Living with children can be one of the most rewarding experiences in the world. But it can also sometimes leave you pulling your hair out. Young children are a little bit like pet dogs – they have no concept of the value of home furnishings.
As a mom, therefore, you’re eventually going to have to deal with child-related vandalism of one kind or another. But there’s also quite a lot that you can do to prevent it in the first place.
Accidental Damage
First, let’s deal with some of the ways that children can accidentally damage your home.
We’ve all been there. You come back from a busy day, only to find that your kids have spilled a drink over your pristine carpet. And, predictably, it’s been there for several hours and so it’s become ingrained into the fabric – not good.
Here you have a couple of options.
The first is grab a sponge and fill a kitchen bowl with soapy water. In many cases, just dabbing and patting the carpet material is enough to extract the stain and eliminate the mess.
If that doesn’t work, you might need to hire a deep carpet cleaner. These extract dirt by circulating steam throughout the material, lifting all the gunk away.
Second, let’s deal with water damage. Children will sometimes leave faucets running as you leave the house. When this happens, it can excess the ability of the overflow to drain, causing flooding in your home.
In this case, you’ll need to contact a water damage company. These professionals attempt to salvage as many of your home’s fittings and fixtures as they can through intelligent cleaning and drying systems.
Deliberate Damage
Children, however, can also cause deliberate damage to your home. And this is where you need to display your best parenting skills. When your kids deliberately destroy your home, it can be quite hard not to blow your top.
Children, for instance, will often draw on your carpets and walls if given the opportunity. They will also sometimes damage the furniture or anything else they can find to play with. If you have valuables on tables or mantelpieces, that can also be a problem.
Here are some of the things you could try to prevent wanton damage of your property:
- Supervise their play sessions
- Try to move their activity out to the garden
- Talk to them about your valuables and the value of money
- Discipline them when they break things
- Encourage more respect in your family by serving as an example
Sometimes, the problem is the sheer level of mess that kids create. The trick here is to create good habits and set aside certain times of the day when cleaning up will occur.
You can also try other tactics, such as cutting back on toys. Many parents believe that their children require lots of toys to stimulate their mental development. But what most kids want is to play with the real thing, not just plastic replicas. Try to limit your total toy supply to a couple of boxes only.
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