Mum Hayley left the room for less than five minutes.
Two naughty toddlers were caught in the act after covering the entire kitchen and drenching themselves head-to-toe in paint when their mum nipped upstairs for a quick wee.
Mum Hayley Kidd had been giving the kitchen a revamp on Monday April 18 while Bonnie, four, and Harry, one, played outside in the garden.
The 27-year-old nipped upstairs to use the toilet while the children were occupied, but when she returned less than five minutes later, the two youngsters had smeared a tub of white paint all over themselves and the entire kitchen including the floor, cupboards and surfaces.
Hayley explained that she had left the paint on the kitchen side but Bonnie had climbed onto the surface and used a ladle to throw paint around the room and at her younger brother.
A hilarious photo captures the tots caught in the act, with Bonnie crouched over the exploded bucket, both dripping in white paint that also covers every surface and has left the floor a sea of white.
Hayley was cleaning up for 12 hours
The escapade is estimated to have cost Hayley £500 as she says she now needs to replace the oven, air fryer, microwave and even plug sockets, which have been faulty since their encounter with the paint.
Hayley, from Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, says: ‘It’s quite possibly the worst day of my life, but it was funny and it’s done now. There’s always something in our house.
‘I started painting my kitchen and the children were playing outside in the garden. While they were playing, I thought I’d run upstairs for a wee so I went to the toilet then I spotted a pile of washing on the stairs so I picked that up and put it on my bed.’
Hayley says can’t describe how quickly it happened, as she was gone ‘less than five minutes’.
‘I had no words, there was a moment of pause and silence while I took it in.. Bonnie had pulled a ladle out of the drawer and was swinging it around and throwing it to the other side of the room at my other child which is why he was covered in it,’ she recalls.
Bonnie and Harry got into mischief while their mum was having a wee
‘They saw my presence and were like, “oh no, we’re in trouble”. I just asked them what they had done and she said she was sorry.
‘I try to do gentle parenting so I took a big breath. Bonnie asked if I was mad and I just said I wasn’t happy with them, but it’s done now.’
The nursery teacher rushed the children upstairs for a shower before using cereal boxes to scrape the paint away and she ended up spending 12 hours trying to clean up the mess.
Hayley says: ‘I just got them upstairs in the shower so I dripped more paint everywhere on the way. I showered them down which was a traumatic experience for them when I was trying to get the paint off.
‘Harry doesn’t sleep without me so I had to lay there for one hour while the paint was drying and I just had to go down and my brother had already started cleaning for me.
‘We had to use cereal boxes to scrape it up. I ended up having to take Harry to bed and deal with it in the morning. I was cleaning from about 6am until 6pm.
Hayley was stunned when she came downstairs
‘I’ve managed to get most of it up but there are drips that look awful. There’s still paint in some places I can’t get it out of.’
Hayley shared a photo of the toddlers smeared in paint on social media and commentors urged her to bin Bonnie and Harry and buy a new house.
One said: ‘Oh Hayley. My god, children at their finest. Honestly you have the chill of a Saint. I’d have stuck both mine in the paint and binned the lot.’
Another said: ‘I think if my kids did this, I’d finally have to section myself. I can’t even begin to imagine what went through your head walking in to this. I’d probably scream the house down.’
Hayley adds: ‘I thought I was going to get stick for leaving the paint out but people found it funny because so many people can relate.
‘I was gone for literally a few minutes. I’ve learned my lesson, I know what kids are capable of in such a short space of time.
‘They look like little angels, they don’t look like they’d do something like that but they’re like little demons.’