Share the biggest messes your children have made in the 5 minutes when your back was turned - £300 voucher to be won!

[EllieMumsnet]

Perhaps you have a child with the potential to be a future 'Banksy' - an artist able to cover a wall in felt-tip graffiti, while you are busy chopping carrot sticks. Or maybe they're more of a Jackson Pollock character - suddenly spraying the entire contents of their bowl across the floor in homage to the painter's splatter artworks? We’ve all been there when unbelievable messes have occurred in the blink of an eye and Carex would love to hear your stories about the biggest messes your children have made.

Here’s what Carex has to say: “Here at Carex we’re all about living life hands on… and sometimes that means getting messy! Luckily we’re here to clean, care and protect with our range of antibacterial hand washes. To keep the family busy this summer you can currently enjoy half price entry to Alton Towers and Sea Life centres with every promotional pack of Carex.”

Did you leave the room for five short minutes only to come back and find they'd somehow got at your prized Chanel lipstick and had liberally applied it not only to their lips, but their cheeks, eyes, hands and hair? What madness made you leave them unsupervised?! Share the unfortunate stories of the times you turned your back and a mess ensued.

Everyone who posts on the thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

[kb1823]

i'll never forget the time my youngest painted the walls and carpet!!!

[OnlyToWin]

Toddler unzipped the outer bag of beanbag then the inner bag. Lounge resembled the North Pole. No hoover would hoover those small polystyrene balls up. They were everywhere. Had to pick them up in small sections with sellotape. It took days. Was literally still finding them months later!

[lisapop]

Aside from the usual paint & drawing on the walls & glitter everywhere, the worst was when my daughter cut her sister's hair, the fringe was a practical skinhead

[buize]

Royal icing on every surface in the kitchen that made everything stick to it.

[liamell]

My little boy was being very helpful whilst I popped to the loo and he put a load of washing in for me. All of Daddys lovely white shirts for
work along with a bright red football sock :(
Daddy had lots of pink shirts to go to work in the following few weeks :D

[JudgeRulesNutterButter]

DD has a little lipstick that came off a comic. DS (2) got hold of it and basically treated it like a crayon. Those grilles on top of radiators hold waxy lipstick really well

[Boulardii]

Hi. I came on to say that a box of breakfast cereal has so much potential for mess, and only a few seconds needed. I think it gets to me particularly because the combination of hoovering (my least favourite cleaning job) and food waste!

Anyway, reading the other threads made me remember the time my son was washing his hands aged 2. He squirted a generous dollop of handwash on his hands and rubbed it in. Then his eyes must have itches him so he rubbed them with his hands. That was a very upset boy. Needless to say, I stick to bar soap now, and whenever he goes somewhere with a liquid soap dispenser, he say ‘not in my eyes’. I wonder if this will be one of his earliest memories?

[Danascully2]

I found my 18 month old stuffing toilet paper down the toilet once....

[HotChocolateLover]

My son once bounced really hard on a beanbag in the kitchen which then split. All the little white balls went everywhere. To make matters worse, I picked up the beanbag with the remainder of the white balls to put them in the wheelie bin. The balls filled the wheelie bin and then I dropped the beanbag so the white balls were literally all over my local area for months as they are non-biodegradable. Every time I saw one I felt bad.

[HotChocolateLover]

@DanaScully2 Nuff said 😂

[Hmumto3]

Turned away for what seemed a few mins and my baby had tipped a whole lotion bottle over himself his clothes and all around him! He was covered in a certain pink baby lotion head to toe!

[TuesdaySunshine]

Cream sofa + red wine + a minute's inattention = bitten tongue. Could have been so much worse if toddler + glass (or alcohol) had been in the equation, though.

[purplepandas]

Vicks everywhere was pretty hideous on clothes but also on skin. Near eyes is not good!

[PorridgeAgainAbney]

Luckily no mess that was ‘wet’ and needed hours of clearing up but there were plenty of times that the airing cupboard (with shelves all the way down to the floor), saucepan cupboard or Tupperware cupboard was emptied in the time it took me to answer a short phone call.

[vickyors]

Youngest daughter, three, went into older sister's room at some point in an early morning and took her set of nail polishes. By the time we all woke up, there was nail polish everywhere on our little one. Nails, yes, but also face, private's, and all over her bedroom. It wasn't a good start to the day.

[DinosApple]

I have a long, long list, but most memorable are:

Bum cream spread across the carpet, half eaten and spread on hair and face. (Both DC...)

Smashed bottle of red wine on cream carpet. (DC1 age 10 months - moved wine after that!)

Cold ash from the grate footprints on the carpet and hand prints on the walls in the living room (they were 1&2).

Lipstick incident where DC2 coloured her entire face. (Age 2)

Oh and grating a candle down the plug hole... Age 6&7.