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When it comes to wreaking havoc, children are artists.
Give a toddler an unattended lipstick, a white couch and a few moments with your back turned, and you’ve got a little Picasso on your hands.
The web site “$h*! My Kids Ruined” is an impressive and hilarious gallery of disasters perpetrated by children, from painting the dog blue to buttering the lamp to magic-marker redecorating. The blog inspired a book, published Tuesday, and author Julie Haas Brophy took time to answer a few questions from TODAY Moms.
What inspired the blog?
Broadly speaking, the blog is inspired by my life with two hilarious and very active boys (now ages 3 and 4). More specifically, in early March, my then-2-year-old son spilled a can of black paint that I'd inadvertently left out and it destroyed our dining room rug. Already in the habit of posting funny or dramatic photos on Facebook, I snapped a quick picture with my camera phone and uploaded it. The response was immediate and huge - friends were amused, horrified, sympathetic. I knew it had struck a chord.
What’s your absolute favorite SMKR photo, and why?
There are dozens of photos I love, but perhaps my favorite image on the whole site is actually a label! I love the Pelican Company deeply for this!
(Note: The label warns, “The above guarantee does not cover sharkbite, bear attack or children under 5.”)
Going through all these photos, have you learned any life lessons about kids and parenting?
Through the blog I've received confirmation that even the most attentive parents blow it from time to time, and disasters happen in every home (some homes more than others). I've learned that sharing and laughing about these sorts of mishaps and life changes is both therapeutic and fun. Our Facebook community is very active and a great place to vent and laugh.
Your turn: Have your kids ruined anything in spectacular fashion lately? Share and sympathize in the comments.
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Leave a Comment:
Ugh. Children have to be just about the worst thing on this planet.
Along with foreigners.
Too bad you feel that way, since you started out as one.
Most foreigners I've met are pretty nice.....
G Reaper, I feel sorry for you, and your screen name is creepy!
No kids, but my dog has ruined a laptop, a cellphone, and a number of shoes. And some carpeting from previous apartments.
I've had dogs eat the couch, an antique table, my hope chest, mattress, the walls, and a string of pearls. My kids have never come close to doing the same amount of damage!
Son, age 10, flooded the upstairs bathroom. My husband heard "drip, drip, drip" in the kitchen and discovered the water dripping from upstairs.
Not a happy day in the C NJ house!
Kids haven't ruined anything. Wife, on the other hand, ruined the dining room carpet (knocked over a can of paint from a stool and then picked it up upside down (sploosh out it came); rinsed left over plaster of paris out of the cardboard pail into the sink and didn't run water after it (don't ask what all was replaced); broke one or two of every plate, bowl, cup or glass in three sets of dishes over ten years; broke the kitchen sink drain pipe by attempting to wash potato peelings down it then plunging it when it was clogged; hit a concrete obstacle on all sides of the vehicle (columns or posts) putting big dents in the body; ran the same vehicle's engine 3 qts low on oil TWICE and two qts low TWICE (thing was running so rough and smelled so bad it looked like a Castrol Oil commercial); tried to wash a queen size comforter in the clothes washer and broke the agitator gears; and so many countless other things I just quit keeping count and expect her to break or screw up something each month. The only thing she has broken and not screwed up is her water when she was giving birth.
I hope you are not still married to her.
Wow...she sounds like me. Clumsy people like us mean well and we have a sense of humor. I hope you are still married to her.
When "things" happen, it brings us back down to a level where we lower our standards and start living. The pressure to have a perfect family is killing families because no one can live up to the Hollywood images that are portrayed in movies and television shows. Milk is spilt, new clothes get ruined. That's part of life. Accept it or go live on an island by yourself.
My 2 yr old son was playing with his 3 yr old friend when she decided to shampoo his hair with Desitin. Then they proceded to finger paint the carpets and louvered doors. This was done quietly and quickly while we were a room away. Since Desitin is waterproof it was impossible to clean up. We called a professional carpet cleaner who took pictures and used it as advertisement for his ability to clean up anything. I had to shampoo my son's hair so many times and cut some of it out. To this day I can't stand the smell of this zinc-oxide cream.
My kids have ruined countless things. Paint, crayons on the walls. Juice on the carpet. Broken laptop screen. broken printers, broken knick knacks. I will say, they have made me less materialistic. I've stopped caring about a lot of pointless junk, and have streamlined our lives. That's spinning a negative into a positive!
My youngest daughter was three years old (she is now 30) was being quiet... a sure sign something was amiss. I went into the living room and she had colored all of the blue designs in my couch with red lipstick. I said, "What are you doing?" and she said, "I thought it would be prettier red." She might have been right, it was an ugly couch!
Ok, where to start...LOL Broken sofa from jumping on it...100 postage stamps licked and stuck to the kitchen window...the footstool moved 5 inches to the left to cover the strawberry ice-cream stain..."TIMMY" written on the window sill (but denied to have been written by the son named Tim, because he insisted his 18 month old, child prodigy perhaps, brother did it), but my favorite was the karate kick to the 6x8 picture window. Of course these were years ago but they still come up at various family functions because while I was angry at the time they really are pretty funny and good for a laugh.
When I was teething, I ate my cousin's prized jack-o-lantern. She was so proud of it, this thing was HUGE and she'd designed the face herself. Then I got hold of it, and gnawed the daylights out of it. Thankfully, I was gnawing on the backside.
I won't go into the list of things my kids ruined and broke over the years, but I do find it ironic that the toddler who tried to eat a Bible is now a young adult studying in a theology seminary.
You know those gum-backed gold stars that elementary-school teachers would put on our papers? I decided that the 3' x 5' landscape picture above our sofa needed one, or two, so I stuck them on, right above the trees.
And this wasn't an actual oil painting, but a print, and on cheap paper backing, so it was either keep the stars on, or take them off and have star-shaped patches where the print got torn off.
That picture needed to get replaced anyway...
Just remember, the things of this world are temporary! Repeat as a mantra whenever some materialistic thing gets broken.