New site '**** My Kids Ruined'

Well I guess your family must have been perfect because most of the moms on here have had incidences such as the ones on that site (the minor ones at least). And those who say they haven't had ANY are lying.

Kids get into ****.

Yes, letting your kid around, let alone get a hold of lighter is not funny and is irresponsible. But you can't lock it all up. Flour? On the top shelf. Ok, so that just means more of a challenge and little Suzie can scale the pantry in less than a minute.

I resent the fact that some of you are implying that there is a dicipline problem in homes where kids get into things, like flour, oil, markers, nail polish. My house isn't in lock down. I don't lock the pantry or the art supplies up. If she REALLY wants to get something, believe me, she will.

Adriana has never had access to scissors , chemicals, lighters, matches,(dangerous and stupid) ...her room is baby proofed so that the worst she can do is write on the walls or get her butt cream all over. Which is still a pain.

However, if you have two kids, one a little older, they are bound to have safety scissors. Leave them a lone for 5 minutes and your youngest has a new haircut.

Sure, not EVERY kid paints the dog, spills paint all over the living room, colors the couch...but every kid does something. Draw on the wall. Themselves. Their siblings. I've never in my life met a kid who hadn't done at least that.

Well...Bella - for some of these folks, childhood was a LOOOOOOONG time ago . It's no wonder they don't remember getting into things.

I was a perfect child as well. All the edges on my memories are soft and fuzzy. Which is nice. And unmessy.

i am going to be dragged to the hounds for my first comment, but there are a few of these that make me wonder where the hell the parents were.



I HAVE a kid. I know for a fact that even sitting at the table all prim and proper with crayons there is bound to be a mark some where other then on her coloring book. Thats just a given.
The bottoms of the tables, chairs etc. She has even tried to color her teeth


but coating an entire ROOM in baby powder?

No, as a parent I am NOT at all saying that it is even reasonable, possible or acceptable to spend every single minute with your child.

but......

that was one BORED child right there..

another thing i thought of when it comes to the " I didnt do that" idea, is that it doesnt have to be an extreme case.

It isnt about taking an entire box of markers and drawing a rainbow the length of the living room.

its about doing something that, as an adult you wouldnt do.

Coloring out your dolls eyes.
Taking your pencil to the wall..etc.etc

But, when you are young, this ISNT something that is wrong, over the top orotherwise enough to make an impression on you strong enough to remember or immediately feel a world of guilt for.
You could have just been trying to smash a spider with a permanent marker tip because you were scared to touch it, leaving polka dots allllll over your moms new dinner table..

ya know..

Child abuse? or parental abuse?

more likely it was staged. Either way these are not quality parents who are responsible for these pics being online. Back in the day parents would have been deeply embarrassed if this stuff actually happened in their house, and would have had enough decency note to stage these kinds of pics.

http://www.khou.com/video?id=94100564&sec=548547
Look at this video of a kid giving his father the slip, just as the train is ready to roll.

Don't get your panties in a twist Bella.

My family was FAR from perfect. We were screwed up enough to kill one off, have another with multiple suicide attempts, and at least 3 of us kids in therapy. If the other 2 kids have never gone, that's only because they were the nuttiest.
And no, we weren't repressed as far as making a mess. My mother was a horrible housekeeper, and a lousy excuse for a mother in general.

The messes I remember were all things that could be picked up off the floor, unbroken, like toys or books, paper or something.
Not food, liquids, paint or all the other gooey stuff. Nothing that permanently damaged carpets, walls, cars, etc etc.

Any incidences that occured had to be minor, because I know there were no major ones, and that's no lie.

I didn't like getting messy.
I didn't like getting sweaty and dirty.

That's why I've always hated the summer, and loved the winter.
I've always been happiest when I'm clean, and as far as I can remember, the dirtiest any of us got was when my brothers were working outdoors as teens. But they took showers when they came in, before anything else.

Again, I just don't find pictures of children, or people in general, who are dirty, or sitting around in messes humorous.

I'm just talking for me, and am not comparing myself to any mother, family, or person here.

Like that picture posted above with the spaghetti on the kids head?
Just a waste of food, and the kid doesn't seem happy. The person who had too clean it up probably wasn't too crazy about it either.

Amen to that, sister

staged .. yeah. I could agree with that.

but i wont go so far as to question parenting quality. Thats just unfair.
What if the photo was taken by the baby sitter?
A friend?
While mommy was sick with 103 fever?

there are too many invisible variables to slap on the 'low quality parenting' label when it comes to a still photo

staging the shots? Oh hell yeahh.
There was one photo where there were not even FOOT prints in the powder, yet it was alllll over the place. Meaning, you had to coat stuff and walk backwards.
Kids doing that? no way.

I agree with chai on that too.

I dont remember doing anything major.
I remember little things, leaving the plastic wrap from cheese on the floor, dumping my moms large can of pennies out , looking for the 'magic' one , hauling clothes outside to be left in the rain.. etc.

I know i never coated anything with paint, never drew on the walls ( didnt have crayons ) or anything like what is pictured in that site.
If I had, i would still hear about it today. And my mother was heavy handed . I would remember that spanking.
Dropped and broke things? Sure.
I put one of those little foil chocolate wrappers in the Beta player. I STILL hear about that .
And it was BETA fur gods sake.. 30 years ago...

Reading this is weird!

I love messes. Life isn't much fun if it doesn't involve a little mess.

Seriously, what is the use of having "nice" things if taking care of stuff rules your life?

Kids are supposed to get dirty.

Playing in the mud is the most important meal of the day.



As to the spaghetti kid -- that's a photoshop creation. You can tell by the shadows. Shadows are a dead giveaway in almost all food photography.

I always give my grand kids noise toys, because kids are supposed to be heard. My kids were not all that messy or destructive, but they had other ways to get into trouble. They kept me on my feet.

see.
Im totally with you on this no matter how i was raised or how I might notice something was staged or not.

In asking ' where were the parents' it was not a judgment call, but more of a laughing fit of 'thats what you get for showering for 10 minutes' or something else silly.

Jillians room is decorated how SHE wants it.
painted in the colors SHE picked
covered with stickers on her wall SHE wants.
Her mirrors are wrtten on, painted on, and covered with what ever art work she deemed important that day.

Im not a stuff person. I dont worry about things staying 'nice' . Clean. yeah.. i would like that.. but its not a necessity. Its just stuff.

But i know enough to have a flat screen mounted on the wall out of her reach. I know enough to cover the fish tank with a latch. I know enough to have taught her as a wee baby to not flush the toilet. Saved many toys that way. But, shooting myself in the foot, she NOW doesnt flush to this day Its looking more and more like adult poop and im tired of seeing it. BUT HEY! I saved barbie once.

stuff is just stuff.
It shouldn't BE more important then enjoying yourself. I understand things are expensive to replace, but in the big scheme of things, stuff... is just stuff.

OMG, is THAT why I go into public restrooms and find stalls that have **** and piss in the commode?

People who were taught as children not to flush?

I would always think "Is this how this people were raised?"

Maybe so.

It's called child-proofing your house, keeping an eye on the kids, and saying, "Don't touch that!" a lot. Seriously, my two never got into anything after the age of 2, when my daughter got into a tub of vaseline. My fault for not putting it out of her reach.

Nothing wrong with messes, boomer's right - but everything in it's right place. Mud pies? No problem, but it'd better be outside! I don't like having my stuff ruined and I was a fairly strict parent about that sort of thing, as were mine (and there were 7 of us). Sure, things happened, but nothing destructive. If it isn't yours, don't touch.

Yeah, that reminds me of when my daughter was little and she was rolling around in one of those little seat things with the wheels and the tray - I forget what they're called - anyway it was before she could even walk, so she was less than a year old and I used cloth diapers, so I had this diaper pail full of water and ivory snow in which I soaked the dirty diapers until I had enough to make a full load of wash. This diaper pail was outside our bathroom and beside our laundry room. She was just out of my line of sight in this little walker thing and I was transferring a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer and I heard this sloshing sound - and I'm thinking, 'What is that?' and I went into the hallway and there was Olivia with the top off the diaper pail and her hands in the water and before I could reach her, she pulled out a dirty diaper and was flinging it back and forth.

Another time, my husband was painting a room and he put the paint brush in the paint tray while he walked over to answer the door and while his back was turned, my son picked up the paint brush and started painting the couch- thank god he was too old to have put it in his mouth - that's what I remember thinking.

My favorite though is the time my daughter was sitting at the dining room table doing her homework. I had been advised against getting a pine dining room table because pine is a soft wood - but I liked it so I got it.
Well, my daughter taught me what a soft wood pine is.
She'd taken her pencil and carved OLIV in the table before I walked back into the room. I found it a day or two later and said, 'Oh my god Olivia - when did you carve your name in the dining room table?' She said, 'I didn't.' And I said, 'Well, someone carved your name in the table- do you think it was Daddy who did it - or Joseph - because I know it wasn't me...'
She continued to deny and deny. She finally admits she did it now - and also admits she was upset she didn't get to finish the job. I love it - it makes the table really ours - and she'll enjoy telling her kids and grandkids about it when it's hers someday and they see her name partially carved into the table.

In terms of toilets and flushing - my sister tried on numerous occasions to flush her underwear down the toilet (she had accidents and was embarrassed - I guess she figured if she could get rid of the evidence (the wet panties) no one need ever know. Finally, my father figured out why the toilet kept overflowing when my mother said something about Cathy and her disappearing underwear.

I do wish I had taken a picture the time my son slipped downstairs, located a brush and can of paint and went to work on my boss's car.

that's a funny site, I'll have to contribute a few things myself