TIFU by flooding a hotel bathroom

So, this was not today but in December of 2018, and for context I (now 19F) was 12 during all of this.

I got my period right before I turned 12, and as particularly heavy periods run in my family, I was already using tampons by this point. And not just the little tiny ones, but the giant ones that are about the size of a thumb unused. Now, when I first got my period, my mom had offhandedly told me that it was okay to flush tampons down the toilet. I think you can see where this is going.

This took place during an annual vacation we would take up north to ski, visit my cousins, and celebrate the new year at a nice hotel. My parents, being longtime annual customers of this hotel, would book the same room every time: a fancy-ass suite with a kitchenette, two adjoining rooms, and a giant bathroom with multiple sinks, inset bath, etc., complete with a sliding door that bordered the carpeted floors of the rest of the hotel room.

So, flash back to 2019; I was chilling with my older sister (then 15F) in the hotel room. Our parents had gone out to do something or other, so we were just amusing ourselves. At some point, I go to the bathroom to tamp up and thus end up flushing the old one, which yes, was one of those huge ones. Hours go by, and I obviously don’t think anything of it.

At some point, there’s a knock at the door, and we assume our parents have somehow forgotten the room key, so we get up to let them in. To my shock and horror, it is not in fact our parents, but the most bashful-looking hotel employee I’ve ever seen.

He tells us that he’s just come from the room directly below ours, where water is leaking through the ceiling. My sister and I are extremely confused and say we have no idea what’s going on. The hotel employee asks if he can check the bathroom, to which we agree and go over with him.

We open the door to find the entire thing, which was roughly the size of your average bedroom, covered in 1-2 inches of water. Now, the bathroom was tiled, but the water had gotten under the door and there was a sizeable wet spot on the carpet floor that bordered it. My sister and I start panicking and call our parents, who (thank fuck), were back from their excursion and just hanging out at the hotel’s gift shop. They come to the room and are equally shocked and appalled by the state of the bathroom. The hotel employee has since left to get backup.

Up until now, I, who have been just as clueless as everyone else so far, mention the tampon. My dad looks horrified and says, “I don’t think you’re supposed to do that.” My mom, who also looks panicked, said that it’s only okay to do in public bathrooms if there’s no trashcan or other receptacle.

At this point, it hits me that this is my fault and I had probably caused a lot of property damage, so naturally I burst into tears. Luckily, my mom calmed me down and said it was a honest mistake, and it ended up getting taken care of. After all these years, I asked my mom what ever happened, and as it turns out we didn’t have to pay for anything. And, perhaps most importantly, I learned my lesson and have not flushed a tampon since.

TL;DR : Flushed an XL tampon in a hotel bathroom and flooded it so badly that it caused leakage in the room below.