Am i the only one who gets everything ruined!

lindseykim13

So mad right now, my whole family 3 kids and dh just don't respect anything of mine at all. Today for example been trying to get out to the shops for ages to get some large coloured card for a project.
I leave it safe under the stairs (we have a built in unit there) nice and flat. I come back after a few hours to find my card all bunched up and ruined with shopping bags left by dh and a load of toys from the kids. :mad: I then find the lamp which i'd put together and left on the stairs to be taken up later in peices.

This happens to all of my things, i don't have much time at all to do anything for myself and when i do i just don't know why i even bother trying!
My sewing machine was broken by the kids & dh shoving stuff in the cupboard.
I won't go on with a long list of all of my things they have wrecked but is it just me and how do i stop them doing it

Money side of things is i have to keep replacing these things or give up all together.

pigpen

you empty the cupboard under the stairs put all your stuff in it and padlock it.. and every time something of yours is ruined take a hammer to something of theirs...

I'd be screaming banshee level and demanding they replace everything either with their own money or by working off the debt!

Total lack of respect for you and your things.. disgraceful.

paddy's_mum

You might find ears and minds open if you make it absolutely clear that the tit-for-tat system which you now propose to copy from them for the next week or so can only be brought to an end by their own actions - when they start to show consideration, so will you, and if it takes them many weeks to catch on, they can look forward to some retaliatory contempt.

However long the interval, you plan to treat their things, wants, needs and desires with the identical degree of disregard and carelessness.

I wonder whether you would be wise to make a space for your things that is sacred to you and that even the youngest child wouldn't dare come within 10 feet of!

I agree with pigpen above that it is time to start protesting .... loudly and unremittingly until the message sinks in!!

BallandChain

You could try storing your stuff in a separate box like this:

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?jspStoreDir=argos&catalogId=1500002701&referredURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.argos.co.uk%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FSearch%3FstoreId%3D10001&cmpid=COJUN&langId=-1&searchTerms=7202038&referrer=COJUN&storeId=10001&_%24ja=tsid%3A11674|prd%3A1546795

vodooelephant

I dont have any 'nice' things anymore

Kids ruined my makeup -used it to redecorate the bathroom. daughter helped herself to my jewlry box for her pretty collection.. shes 4...

Twins ruin pretty much anything they get there hands on.... daughter is VERY good at not closing stairgates / and will happily drag a dinning chair around just to see if i have hidden anything.

I have just found they have unravelled my knitting... took me ages that did:(

HannahIOW

You really ought to start locking things away or putting them out of reach, or you'll be driven mad. I'd have lost my rag by now.

lindseykim13

vodooelephant wrote: »

I dont have any 'nice' things anymore

Kids ruined my makeup -used it to redecorate the bathroom. daughter helped herself to my jewlry box for her pretty collection.. shes 4...

Twins ruin pretty much anything they get there hands on.... daughter is VERY good at not closing stairgates / and will happily drag a dinning chair around just to see if i have hidden anything.

I have just found they have unravelled my knitting... took me ages that did:(

I know how you feel

I'd like to get a big box but just don't have the space anywhere and no cupboards which i could possibly empty. I think my stuff is safe is my bedroom but dh is just as bad. They always say sorry but i wish they wouldn't do it in the first place.

freddie_2

Why would a child even consider destroying someone elses things?
Surely its a massive lack of respect for others which IMO is a taught behaviour.

my 4yo DD would know i would go mad if she touched my make up/stuff without asking.
Am I going to get flamed or is it not just good old fashioned manners?

candygirl

pigpen wrote: »

you empty the cupboard under the stairs put all your stuff in it and padlock it.. and every time something of yours is ruined take a hammer to something of theirs...

I'd be screaming banshee level and demanding they replace everything either with their own money or by working off the debt!

Total lack of respect for you and your things.. disgraceful.

I love your zero tolerance approach hun:D.Can you come round and give my 23 year old DD some training?:D:D

warehouse

freddie wrote: »

Why would a child even consider destroying someone elses things?
Surely its a massive lack of respect for others which IMO is a taught behaviour.

my 4yo DD would know i would go mad if she touched my make up/stuff without asking.
Am I going to get flamed or is it not just good old fashioned manners?

Spot on. Kids have to be taught to respect others and others property. Yours simply don't have those skills, and there is a reason for that. I have a friend with kids like that and they are not welcome here anymore because they simply have no respect for anybody or anything, I bet you have friends like that too who you don't get invited over to anymore.

However, it's not too late to teach them, but it's going to hurt.

lindseykim13

freddie wrote: »

Why would a child even consider destroying someone elses things?
Surely its a massive lack of respect for others which IMO is a taught behaviour.

my 4yo DD would know i would go mad if she touched my make up/stuff without asking.
Am I going to get flamed or is it not just good old fashioned manners?

They don't do it on purpose, just a total life of living in cloud coocoo land! None of them think about their actions before going ahead, none of them look what their doing first. The kids will jump in a cupboad playing hide and seek without considering the things they are sitting on DH is just plain lazy and never puts things back properly i feel like i'm teaching him what is mother should have!