Parenting is no cheap enterprise – but in addition to the more traditional costs of raising a child, a group of mothers and fathers have no revealed that there is a whole other cost that comes into play when bringing up their offspring: the price of their kids’ destructive powers.
In a viral Reddit thread over 162 parents have shared their most shocking horror stories of childhood destruction, revealing the most expensive things that their kids have ruined.
And far from simply telling tales of material goods, some parents even dredged up tales of physical harm, revealing how their children have done everything from permanently scar an eyeball to cutting open a boob job.
Oh dear: Parent are revealing the most expensive things their children have ever destroyed in a hilarious online forum (file photo used)
An eye for an eye? One parent paid the ultimate price in the form of their sight, after their daughter dug their fingernail into it and caused permanent damage
Scratch! Children and televisions don’t always mix, unless there’s plenty of distance between the two – and no scissors
Long lost gem: One person confessed to accidentally hiding their mother’s diamond wedding ring as a child, then forgetting about it until years later
One regretful adult even reminisced the time she almost ruined her mother’s life.
‘When I was a kid, my mother lost her diamond wedding ring. She was devastated. A decade later, while cleaning things up for a garage sale, we found it jammed in the toilet of my Barbie house,’ she confessed.
Popular ‘accidents’ for parents include the ruin of the beloved flat screen TV, the new car, and the family jewels. Literally.
One woman gave a hilariously bitter two-word answer saying, ‘my vagina.’
Another parent shared a horror story of their children’s good-hearted surprise turned disaster.
‘The television. Apparently, running the scissors over the screen makes it look better,’ one curt parent said.
‘Our brand new flat screen TV. He was two and threw his toy truck at it…obliterated. Never wanted to disown him more than in that moment…’ another parent revealed.
Diamonds may be a ladies’ best friend, but their a child’s favorite playmate, according to one adult’s tale.
‘My neighbor worked in the diamond district of New York City. He’d given his wife a lot of diamond jewelry over the years. One day, she cleaned it all, and left it on a towel on the bathroom counter to dry,’ they wrote.
What a memory: Despite initially taking great car of her father’s laptop, the little girl in this story then decided to stomp her feet on the computer
A catalog of errors: One person writing in the forum on Reddit, revealed a laundry list of broken and lost items that had been ruined by their children
The ultimate price: Perhaps the most extreme material object destroyed by a child was an entire house, which was burned down accidentally
Accident-prone: One young girl seemed to have something of a taste for destruction
‘Their preschool-aged daughter decided to help mom wash her jewelry–in the toilet. ALL of it was flushed away,’ they added.
Material object, of course, come and go. However there are some mistakes that have permanent tolls on parents.
‘My eye,’ one parent revealed.
‘When she was six months old, she was sitting in my lap playing with some toy. She suddenly got really excited and flailed her arms up. Her fingernail dug deep into my eye.
‘Three surgeries later, I still can barely see out of that eye, and it’s visibly screwed up too… And needless to say, I won’t be telling her about this until she’s an adult at the earliest, and even then only if she asks,’ the parent said.
‘My brother ripped earrings out of both my mother’s ears when he was a baby,’ another user shared.
‘He did one, then the other a few days later…Don’t wear big earrings when you’re holding a baby, ladies,’ he warned.
Ouch! A woman who had undergone a boob job was left in agony after her son ripped open her incision and caused permanent scarring
The price of parenthood? One person writing in the thread believes that their child has likely destroyed over $2,000 worth of goods, despite being just two years old
Never turn your back! This parent’s trip to the toilet may end up being one of the most expensive ever, after his daughter drowned his laptop as soon as he turned his back
Say goodbye! According to one parent, both of their children have done their fair share of destruction during their short lives
‘My cousin’s son destroyed her boob job,’ a scarred user wrote.
‘Like three or four days after she got it her three year old jumped on her chest and opened up the left incision in a gnarly way. Left serious scarring,’ they wrote.
Another parent shares she was publicly humiliated after she unintentionally let her child decorate her hair.
‘One day when he was two, I was sitting on the floor, zoned out a bit, while he was playing with my hair,’ she said.
‘At the busy park, I kept noticing that people were staring at me and several of them looked concerned while others looked amused. I was so tired that I shrugged it off and took him on a quick errand to Walmart. Again, people kept staring at me! It really started to creep me out, so I took my son home.
‘Later that afternoon…I found six assorted pairs of Mr. Potato Head eyes stuck into my hair!! I walked around in public for hours like that and had no idea!’ she said.
And sometimes children just ruin everything, physically and emotionally.
‘My kid broke a 60 inch TV, Samsung tablet, two Galaxy phones (s5 and s6), a refrigerator, my wife’s nose, and a toilet. This kid is taking up quite the tab,’ a parent listed.
They meant well…! One child who was simply trying to help their parent did a lot more harm than good when they washed the side of their van with rocks, ruining the paint in the process
A fun game of throw: This parent learned the hard way that toy trucks and televisions do not mix well
Boom! Far from simply destroying not one, but two, blenders, this child managed to actually explode them both
Five years down the drain… One parent who spent half a decade collecting charms for their wife’s bracelet was horrified when they discovered their child had thrown it in the sink
But at least their intentions are often pure.
‘I was washing my van one day three years ago and my two year old decided to help wash the other side…..with rocks. Scratched right down to the primer,’ one sad dad said.
‘Not a parent, but scratched all the window tinting off my parents’ vehicle with a nail because it was dirty,’ another user reminisced on his youthful mess-up.
‘When my daughter was give (now almost 18) she took my MacBook off of my lap, closed it, gingerly placed it on the ground, hugged me… And then stomped on it,’ one regretful dad wrote.
From teenagers drink wine passed down for family generations to tiny tots flooding the house by leaving the sink water running, there are endless gut-wrenching tales of child-rearing.
But in all instances the love of growing and raising a family seem to trump the financial horrors that mischievous kids create. At least most of the time.
One user sums up the thread by asking his mom the question of the most expensive thing he and his siblings ruined.
‘I asked my mom…and then my little brother yelled from the other room, “their lives.”‘