Homewreckers

Even child-proofing a house, it seems, isn't fail-safe. A figure of £172m a year has been put on the amount that British parents pay tradesmen to repair the damage inflicted on their homes by children under four. The toll of broken windows, blocked pipes, flooded floors, sofas used as drawing boards and video recorders used as postboxes came in a survey of parents carried out by YouGov for insurers Direct Line Home Response. If only they'd asked whether these disasters happened when mum and dad, or the nanny, were in charge.