How do you stop your house getting wrecked?

[SachiLars]

My boy is nearly 5 and ASD non-verbal. He has a very limited understanding of words or safety. He does not respond to ‘no’ or ‘stop’. He’s a climber and a thrower.

In the last few months he’s damaged beyond repair…
-sofa
-dining chairs
-several picture frames, (broken glass everywhere)
slamming doors so hard bits are falling off.

I’m pretty sure the TV will be off the wall and smashed before long.

It all costs a fortune to keep replacing and I don’t want to live in a broke and damaged mess. never mind the safety hazards….

Any tips gratefully received.

Have you had a home OT assessment to made things safer?

At the least I would be taking photo frames down. You can get things to stop a door being able to be slammed.

Ultimately though DS needs closer supervision. We spent a long time time providing within arms reach care for DS1 (for other reasons but providing the supervision is the same), so yes I do know how difficult it is, but it seems it’s necessary for DS.

we spent time safety proofing the house, wall covering on door gaps -(nasty accident with a door swinging on sons finger), covering the house in soft clip on thingys so if they banged shut they wouldn’t bang on fingers.
I like my hosue to look nice so I embraced colour on wall and plants in corners and screwed down all photo frames on walls, no glass in the frames.

tvs there is little you can do.

I would suggest insurance for ovens tvs etc, accidental breakage cover, that sort of thing.
I don’t have doors downstairs only upstairs.

locks on windows , ovens ,
washing machines,
it sounds laborious but it’s peace of mind too.
If they can’t be accessed then they won’t hopefully try to get at them. but I admit it is hard. Broken iPads costing hundreds.
I resolved that by buying refurbished ones on eBay.

@JustKeepBuilding no OT assessment. Will bear in mind. Thanks.

@Lesley25 will look at door slamming prevention. Do you have any you recommend?

we used these. My so. Liked to pull doors back and forth and this accident landed us in hospital, these were brilliant

My youngest is 8 now so some bits are slowly getting easier. I don't have any ornaments out, just a couple of special ones in the loft. I lock all windows when dc are at home. I use those toilet duck disposable toilet brush things (8 year old likes to lick things). Plenty of outside play to release energy. Keep fit videos on YouTube when they are full of energy and I am knackered. Kindle fire tablets are nearly indestructible with a rubber case. Always keep a spare kindle fire bought in the black Friday sale. No doors downstairs. Strategically placed mirrors so you can see what they are up to more easily. Stair gates/dog gates in every doorway and stairs until they can open/pull them over. Instead of photos in frames use either photos printed onto canvas or blu tac laminated photos to the wall.

Best of luck. I have just been hovering over my 8 year old at a (first one in 4 years) birthday party. While all the other parents left their dc 2 years younger than mine to play and had a nice chat/coffee. I was knackered, my dc was still bouncing off the walls (all other dc exhausted) and everyone thought I was weird/overprotective. It's exhausting having a child with asd.

My house was utterly trashed for years. (I’ve posted on here about it numerous times)

He smashed 3 tvs, destroyed all my ornaments, we had to pay a professional decorator to patch all the walls up as there were at least a hundred holes down to the plaster from chucking anything in his sight, I give up doing it myself as as soon as I’d patch one there would be one right next to it, I left it in the end and did them all at once when he’d calmed down hence getting a professional it (my walls were a mess)

He took my toilet off the wall having a tantrum on it, same as the sink pulling it in a rage 😳 (at his specialist school he ripped all the pipes off the wall and the school toilet had to be closed down for a week until it could be fixed, he used to break tables and chairs on a daily basis at school so they had to have him in a room with no furniture)

None of my doors had handles, he smashed all my plates and bowls anytime they were left on the draining board, he was always supervised and did all this being watched.

My Christmas tree was destroyed from age 1 till age 7. He used to run and jump on it and go over with it 🤣

I could go on all day 🤣🤣

Hes 9 now and genuinely he doesn’t break anything.

Couldn’t tell you the last time he broke something, my tree was full of glass baubles this year and was up for a full month, he never paid it any attention at all and even helped me carefully put glass baubles on!

What changed? Time and medication!

As pp said, he still needs constant supervision, he can’t be trusted around younger kids or animals, hot drinks / cooking stuff etc etc Still needs taking to the toilet or he’s blocking the u bend up with his underpants or full rolls of toilet roll or wearing the toothpaste like a face mask 😂

He’s just not got the insane urge he used to have to cause me a nervous breakdown morning noon and night.

I would never believe anyone when they used to tell me it will get easier, (honestly it will) x

Thanks all. Really value your responses.

This has certainly been a learning curve for us. We've had to be inventive at times. Mine is 13 now.

No photo frames other than in my bedroom and no ornaments at all.

Sofa - we removed the feet so it's flat on the floor. He was good at snapping them in the middle. Also got a Chelsea back so it's so low he can't jump back onto it.

Metal base dining chairs with a plastic seat are far stronger.

Bed - ply wood cut to the size of the base. He'd broken a few beds through bouncing. His bed is a soft mattress surround which eliminates the problem.

TV - you can get perspex screen protectors to cover the TV.

Doors - you can get hard finger pinch guards which you can place at the top of the door so it can't be slammed. Been a life saver for us. Stops any damage. They aren't expensive.