Mumsnet users share their child’s messiest moments with Farrow & Ball

[LucyBMumsnet]

This sponsored discussion is now closed

We may have gradually adapted to spending more time at home this year, but that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. With children around, more time indoors can often mean more opportunity for mess-making, whether over-adventurous colouring, teatime catastrophes, or grubby mitts. Farrow & Ball’s durable Modern Emulsion paint is washable and wipeable, so to celebrate all eventualities, they would like to hear the story of the biggest mess your child has ever made.

Here’s what Farrow & Ball has to say: “Our homes have become office, crèche, and schoolroom as well as space for your family. Couple that with the fact that most of us have been looking at the same walls for months on end, noticing every mark, or wanting to introduce a change, and you have a great opportunity for a fresh lick of paint.

Modern Emulsion is a great choice for any space because it’s washable, wipeable, and tough enough to withstand those everyday scuffs and scrapes from things like scooters and shoes. It’s also eco-friendly, child-safe, and available in any Farrow & Ball colour you choose.”

What has been your child’s messiest moment? Do you have a budding Picasso who simply can’t resist the allure of a blank wall? Perhaps your children weren’t even the culprits: are your four-legged friends responsible for muddy marks and wet splodges along the wall? How do you tackle the clean-up?

No matter what kind of creative punishments your home has been subject to, we’d like to hear your stories. All who share on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw. The winner of the prize draw will receive a £100 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list), a virtual Farrow & Ball colour consultancy, and 10L of Modern Emulsion paint in a colour of their choice. Two runners-up will each win 5L of Modern Emulsion paint in a colour of their choice.

Thanks, and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

[TiptopJ]

An entire jar of cinnamon accompanied by the words 'thats funny mummy'

[Miisty]

My daughter drew on the hall walls with felt tip pens (not the kind that washed off today )I had to scrub and scrub for hours .The whole hallway and stairs needed doing and granny s pens got chucked away I could have throttled them

[HelenW151]

My son took his felt tips to the back of our cream leather sofa. His face was a picture when we found it!

[minkeymonkeys]

I turned my back for 2 minutes and my daughter opened every pot of glitter and mixed all the colours. It got everywhere. She must have eaten loads of it because I was seeing it in the toilet for days.

[DoAllMeerkatsComeFromRussia]

Two of my three had the habit of drawing and writing on the walls in felt tips. And on furniture. No idea why they did it, they could see how cross it made us, they just seemed to find an area that they presumably thought was a bit hidden, lower down or behind something- they must have thought we wouldn't notice. It was easy to identify the culprit though as they always used to write their names!
Our other DC used to pull poo out of his nappy and deposit it places. He was close to potty training and presumably didn't like the feel of it in his nappy so he'd pull it out and hide it. We found it in corners of rooms usually. Once he pushed it into the driver's compartment of his toy train. The best (worst) one was when I'd nipped to the shops and left the DCs with DH. As I arrived back, on the doorstep outside was a small poo- fresh from where DS1 had popped it through the letter box!

[janeyf1]

My DC decided to use her crayons to draw pictures all over her newly painted bedroom walls. I was shocked to walk in and see such a mess!

[mummyuk86]

My eldest son decided he wanted to brighten up his room - he managed to get hold of a highlighter (big mummy fail) and drew all over his carpet!!

[liz1970]

drawing and writing their names on their bedroom walls :/

[ChocolateCake1]

After using quilts to ‘sledge’ down the stairs I heard a cry, only to find that a tin of paint that was on the landing had joined the ‘sledging’ and cover the entire stair carpet and hallway flooring. My heart sank!

[beckyinman]

Dropping a whole bag of flour on the floor during a baking session

[HelenSw4les]

My daughter and I were painting pictures of a rainbow to display in our window as part of the Clap for the NHS in the Spring, everything was going well and our paintings were going well, we picked red as the next colour for our rainbow at the same moment as the postman rang the doorbell, I was gone no more than 30 seconds to find the start of a red rainbow all over my wall and radiator, my daughter was so proud of herself at painting on her own, luckily it washed off fairly easily.

[Spices001]

Unfortunate incident with a pot of sudocrem... covered herself & every single book we owned

[Princess123c]

When my daughter was two, she managed to open the vaseline i had and smothered herself. It took a lot of washes to get out of her hair, as it was so greasy! We both just stood there chuckling, she looked at her self in the mirror and laughed!

[origamiswan]

One son managed to get hold of the tub and paint himself in sudocrem and then leave handprints all over the carpet as he crawled around. The other son managed to get hold of a fat, black marker pen and create an original design on the dining room wall just minutes before we were due to go out! Thankfully this wasn't in the same day!

[ThereWillBeCrumbs]

" I drew you lovely picture on wall mummy. In blue" I have heard this or similar statements several times. Youngest currently has the attention span of a gnat so will wander off with his grubby hands in the middle of eating or painting or going to the toilet and you can work out where he's gone by the trail of gunk on the walls, furniture and bannisters. My older sister used to pick the woodchip out of our wallpaper in the 80s... but only at the height of my younger brother...sneaky.

[NewtoHolland]

My eldest isn't a great sleeper, we tried every routine, lotion and potion you can think of. One night I stupidly left a tub of the latest dream cream in the drawer next to her bed. In the morning I got up refreshed as she'd slept so well! Went into her room and noticed it smelt amazing....Her hair was like oil slick with it, as was a large patch of cream carpet which was now grey/lavender, the bed and the wall had also been decorated! It took 2 weeks before her hair fully cleared 🙈.

[malaguena]

My 3yo son is constantly drawing on walls, on the floor and on himself. Strangely he doesn't particularly like drawing on paper, but scribbling anywhere is exciting despite being told off constantly.I found him with blue felt tip all over his face last week, and when I asked him why he had done that, he said "I'm beautiful". Thank God for magic sponges.
Other messy highlights include breaking eggs and a spilling a bottle of oil on the floor, both of which were a nightmare to clean off. Oh, and leaving an ice lolly to melt on the floor, which I didn't notice until the next day. Sticky mess.

[36degrees]

MIL gave my 4 month old refluxy baby a packet of chocolate buttons when I was out of the room. Luckily that room was the kitchen and is reasonably wipedownable.

[Hopezibah]

We have our fair share of messy moments stories to tell but annoyingly some of the worst were my fault and not the kids!!! Kids stories first though... my son going to the fridge and pickng up and egg and "bouncing" it on the floor - oops!
The "wearing more spaghetti on your face and clothes look" by my daughter. Then there was the indoor sand incident! Thinking I was being a great mum to allow a bit of messy play indoors by bringing in a trayful of sand in the winter months from the garden. My son spent about an hour playing with it beautifully - not a grain of sand on the floor. Then the doorbell rang and when I returned, in those few seconds he had decided to throw handfuls of wet sand at every single wall!!! Eeeek!

My mistakes have been to use a humidifier when my daughter had a cold, shortly after painting a wall in her room and all the paint got covered in wet drip stains. I also had an exploding bottle of chimichurri sauce that ended up on the white kitchen wall - Now that took ages to clear up!

[farhanac]

Spilling raspberries on the carpet and then helpfully trying to clean them up - with a mop and bucket

[ScrapThatThen]

Dd2 has rarely put a foot wrong. However, when she was four her reception teacher had let the class draw in chalk on the playground. Late that night, I heard ominous giggling and whispered panic. I went upstairs and her older sister, six, was trying to help her 'wash' the wall above her bunk bed. Dd2 had drawn the most enourmous - actually quite impressive - thick black pen drawing of a tug boat. It was very hard to be stern instead of collapsing with laughter or praising her artistry and her sister's unconditional sisterly support. These days, at 15, her table is spattered with acrylic paints, paintbrushes and makeshift cardboard palettes, as she paints beautiful scenes and flowers to relax.

[Isol]

We’ve had a few...

After a particularly colourful attack on the wall we had to repaint it a darker colour... then there was also a giant tub of Sudocrem that my daughter covered everything with.

By far the worst was the giant carpet stain that appeared in her room. We couldn’t find the source, nothing was budging this. We had to recapped her room as it was right in the doorway!

[alwaysataldi]

My lipfinity lipstick over my bedroom carpet - yes it does last !!

[ohdannyboy]

Last halloween - bought some 'fake blood' for the dressing up, DS1 and 2 decided to have a 'realistic' sword fight - there was 'blood' everywhere - the worst on my dry-clean only 90x90 curtains !! - The dry cleaning bill was HORRENDOUS

[lillypopdaisyduke]

Sharpie pen ! say no more !!! Luckily a couple coats of paint worked.