Fuelled by sugar, egged on by siblings or over-excited by raucous playmates, there is no end to the destruction that mischievous kids can cause around the home.
Up and down the land it seems history keeps repeating itself - where kids are involved, the same accidents happen again and again. We’ve trawled through home insurance claims from Ageas customers for accidental damage to provide a snapshot of these common incidents.
So have a read, and take note in the name of avoiding expensive damage in your home and a potential claim on your insurance.
Smashed televisions
This is by far the most common cause of accidental damage in the home involving kids.
Normally, either something gets thrown at the screen - often a remote control - or children collide with the TV and knock it over.
One customer’s children were fighting over a toy and it flew out of their hands and hit the TV, cracking the screen. Another’s kids were playing with shower gel and squirted it over the TV, again damaging it.
Remember too, your TV is likely to be one of the most valuable possessions in your home.
Drenched iPads
When they aren’t smashing up telly’s, the little darlings may move onto wrecking tablets, smartphones and other devices.
These regularly get chucked in toilets, dropped in baths, doused in orange juice or simply dropped on hard floors.
Again, these devices are expensive, so it’s worth doing what you can to protect them, such as investing in a hard case and protective screen.
Scribbling on the sofa
Which child doesn’t love drawing? And why do it on a piece of paper, when there is a perfectly good sofa to scribble on?
Carpets, cupboards, TVs, doors and even pianos have received the same damaging treatment from artistic infants.
Spillages
It may be hard to identify the guilty culprit behind damage in the home, especially when battling siblings are involved.
Many customers find stains they think were caused by kids or grandkids up to no good, but can’t quite be sure, as no one will own up to the damage.
In one instance, the culprits were clear - the customer’s children - but harder to identify was the ‘slime like substance’ that they were playing with on a leather sofa, which was ruined as a result.
Jumping on the sofa and bed
To many children, the temptation to jump wildly on soft furnishings is too great to pass up.
But not only does this pose a risk of injury, it can also cause expensive damage.
Customers have complained of settees sinking, sofa springs collapsing and beds breaking after repeated and extended jumping sessions.
Electricals
Bright lights, whirring noises and the simple pleasure of copying grown-ups: home electricals often have real appeal for many young children and are a common source of claims for damage.
One customer’s kid burnt a hole in the carpet with a hot hair dryer. Another spilled water into the vacuum cleaner motor. The list goes on.
Indoor football
They’re football crazy, they’re football mad… and smashed windows are often the result.
Almost as common as a kick-around in the garden seems to be an indoor fixture, often in the lounge, where TV screens are ripe for the smashing.
Shooting things
Not all smashed windows and TVs are the result of miskicked footballs. Nerf guns and pellet guns are also sometimes to blame.
Some kids wreak destruction with more primitive tools. Customers have had to replace windows after damage caused by stones being thrown or even lobbed by catapults.
