When you got into the business of parenting, you probably knew that the experience would be loud, messy, expensive and exhausting - but you might not have realized how destructive little ones can be to your home. As soon as your baby starts wiggling around, you need to begin protecting your furniture, walls, doors and fixtures from your child's chaotic wrath, or else you will end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs on every element of your home.
While you may remember to lock your cabinets, anchor your furniture and pad any sharp corners, you are probably neglecting to protect a vital system in your home: your plumbing. Here are a few ways kids cause damage to various parts of your plumbing and what you can do to stop it - or repair it.
Flushed Items
To toddlers and young kids, the toilet is the best off-limits toy in the house. Not only is it interactive - it makes a thrilling sound and motion when they push the plunger - but the toilet also makes things disappear. It should be little surprise that trying to flush any- and everything is typically among a kid's first major destructive acts.
Unfortunately, not only was your toilet not made to handle large loads, but the pipes and sewer lines can be damaged from untenable flushing, as well. Large wads of stuff, like excessive amounts of toilet paper, can cause blockages anywhere in the line, and hard, non-dissolving items, like toys, can create cracks that result in even more disastrous leaks. I always call plumbers in my area when my little one begins experimenting with flushing because I am too nervous to attempt an extraction on my own; if you do something improperly, you could do even more harm to your precious plumbing.
Then, you should begin setting boundaries around the toilets in your home. For instance, kids are not allowed to bring toys into the bathroom, even to play with in the tub. This might seem harsh, but it ensures that kids don't form connections between toys and plumbing. Next, you might teach proper toilet etiquette, especially as they are potty training. Finally, if all else fails, you can place locks on the toilet lids and keep the bathroom doors closed.
Pulled Faucets
There is no countertop height that suits adults and young children alike. Instead of the sinks being close to the floor, you probably help your child use the bathroom counters by holding them up or giving them a bathroom step stool. Still, too many kids clamber onto the counters by grabbing hold of the faucet and pulling - which isn't great for your plumbing.
Putting that much weight on your faucets can result in a number of problems. Most often, the faucet pulls away from the wall or countertop, leaving an unsightly gap that can leak water. However, your kid might also dislocate a pipe deeper in the wall, crack the faucet itself or cause some other plumbing mishap - all of which require professional assistance to repair.
Again, you need to establish rules regarding bathroom behavior, to include no running, no jumping and no climbing. For the little ones who can't reach the countertop or sink, you should provide a step stool within close reach, either located somewhere in the bathroom or built into the bathroom cabinet itself.
Dirt and Grime
Even when they aren't purposefully misbehaving, children do a number on your plumbing. That's because kids get dirty - sometimes, much dirtier than your pipes can safely handle. Just as your toilet can't always safely carry away wads of toilet paper and toys, your sinks and showers will struggle to clear clods of dirt and mud streaming off your kids after a particularly intense outdoor play session.
At best, the dirt will form a clog that will clear with typical effort, like a plunger, baking soda and vinegar or a drain snake you can use yourself. However, if you aren't diligent about cleaning your pipes after your kids wash, you might need to hire professionals with high-powered drain cleaning tools.
To prevent this effort, you should try to rise your kids off with a hose before they step inside. In your mudroom or laundry room, you might provide a sink with larger drainage to clean off hands and clothes that are particularly grimy. You can even install an outside shower near your patio to make outdoor rinsing feel natural.
While you are working to protect your plumbing, you shouldn't forget to protect your kids, too. Toddlers can drown in just a few inches of water, so it's not wise to allow your sinks and showers to pool with water for extended periods of time. Additionally, leaky pipes can cause wet spots that encourage kids to slip and fall. Because plumbing is so important and so plentiful within your home, you need to think long and hard about how your kids can affect it - and how it can affect your kids.
