Sara McGinnis
posted in Parenting
Let’s all take a quick moment to appreciate how hard we are on our homes. We slam doors, forget to take off our shoes, run wild through the halls during tickle fights, cook, eat and spill on a fairly regular basis.
I suppose it’s no surprise then that over years the cost of all that living adds up to quite a bit. Luckily, for those who need exact details, someone’s taken a survey and done the math.
Are your ready for the punch in the gut? A child causes an average of $4,960 worth of damage to a home over their lifetime.
I’ve got two kids. Ouch.
Those dollars go into fixing scratched floors, repairing and replacing ruined furniture, and dealing with broken electronics.
Wall damage was found to be the most common issue, with 84 percent of parents having touched up walls and woodwork after it was scratched, drawn on or dented.
Runner up repairs revolve around those dreaded carpet stains. A whopping 78 percent of parents surveyed reported hiring specialty cleaners to deal with spills and various other types of damage.
As the mother of a baby who spent months spitting up more than you could even imagine was possible I know a thing or two about cleaning — and carpet is the worst. We’re currently in the process of remodeling and there isn’t a single square foot of the stuff being put in. I’ve come to realize my band of humans are too messy to be trusted not to spill, so we aren’t even going to try.
Other than that though, I can’t harp on my boys too much. Aside from grubby hands trailing along the walls and the occasional bugger no one will own up to having stuck somewhere (seriously kids?!) they haven’t gone crazy. At least nothing like the poor parents whose toddler ruined 16 iPads in one day!
Images via UnSplash/Samuel Zeller, Senjuti Kundu, baby qb
What part of your home do your kids take the biggest toll on?