English-based agency David Wilson Homes recruited 1001 grandparents who looked after their grandchildren aged between one and nine.
Results proved interesting.
The average annual cost of damage per room per grand child amounted to $160. Of the damage, 65.5 per cent came from spilt food and drinks on carpets and soft furnishing while 14.6 per cent came from drawing and painting on walls. Broken ornaments accounted for 6.6 per cent of damage costs.
Some respondents answered that they've had to replace big ticket items - ten cases of smashed tv screens, eight broken windows, six broken beds...and even a murdered pet fish
If you're looking to find out which room needs to be safeguarded, the living room copped the most carnage. More than 30 per cent of incidents happened there while 16.8 per cent occurred in the garden. The kitchen came in third with just under 12 per cent.
The room with the biggest bill? The average invoice from garage damage amounted to $326 despite just under 2 per cent of incidents taking place there.
And who are the biggest culprits? Turns out boys are the more mischievous, with costs 20 per cent higher or $30 greater per room. Kids aged four to six years were guilty of the most destruction.
“The research was just a bit of fun, but it does highlight the hidden cost to grandparents from looking after their grandchildren," says a spokesperson for parent company Barratt Homes.
"Parents are well used to crayons being scrawled on walls and windows being broken with balls, but as grandparents increasingly help out with childcare so their homes are taking a knock once again.”
Speaking to Stuff, one grandmother who often helps out, was not surprised by the findings.
“Sometimes they get over excited, especially when there’s more than one of them in the house,” she says.
“But I never put stuff away in my home. It stays where it is, because I believe the children need to learn how to behave when they are other people’s houses.
“After a while they get to know (the boundaries). I don’t put safety locks on cupboard doors to stop them jamming their fingers, because they need to learn how to open and close doors.
“Now, if they sit in front of the TV with a snack or a drink, they know to put down a placement or a coaster, and when they have finished they take their plates away and wash up.”
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