily identifiable? Do the stories behind the stains give you a glimpse into your child’s life away from you? Share your pictures and stain stories with Tesco F&F and be in with the chance to win a £300 Tesco voucher. We’ll create a tongue-in-cheek quiz "Name that stain" from them in the near future.

Here’s what Tesco F&F have to say: "All kids come home with stains - it's the sign of an active day. But thanks to Tesco school uniforms special stain-repel technology and 100 day guarantee you can be rest assured that your kids will look as good on the first day everyday."

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

dry wipe marker+tesco value soap+30 minutes= stain gone.

Anything with tomato in it! It's so hard to get rid of all those tomato stains. Thankfully chocolate and Nutella is easy to remove as she always gets covered in it!

Uncapped pen on a lovely new white duvet cover

Pen, paint and unidentified school dinners generally. The newer the uniform, the more likely the stain will be permanent in my house. Some just do not come out ever I have found.

It's the black pens they use on small white boards to practice writing. Impossible to get off. Then a child behind her on carpet time thinks it's fun to write on her regularly and despite regular chats with teacher they won't move them from their regular spots.

I know uniform isn't likely to be pristine but I'm fed out with ditching shirts, dresses etc because the school won't deal with it or order washable dry marker pens ( yes they exist)

Best thing to make those stains fade is stain Slayer spray then sunlight.

Dc once come home from school with olive oil all down her skirt.

No they hadn’t been doing cooking that day. No they hadn’t done any arts and crafts or anything other than “sitting at their desks doing standard maths English etc”

Lunch was packed lunch.

Where the olive oil came from neither dc nor I could tell!

Mud, mud and more mud!!! My son likes to play in the park which is a cut through on his way home from school. Somehow he always finds a muddy spot even if it's not rained in ages.

Pureed carrot - it's a nightmare, I love to give this to my DS, and he loves it because of its sweetness and I love it because of its goodness, but when I come to wash vests, t-shirts and babygrows it takes 2 or 3 washes but I can always see the faint stain, and when a sneeze covered my white blouse in the orange explosion - an overnight soak, and several washes with detergent finally managed to make it wearable again.

I inwardly groan when I see stains on school uniform, firstly you don't know what they are as child seems as surprised as you are to see it, and secondly it's been sitting there all day setting in to the fabric

I've had all of the obvious/usual ones like lunch, grass, mud, white board marker, paint etc plus a few that I never got to the bottom of

Red paint. But I don’t mind school uniform getting stained - it’s one of the reasons they wear uniform, not their best clothes. And I’d ráther they were painting etc ( and running around at playtime ) than trying to keep their clothes clean

I agree about tomato stains - I do wonder what they put in school spag bol as home-made is much easier to remove. Whatever it is my son loves it and sprays it everywhere! Perhaps it should be confined to lunch in winter as the sweatshirts hide most things.

Paint stains never come out- despite the fact they are supposed to.
Ditto with felt tips.
Any tomato based sauces.
Grass stains.

Bright sunlight works wonders on stains. Put stain remover on the mark, bing in the wash, hang out to dry. I've got rid of loads of stains this way.

My son is very messy, he comes home with paint, marker pen, lunch you name he ends up covered in it.

Whiteboard pen. It just won’t come out!

My 5 year old came home with his friend’s NAME written on the back of his while polo shirt! Huge 5 year old handwriting!

It’s not even that the friend wrote his name, (these things happen in Reception) but that my son sat still long enough for him to do it!!

FML

Black whiteboard marker on sleeves and arms. “Millie was sitting behind me and she drew on meeeeee” and I quietly think “I hope you gave as good as you got”

DD came home recently with soil and lichen all over her skirt.

She said had stayed in at playtime and had no idea where it come from..

Use Hairspray on ballpoint ink.
Works in most fabrics.

It makes me sad that perfectly good clothing can’t be worn just because of for example an ink stain. I remember visiting family in a developing country and a young girl getting changed into a nice dress to go out. It was fresh and clean, but had a stain. There was no sense of shame. When i see my child wearing a stained shirt, I feel embarrassed. I wish it wasn’t like that, but I know parenting can be judged on such superficial stuff.

My dc used to come home with what I thought was permanent marker on the backs of their shirts and jumpers. WTF were the school thinking of, giving 6yos Sharpies to play with?! And how the hell did they get it on their backs?

When I started working in a school I finally understood: the dc weren't using Sharpies, they were using whiteboard markers on white boards held in their laps while sitting on the floor. And, children being children, they were unable to put the lids on and leave the pens on the floor, so they were waving the pens around and catching the pupil in front.

Bring back slates, I say!

DD came home after playing in the school sand pit. She had a kilo of sand secreted about her person, grass stains, mud stains, chocolate (oh god please let it be chocolate, I thought) on her shorts and somehow a huge red mark on the back of her shirt. Never was able to identify that!

My child’s nursery inexplicably uses non-washable paint. The red and green are the worst to get out.

Paint handprint on a white school shirt from his friend who thought it was a funny thing to do!

since they have started secondary school I think sweat stains are the worst, I end up having to get new shirts every 6 months as I can't get the stains out.

Dd1 is arts and crafts mad so always covered in pen, paint, chalk or glue. Dd2 gies a step further and actually chooses to draw on herself! She's also partial to spilling food - especially tomato based sauces