It’s no secret that having kids costs money, but sometimes the little rascals manage to clean us out faster than a mugger at a bank machine – and bereave us of the possessions we hold almost as dear as them.
You might be a parent who remembers the gut-wrenching moment your kid flushed your diamond engagement ring down the toilet. You might have been the troublemaking child who was just playing around and somehow managed to burn the entire house down. At the end of the day, kids are just helplessly curious, and even when it causes thousand-dollar accidents, it’s hard to stay mad at them for it.
The parents of Reddit were recently asked about the most expensive thing their kids have ever broken, and the responses they gave are pure gold. Scroll down to read them all, and if you have a similar story of your own, add it to our list at the end!
#1
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.
#2
I once bought a kids jewelry box for my niece at a garage sale. While wrapping it I noticed a hidden drawer in the back. A diamond necklace and a gold ring. I took them back to the sale and the woman was so freaking grateful. Apparently they “lost” them years ago.
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#3
I used to do computer repair out of my home. I had a friend who was paying me $150 to repair a gaming desktop that, at the time, was worth about $2300. I had to replace the hard drive, then reinstall Windows, then all the drivers, and it took an entire day to get everything working from a backup.
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It was set aside for pickup later in the week.
I had a day job at the time that was 3pm to midnight, and my wife worked 9-5, so we had a part time sitter that summer who took care of our 4 year old son from 2-6pm on weekdays. She was not the brightest woman, but we could afford her rates, and we weren’t doing well off financially.ADVERTISEMENT
My wife called me one night and told me to sit down, because she had some bad news. We had a lot of sick relatives, and been through some deaths recently, so I thought, “who died now?” She told me that the kitchen table was strewn with computer parts.ADVERTISEMENT Our son had taken the computer apart with the power screwdriver and some pliers.
Like, completely. Down to the chips, resistors, and capacitors. If it had a screw, he unscrewed it, and if he didn’t, he pulled it off the board with pliers.ADVERTISEMENT He then sorted everything by color and size.
I nearly lost my s***. I was both angry as f*** that he did this, and -terrified- telling my friend that his $2300 gaming rig was ruined. I nearly had a nervous breakdown. My wife and I tried to plan where we were gonna get $2300.ADVERTISEMENT We didn’t have $2300 in assets in the entire apartment.
We couldn’t sell our POS car, because we needed it for work, and maybe, MAYBE would get $1200 for it if we were lucky.
My son couldn’t have done this in a small span of time.ADVERTISEMENT He had to have done it in the 4 hours he was with the babysitter.
Was he alone for these 4 hours? What the everliving f***???
My wife asked her, and the babysitter said, “he wanted to work on the computer like daddy did. He said he was allowed to.ADVERTISEMENT ”
HE IS FOUR!!! YOU’RE THE F****** ADULT WITH HIM, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??? IF HE SAID HE WAS ALLOWED TO PLAY WITH KITCHEN KNIVES WOULD YOU HAVE LET HIM??? HE IS FOUR!!!
She was fired. She wasn’t paid that week, either, because we needed money to pay my friend for a new gaming rig.ADVERTISEMENT My wife and I broke the piggy bank, and decided we could pay him back if we went without some medicines, didn’t pay a few utilities, were late with rent, ate ramen, etc… we could pay my friend off in three months with a payment plan.
I remember calling my friend so nervous I was shaking.ADVERTISEMENT Then, thankfully, he didn’t think it was a big deal.
He said he was thinking of getting a new computer anyway. I didn’t have to pay him anything. I was so relieved.
But that babysitter… damn… what a moron. “He said he was allow to!”ADVERTISEMENT
#4
My vagina.
#5
My son never slept for longer than 3-4 hours a night until he was 5, so I was exhausted for years. One day when he was 2, I was sitting on the floor, zoned out a bit, while he was playing with my hair. I pretty much kept in a bun 24-7 back then because my hair was down to my waist and very thick and it just took too long to style.
ADVERTISEMENT He was having a great time singing and playing with my hair but he eventually got fussy, so I took him to the park down the road.
At the busy park, I kept noticing that people were staring at me and several of them looked concerned while others looked amused.ADVERTISEMENT 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, my hair was slipping out of the bun it had been in all day, so I reached up to tuck it back in and I found six assorted pairs of Mr.ADVERTISEMENT Potato Head eyes stuck into my hair!! I walked around in public for hours like that and had no idea!
#6
My eye.
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.ADVERTISEMENT
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 circle).
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.ADVERTISEMENT
#7
The stereo in our minivan quit working. After a little troubleshooting, we found 25 pennies shoved in the CD slot.
#8
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.
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#9
We had a 90g salt water tank with easily upwards of $3k worth of coral, 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.ADVERTISEMENT
#10
The television. Apparently, running the scissors over the screen makes it look better.
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