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74 Most Expensive Things Children Accidentally Ruined As Shared In This Reddit Thread
Kids are just the dearest - they are the joy of life that perpetuates our existence. Kids teach us many lessons and revive our love for the world. In short - they are absolutely precious. But so are some of your things in their own right. An eons-old grandad clock, the LCD TV you’ve saved for years to buy, or a piece of jewelry that has been passed on for generations. Of course, their preciousness does not compare to that of a child, but when the two meet, we get a list of the most expensive things children accidentally ruined, as per this AskReddit thread. Prepare to be shook by some of these submissions, for they are quite unbelievable in their scale.
Now, none of these clumsy kids did their deeds on purpose - most of these accidents happened because of their sheer clumsiness. But hey, if your center of gravity were the same spot as a child’s is - right around your head - you’d also be very prone to ruining your stuff. In other cases, these funny kids just wanted to do an experiment or to check how some of these fancy things work. Nothing to blame them for here, as we’d be just as interested in taking a peek at the insides of your limited edition Xbox as they were. And, as you’re about to see, this Reddit thread is brimming with exactly these stories, with the variable being the price and the size of a ruined thing. But hey, before you have kids, you must know that ruining stuff is just one of the things kids do, so guard your possessions as hard as you’d like; some scale of destruction is still inevitable.
So, ready to check out these laugh-out-loud yet dearly expensive mistakes made by kids and documented by their parents? Well, then, scroll on down below and have a look at the submissions! Be sure to give your vote for the most unfortunate expensive things that got ruined by kids and share this article with parents-to-be so they’ll know what they are getting themselves into.
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"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."
"When my son was 3, he rubbed a whole stick of butter over the back of the cloth couch. I cleaned it, but it always had a large stain. 16 years later I sent it with him when he got his first apartment."
"When I was a kid I took a hammer and tried breaking open the television screen so I could be with Harry Potter. Didn't really work out as I had imagined."
"My eye. When she was 6 months old, she was sitting on my lap and playing with some toys. 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 (not egregiously, but if you look me in the eye my pupil is clearly more oval than a circle.)
"My sister destroyed not one, but two blenders by leaving a spoon in them before turning them on. The explosions were impressive."
"My dad, a realtor, once sold a house and a condo to a guy whose daughter had burned down their old house. The house was for the family, the condo was for the daughter. I asked my dad how it had happened and he said the guy just told him, 'She's always been like that.'"
"I had decided that my mother's very expensive perfumes and moisturizers smelled really nice and that if I combined them they would probably smell even better. So I did. In the bathtub."
"My brother ripped earrings out of both my mother's ears when he was a baby. He did one, then the other a few days later. I guess the cosmetic surgery to fix it was expensive and insurance didn't cover it. Don't wear big earrings when you're holding a baby, ladies."
"When I was younger I cut all the flower heads that had blossomed in my grandmother's garden and gave them to her in a bucket. She started crying immediately."
"We had a 90g saltwater tank with easily upwards of $3k worth of coral, and fish. I went to work a night shift and my son unplugged everything for the night my husband didn't notice. Everything was dead in the morning, and the house smelled lovely."
My Uncle had a restaurant with a really big fish tank in the entrance and there were steps down into a foyer area. Anyway, they came in one morning and the tank had shattered but there was just enough water trapped because of the step down area but fish were laying on their sides in just enough water to breathe
"20 years ago my friend's young son was making puzzles and he cut up his father's original Star Wars a New Hope 1977 poster. His father told me he had to shrug it off because his son didn't know any better. Best punishment served cold - the son is now a young Star Wars fan and he would do anything to own that poster he himself ruined."
That probably would have been worth a ffffffortune today as well
"I’m not a parent, but my brother (11 at the time) once got my father’s credit card without him knowing, and spent 2k dollars in online games."
"My daughter stood on our dinning room table and spun the chandelier until it came out of the ceiling."
"The television. Apparently, running the scissors over the screen makes it look better."
"My son, around 2 at the time used my phone as a spoon to eat ice cream. I had to use the speaker and yell into my phone for a week whenever I had a call. Eventually, it stopped wanting to charge. Melted ice cream does things to phones."
"I jumped on the roof of my mother's dodge neon like a trampoline cause I saw it on the Simpsons."
I did that on a glass topped table. It did not work out well, but I managed to avoid cutting myself so I'd say that's a win.
"Apparently when I was 2 or 3 (around '92) I thought the VCR was hungry so I fed it my spaghetti."
"My wife and her brother tore a giant hole behind the dresser because they were trying to find Narnia."
"I ruined my mom's brand new Keurig by putting milk in the reservoir instead of water in an attempt to make better hot chocolate. Didn’t know it would curdle the milk and make the house smell like rotting feet."
"I threw my mom's engagement ring in the ocean when I was a toddler. Don't ask me why I was allowed to play with it."
"Permanent marker all over our brand new quartz countertop. Brand new..."
"My chemistry professor blew up half of his house and consequently the other half caught on fire when he was 8 or 9."
"My brother filled the car with water. Twice."
"My 4-year-old niece wrote her name all over the driver's side of our neighbor's car (Audi S6) with a rock."
"My grandpa had a successful tomato farm. One day he wanted me to pick the tomatoes from a plant. Well, I picked every tomato on the farm. All of them. Were that tomato green and half an inch? Picked it. Spent a few hours and cleaned out the whole farm of ripe (probably only 5%) and developing tomatoes. Easily thousands of tomatoes."
Having a grandpa that had a decent sized garden... How did he not notice OP was picking so many tomatoes? After a hundred, you'd be checking in to make sure the kid is alive and not playing with poop or something
"When I was a kid I thought I'd be helpful and wash my mom's car. I used one of those scrubby sponges from the kitchen and scratched the sh*t out of every inch of that car."
"When my son was about 7 he microwaved our camera. We had just bought a 1000$ video camera for the family to use, when he was home with his older sister he thought it would look cool to have a video of the inside of the microwave!"
Wait, did the microwave explode or did the camera get damaged or both? I'm kinda combuzzled here!
"When I was about 5, I had a fascination with magnets and I had quite a few of them and I played with them a lot. I had heard several times from my parents to not put the magnets on the TV and of course, my 5-year-old brain registered that as definitely put the magnets on the TV. So when they were out of the house I put one on the screen and it became discolored, I thought it was cool and dragged it across the TV some. I quickly found out that the color doesn't come back when you turn the TV on and off. Had to get a new TV and I got in quite a bit of trouble."
"My siblings and I sat alone waiting for our parents in our brand new 1960 station wagon. We got bored, and pushed in the cigarette lighter, then took turns burning holes in the new vinyl upholstery. Little circles all over the seat."
"My younger sister somehow managed to ruin all the plumbing in one of the bathrooms of our house."
"When I was about 12 I somehow managed to break my nans £1000 stairlift while riding it."
"The stereo in our minivan quit working. After a little troubleshooting, we found 25 pennies shoved in the CD slot."
"I was 13 and downloaded everything my small grubby child-teen hands could click on LimeWire. I'm sorry, mom."
"My mother never ceases to tell somebody new the story of when she bought a brand new couch. I was sitting on it with a pair of scissors near me and decided to just cut a slit right down the center of one of the cushions. When asked why, my response was, 'well, I had to cut something.' She was so furious she walked away."
"Our brand new flat-screen TV. He was 2 and threw his toy truck at it. Never wanted to disown him more than in that moment."
"My little cousin found a 400-year-old piece of art in the storage shed and ruined it by doodling on it."
Right? My husband is still pouty about how his things got ruined when our basement flooded. If that stuff was really valuable and important to you, it wouldn't be in boxes in the basement
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A professional conservator could help. Art work of that age is covered in a layer of varnish. So the cousins 'art' may not be 'on' the actual paint layer. Natural resin varnishes need to be removed and replaced over time anyway as they darken and discolor as they age.
First off, was that shed on your property? Second, how did cousin get in the shed? Third, Did ancestor make drawing? Fourth, if no for number three: Why was it in shed?
"Not quite ruining, but when my younger brother was 6, he somehow managed to accidentally buy a car while playing games on my mother's phone."
"My Xbox one. They don't take more than 3 disks at a time. Stuff tends to start breaking once the fourth enters."
"One night I turned on the bathtub and went back to sleep. Nobody in my family woke up until morning, and by that point the water was collapsing through the downstairs ceilings, coming out of the chandelier, and pooling in the basement. Thank God for homeowner's insurance."
"I was washing my van one day 3 years ago and my 2 year old decided to help wash the other side... with rocks. Scratched right down to the primer."
"Not ruined exactly but when I was in my teens my boyfriend and I broke into his father's wine cellar and pinched what we thought was the rattiest-looking bottle of wine thinking he would never miss it, turned out to be an incredibly rare, old, expensive vintage that he had been saving since his grandfather gave it to him when he graduated, his grandfather got it from his father, so it had lots of sentimental value as well. I never got over that. We drank it from the bottle out in the woods, what a waste."
My father asked me did I remember if he gifted a 25yo bottle of whiskey to his brother. Me, remembering I had stolen it 4years prior and puked it up in a field, "eh, I think so"
"This obviously didn't ruin my dog, but I covered my dog in vaseline from head to toe and said I was 'decorating him for Christmas.' My mom said it took DAYS to wash out the vaseline."
Olive oil first, then dawn. My oldest rubbed A&D ointment (pretty much Vaseline) all over his baby brother. Twice.
"Oldest child once fed lettuce to the DVD player. Not particularly expensive, but it was an amusing w*f."
"I had just come home from receiving my special order astigmatism contacts – a year supply, probably worth around $800. My 3 year old flushed them all down the toilet."
"My brother and I got mad at each other and ended up throwing a shoe at him really hard. It missed him and hit our $2k grandfather clock, busting the glass."
Omg!! 30+ years ago I went to kick my brother and my shoe flew off and hit the clock that my grandpa made for my mom and made a big crack along the back.. lol we didn't tell my mom. She finally saw it when she changed the batteries a few months later. We actually told her how the crack got there a couple years ago
"Ah! Finally my moment of glory. You guys are all very cute with your 3k diamond rings and your CD players. I installed 30k worth of hardwood floors in my new house with a 1-year-old. Biggest regret of my life."
"My other son tried out my hammer on the hood of my car."
"Years ago, my sister broke about $2000 of my father's fishing rods - gifts from a client and friend - over the course of about a week."
"When my son was 5 I had just purchased a fancy new projection HDTV. I hooked everything up, went upstairs to grab my DVDs, and when I came back, my son etched, "DAD" in the middle of the screen with a fork. He was so proud."
"My son turned on the sink in the basement to play with soap bubbles. He then went to bed and left it on. The sink had no overflow drain, it was quite old. He flooded the basement."
"A diamond earring. Gifted by my mother on my wedding day. Diamonds swim in the big potty, guys!"
Why do people think rings and earrings belong in water???
"When I was 5 I filled up the fuel tank in my dirt bike with sand because I ran out of gas."
"My daughter ruined my phone when she was about 2 months old. She threw up on me and it splattered hard enough to hit the phone just right while it was charging and it fried the charging port."
"When I was a kid I thought I would pull a hilarious April fool's prank and hide all of our cups. I took the plastic cups and hid them in a small overhead chandelier covering the light bulbs. The next day I had forgotten about them, dad turned on the lights and the cups slowly melted all over destroying the chandelier."
Ok how hot/bright/big was ur chandelier to be able to do that... i have smol one and it dont heat an ice cube?
"My mom will never never let me live down the fact that I once took her phone and put it in the microwave when I was 2 or 3 years old."
Honestly curious as I’ve never had kids… how does a 2- or 3-year-old reach the microwave? How did they go unsupervised long enough to pull over a chair, climb onto it, open and close the microwave, and press beepy buttons?
"Our neighbors bought brand new living room furniture. All white. Their 8-year-old got a ketchup packet from McDonald's. He opened it and placed it on the arm of the sofa, facing in. Then he brought his fist down as hard as he could."
"My daughter broke my nose when she cocked her head back for a glorious laugh."
"My husband let our 1-year-old play with his iPhone unattended, at which point it promptly ended up in the dog's water bowl."
"My 18-month-old shoved my Surface off a table and it shattered on the floor. You know how cats like to knock things off tables just for the hell of it? Just like that. He looked so damn proud of himself, too."
"My kid blew the motor on a Ford Contour. I guess he thought the temperature gauge was nothing to worry about."
"When I was young, I was a curious fellow. Our family car had an automatic sunroof and my tiny little mind was curious if I could hold the cover of the sunroof and have the window open above it. I was wrong. The sunroof decided to never open again."
"$400 Prada sunglasses. My fault for leaving them unguarded."
"I jumped all over my parent's brand new car with muddy boots and completely caved in the roof. It was maybe 3 days old."
"A good night's sleep."
"My uncle told me a story about my cousin. Apparently, his son wanted to gas up the car for him. But he didn't understand that a garden hose isn't a gas pump. He filled my uncle's gas tank with water till it overflowed."
Thats not the kids fault. The uncle should have been clearer with his kid about how to do something, you can't expect a child to know everything. Learning exists. Teach the damn kid and stop complaining about them not knowing things
"My leather sofa. 'Don't paint your nails on the sofa.' Paints nails on the sofa, spills half bottle down the front."
"When I was about a year old, we were visiting my great-grandmother. I got a hold of a marker and decided that a little, framed, black-and-white photo needed some color apparently. Completely destroyed the one and only photo of my great grandmother's dead brother who passed away as a child."
"When my sister was probably 2 years old, she knocked over & broke my dads 12 string Bass Guitar, he still doesn't let her live that down."
"When I was about 6, I tried to make my parents breakfast in bed and broke the espresso maker. It was a really nice Italian one that they received as a wedding gift and could never afford to replace."
"When I was a kid I tried to make grilled cheese on toast after school. So I turned the oven on and then completely forgot about it. Turns out, my mum used to hide her family heirloom jewelry in the oven because 'it was the last place anyone other than her would look'. I grilled the lot."
"I wanted to make some tea for my mother, so I went to turn on the electric kettle. Me, being the little retard I am, thought that meant to put that kettle on top of the fire, not on the base. Because, you know, kettle + fire = hot water, right?"
Curious that BP censors the most innocuous terms, but an ableist slur like r****d is allowed to stand
When me and my sister were kids, my mum decided I had been very mature for my age (I was 11, my sister was 9) and gave me a smartwatch. I took it off to do something, I can't remember what, and my sister JAMMED THE WATCH INTO A GLASS OF WATER! Needless to say, I still haven't firgiven her for that one, 3 years later.
When I was a little kid in the 80s, we had three full-size arcade game machines in my house: Asteroids, Ms. Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong. I once got a hold of a bottle of White-Out and painted over Donkey Kong’s nipples on the side of the arcade cabinet. My mom beat me so hard for this that I never again did anything destructive to family property/belongings XD
My then 4 yr old son was mad that his sister was at school and hit a 2 week old 5,000 dollar TV with a fly swatter. 😶
'69 or '70 when I was 4 or 5 was at a family gathering. My great aunt was showing off her new Cadillac to the entire GM family. All aunts and uncles and cousins were there and she decided to take me to lunch with her new Cadillac. We go to some fast food place and I get a kids meal, with crayons. Whoops. So as we're going back with me in the back seat and feeling so grateful, I decide to return the love. The interior of that car is all white. I decide to show my gratitude by brightening up her interior. Never been so scared for my life!
My ex husband, as a toddler in the early '80s, used a hand saw to cut down the potted rubber tree his mom had, while his dad was supposed to be watching him. The tree lived and was thriving still 30 yrs later. My oldest child was playing in their room, and I thought they were too quiet so I checked. Grandma had given them dark pink glittery lipstick, real lipstick. My child didn't want to be like their dad, not even by being tanned. They had colored both legs, arms, face, neck, and was starting the stomach when I got there. Instant bath, had to throw away the wash cloth.
I once lost my mom's eye glasses when I was 7. I noticed how it enlarged everything so I thought it was similar to a binocular, I snuck out of the house while everyone was sleeping and explore with her glasses.
When I was growing up we had the family computer, which all eight of us kids had to share time on. I wanted to play games on it while my older brother was doing something on it, either hex editing files, or defragging the drive, or something. I was a petulant little so and so and after I was refused time on the computer I flipped the power strip off turning off the computer. Well, I corrupted the MBR on the hard drive or something and the computer just wouldn't boot after that. I felt horrible because now no one including myself could use the computer. It took months before someone either replaced the drive or reinstalled the operating system. I got grounded from the computer a lot as a kid as it was one of the effective punishments.
I blew up the TV by trying to wire a set of speakers into it and being too stupid to remember to unplug it first. Oh wait, that was my dad.
I can't believe how many young children are unsupervised! None of these losses would have occurred had someone of sound mind been watching these kids. I've had three children. None of them had any freak hospital visits or were responsible for ruining anything expensive. Watch the kids, folks!
Sounds like you were an actual parent and not their best friend
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I have the best one! My sister accidentally cut off my dad's finger when she was 6 He was chasing her trying to tickle her and she ran upstairs and into our shared room at the time. My little brother was asleep and his room was next to me and my sister's room. My dad put his hand between the frame and the door to lean over and close my brother's door. As his hand was in between the door and the frame of me and my sister's room. Then my sister slammed the door to get my dad to stop chasing her, but she slammed it so hard he lost the top of his middle finger. Don't worry, he used an experimental treatment where if it didn't scar already you put this powder ( made from a pig's bladder) on the wound and it grows back. It worked too. His finger is a tiny bit shorter and looks a speck wonky if you look close, but he grew the bone and nerves and everything back! It's amazing
When me and my sister were kids, my mum decided I had been very mature for my age (I was 11, my sister was 9) and gave me a smartwatch. I took it off to do something, I can't remember what, and my sister JAMMED THE WATCH INTO A GLASS OF WATER! Needless to say, I still haven't firgiven her for that one, 3 years later.
When I was a little kid in the 80s, we had three full-size arcade game machines in my house: Asteroids, Ms. Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong. I once got a hold of a bottle of White-Out and painted over Donkey Kong’s nipples on the side of the arcade cabinet. My mom beat me so hard for this that I never again did anything destructive to family property/belongings XD
My then 4 yr old son was mad that his sister was at school and hit a 2 week old 5,000 dollar TV with a fly swatter. 😶
'69 or '70 when I was 4 or 5 was at a family gathering. My great aunt was showing off her new Cadillac to the entire GM family. All aunts and uncles and cousins were there and she decided to take me to lunch with her new Cadillac. We go to some fast food place and I get a kids meal, with crayons. Whoops. So as we're going back with me in the back seat and feeling so grateful, I decide to return the love. The interior of that car is all white. I decide to show my gratitude by brightening up her interior. Never been so scared for my life!
My ex husband, as a toddler in the early '80s, used a hand saw to cut down the potted rubber tree his mom had, while his dad was supposed to be watching him. The tree lived and was thriving still 30 yrs later. My oldest child was playing in their room, and I thought they were too quiet so I checked. Grandma had given them dark pink glittery lipstick, real lipstick. My child didn't want to be like their dad, not even by being tanned. They had colored both legs, arms, face, neck, and was starting the stomach when I got there. Instant bath, had to throw away the wash cloth.
I once lost my mom's eye glasses when I was 7. I noticed how it enlarged everything so I thought it was similar to a binocular, I snuck out of the house while everyone was sleeping and explore with her glasses.
When I was growing up we had the family computer, which all eight of us kids had to share time on. I wanted to play games on it while my older brother was doing something on it, either hex editing files, or defragging the drive, or something. I was a petulant little so and so and after I was refused time on the computer I flipped the power strip off turning off the computer. Well, I corrupted the MBR on the hard drive or something and the computer just wouldn't boot after that. I felt horrible because now no one including myself could use the computer. It took months before someone either replaced the drive or reinstalled the operating system. I got grounded from the computer a lot as a kid as it was one of the effective punishments.
I blew up the TV by trying to wire a set of speakers into it and being too stupid to remember to unplug it first. Oh wait, that was my dad.
I can't believe how many young children are unsupervised! None of these losses would have occurred had someone of sound mind been watching these kids. I've had three children. None of them had any freak hospital visits or were responsible for ruining anything expensive. Watch the kids, folks!
Sounds like you were an actual parent and not their best friend
Load More Replies... I have the best one! My sister accidentally cut off my dad's finger when she was 6 He was chasing her trying to tickle her and she ran upstairs and into our shared room at the time. My little brother was asleep and his room was next to me and my sister's room. My dad put his hand between the frame and the door to lean over and close my brother's door. As his hand was in between the door and the frame of me and my sister's room. Then my sister slammed the door to get my dad to stop chasing her, but she slammed it so hard he lost the top of his middle finger. Don't worry, he used an experimental treatment where if it didn't scar already you put this powder ( made from a pig's bladder) on the wound and it grows back. It worked too. His finger is a tiny bit shorter and looks a speck wonky if you look close, but he grew the bone and nerves and everything back! It's amazing
