Ok I need a little help here, we have a situation and I want to make sure I am handling it appropriately and would like some opinions from some wise people!
We were visiting some very close friends last night, friends that we visit with at least weekly. Our DD (almost 3) and their DD (2.5) were playing in their DD's room. We typically let them play by themselves, checking in on them every 15-20 minutes or so and they have always been fine.
Until last night...
My DD came out covered in black marker, carrying a stuffed animal also covered in black marker. We went in to the bedroom and found marker all over the walls, the comforter, and a huge life sized fraggle character. Fan freaking tastic. That's also when I realized that it was actually dry erase markers they were playing with, and that it would be more of a challenge to get out than washable markers.
So, we get out the magic erasers (my first experience with those, and wow!) got the walls clean. They washed the small stuffed animal and comforter and it won't come out. They called a dry cleaners, and were told likely there isn't anything that can be done. I took the huge fraggle home and went to work, looked up online remedies, tried Murphy's oil and will try alcohol today when we can get some. It's faded for sure, and hopefully will even more when I tackle it later.
We offered to replace the comforter and the small stuffed animal, which are both reasonably priced. The fraggle however is over $150 and we just can't do it right now. I am on mat-leave, and with it being just before christmas we are strapped enough and will likely not be able to have that kind of extra cash until at least February.
Right now I am torn between feeling horribly guilty about the damage, and kind of ticked that there were permanent markers accessible to the kids. They put a dry erase white board in their DD's room for her with several markers, and I didn't realize it was even there. We let our DD use markers, but strictly supervised and washable only. We also have no idea if it was just my DD that was the offender since no one was in there, however the evidence certainly points that way
So my question is, would you replace the expensive doll? Anything else I should do that I haven't thought of? Any ideas on how to get dry erase marker out?
Blah, this sucks!
We were visiting some very close friends last night, friends that we visit with at least weekly. Our DD (almost 3) and their DD (2.5) were playing in their DD's room. We typically let them play by themselves, checking in on them every 15-20 minutes or so and they have always been fine.
Until last night...
My DD came out covered in black marker, carrying a stuffed animal also covered in black marker. We went in to the bedroom and found marker all over the walls, the comforter, and a huge life sized fraggle character. Fan freaking tastic. That's also when I realized that it was actually dry erase markers they were playing with, and that it would be more of a challenge to get out than washable markers.
So, we get out the magic erasers (my first experience with those, and wow!) got the walls clean. They washed the small stuffed animal and comforter and it won't come out. They called a dry cleaners, and were told likely there isn't anything that can be done. I took the huge fraggle home and went to work, looked up online remedies, tried Murphy's oil and will try alcohol today when we can get some. It's faded for sure, and hopefully will even more when I tackle it later.
We offered to replace the comforter and the small stuffed animal, which are both reasonably priced. The fraggle however is over $150 and we just can't do it right now. I am on mat-leave, and with it being just before christmas we are strapped enough and will likely not be able to have that kind of extra cash until at least February.
Right now I am torn between feeling horribly guilty about the damage, and kind of ticked that there were permanent markers accessible to the kids. They put a dry erase white board in their DD's room for her with several markers, and I didn't realize it was even there. We let our DD use markers, but strictly supervised and washable only. We also have no idea if it was just my DD that was the offender since no one was in there, however the evidence certainly points that way
So my question is, would you replace the expensive doll? Anything else I should do that I haven't thought of? Any ideas on how to get dry erase marker out?
Blah, this sucks!