What's the most expensive thing you broke as a kid and what's the story behind it?
Mine was our CRT TV. I would rapidly push the power button on and off because I thought the picture coming and going looked cool but eventually it fell inside of the TV. I think I later stuck a magnet on the TV.
Not looking for Reddit answers like “My parent’s marriage”
I’m not sure about “expensive”, but it was priceless.
My mom had a really gorgeous piece of petrified wood about the size of a cup coaster and as a young kid I was obsessed with it. So one day I broke into her jewelry box where she kept it and stole it to bring to school for show and tell. Everything was fine until I was getting on the bus to go home and I tripped with it in my hand. It shattered like glass and so did my poor little heart.
I remember crying all the way home where I tearfully confessed to my thievery and apologized up and down to my mom. She honestly wasn’t very angry, and was a lot more understanding than I thought she might be. I don’t remember what happened to the wood afterwards but I don’t remember seeing it ever again so I wonder if she trashed it? It was so beautiful, so that would be a total shame.
I set the majority of my mother’s finest dresses on fire. I was very young. We had a powercut one night so we were using candles. It came back soon after, but i was still a curious boy with a candle in my hand. I wanted to go somewhere dark again so i went inside my closet and closed the door. My mom ran out of space in her room for her dresses so she put them on my closet. Only the stuff she didn’t use often so it had the worst and the best. They were wrapped plastic and i was fascinated by how the plastic shrunk when the flame got close. But eventually I got too close and actually set it on fire. How did i react? Got out, shut the closet doors and went to watch tv. It’s a miracle i didn’t torch my whole house
How did i react? Got out, shut the closet doors and went to watch tv. It’s a miracle i didn’t torch my whole house
Lmao - reminds me of when I was in my early twenties and couldn’t handle my beer. We had a few people around, and the toilet was occupied, so I threw up in a bucket and hid it in a closet and went back to the party. Cue to next morning, “Lads… why is there a bucket of-”
That’s such a great reaction to starting a fire in a closet full of priceless and flammable stuff! “Oops! I think I’ll just close the door on that problem and hope no one notices.”
I’m tempted to call it such a child’s reaction to a problem they don’t know how to solve. But I know I’m guilty of doing the same thing as an adult, just not with a potentially fatal raging closet fire fueled by a plastic coated wedding dress.
The more I think about it, the more in awe I become of what you managed to achieve.
Lol yeah as an adult I feel like I’ve done similar things. Not with a house fire or immediately life threatening scenario. But definitely like “well I don’t really want to deal with that problem…I’m just going to walk away and hope it goes away” lol!!
A brand new multi thousand dollar video camera that my pops had saved up for. I disassembled it entirely, just trying to figure out how it worked. He wasn’t even mad at me. I grew up and now can fix just about any electronic down to the component level. I like to think he saw the curiosity in me and was more proud than anything.
Was it long enough ago that he could simply take it back to the store and have them reassemble it for him? Or did he reassemble it himself? Or did you try to reassemble it? You’ve left me hanging on the edge of my seat!
It was done for, he got another one but it wasn’t nearly as expensive. It wouldn’t be for quite a few more years before I learned how to non-destructively disassemble things, and I didn’t have access to many tools. I can barely remember now but I’m pretty sure I used a butter knife to get out screws and pry stuff open. I just didn’t understand how a little box could record videos and I had to try to figure it out. I was probably 7 or 8, based on where I lived when it happened.
When I was around 14, my parents got my sister and I a 2nd hand Xbox (the OG big square Xbox), but we were too poor to buy any games for it. I used to rent the games from blockbuster for three days at a time.
I was fascinated with electronics, I’d build little radio kits and LED chasers, I was okay with a soldering iron. I was researching mod chips online, to play burned games. The guides on installation emphasised how small all the solder points are, and how fine the wires are, that it’s not a job for a beginner. But I thought it would be fine.
I tried to order a modchip online, but the site didn’t deliver to Australia. I remember seeing people advertising in the news paper classifieds section modchipping services, so they must be available somehow. I called one of the guys, but he said he only sold them as part of installation, couldn’t sell me just the modchip. I called a couple others, but none wanted to talk to a 14yo kid.
My parents caught wind of what I was trying to do, and they offered to pay to send it to the guy to get it done. So we just went with that. I was disappointed I didn’t get to do the installation myself.
The next week, we got our Xbox back, turned it on, and played a couple of burned games, it worked great. But I was curious. Did the guy do a good installation job? What gauge wires did he use? Which brand and model modchip did he use? I was full of questions. So while my parents were out I opened the Xbox up, disassembled it right down to the motherboard. I found the modchip, I was fascinated by how small it was, how fine the wires were, and how tiny the solder points were. It all looked so fragile. It looked like the guy had done a pretty good job.
I put the Xbox back together, went to play it, but it wouldn’t read any discs, not even genuine discs. Weird, did I forget to plug something back in on reassembly? I opened it up and found the disc drive cable was slightly unplugged. Plugged it in, reassembled, and tried it again. This time it read genuine discs, but it wouldn’t play any burned discs. I tried for a while, and it was like the modchip wasn’t working. That was when my parents got home. I was so angry and frustrated with myself, my mum asked what the matter was, and I started sobbing and crying furiously, I said “why can’t I leave things alone?” and “Why do I always have to take things apart?” and “Why didn’t I just enjoy the games?”.
A couple days later I had calmed down enough, I opened the Xbox up again, and had another look. I saw the problem immediately. One of the tiny hair-like wires on the modchip had popped off. Maybe because of my previous poking around in there, or maybe it just came off by itself, idk. Luckily it was on the modchip side, not on the motherboard side, so there was a relatively large pad to solder it back onto. Still smaller than anything I’d soldered before, but I gave it a go. It took about an hour, with my oversized non-temperature-controlled soldering iron, but I got it soldered back in place. While was there I resoldered a couple wires alongside it, so they were more secure too. I was shaking with anticipation when I put it all back together yet again, and fired it up. It worked! Played burned games again! I was so happy I was crying. The awful low from days before transformed into an amazing high of achievement, and gratification.
My parents told me the lesson was to never take things apart, leave well enough alone. But they were wrong.the lesson was far greater. It gave me the self confidence to know I can fix things. Yes I can and will break things, but I can fix them. I somehow absorbed that into my identity. From then on I was always trying to fix things. Phone line died, I repaired it. Computer got a virus, I formatted and reinstalled the OS. Lawn mower wouldn’t start, I cleaned and rebuilt the carburettor, didn’t know what I was doing, but I just did it, because I had the confidence. Then at age 24 I got a job as an electronics repair technician, so it worked out for me.
That’s a great story! An Xbox mod chip was my first soldering job! It was a Team Xecutor chip, and I too used an old, terrible iron. I’m honestly not even sure how I did it, when I got more into soldering later, and looked up that chips installation process, I was amazed I was able to do it. My dad got me the mod chip even though he hated gaming because he thought correctly that it would be a great learning opportunity for me. He always supported my curiosities and hobbies. I’ve got to go thank him now. Thanks for sharing the story with me.
For real. He could have very reasonably been very angry at me, and it might have defeated my curiosity before it really got a chance to get going, but by doing what he did, he associated it with good feelings that continued through until now.
An antique crystal vase my parents received as a wedding gift.
I was maybe in my tweens and bought flowers for some occasion (a birthday or anniversary maybe) and the florist said I should use boiling water to keep them fresh (yes, it is a thing), but obviously I misunderstood, and not knowing any better I added the boiling water directly in to the vase (which I chose because it was my favourite) and of course it exploded in my hand. Lucky I wasn't hurt, and I did manage to glue some of it back together, but I was not getting away with it. My mother was furious.
I’m not even a tween and I still don’t understand what they meant for you to do. Are the flowers supposed to be in soil, and you’re supposed to just water the soil with a bit of boiling water?
I mean, as an adult, I’d probably check if the material could hold boiling water…but even that’s not 100% if it seemed ceramic or something, haha
You say you'd check, but couldn't look up "boiling water flowers" before replying here? At least when this happened I had the excuse of not having the internet yet (and being a literal child, following the obviously unclear instructions of a professional, to the best of my understanding)..
Yes, I’d check about putting boiling water somewhere, but not googling before writing that comment. The comment allowed me to express solidarity with you that it was an easy mistake to make.
Reminds me of a story of my parents. They were in Venice for their anniversary and had rented a room above a glass maker. One morning he wanted to show them how beautiful the morning light looked as it falls through this huge glass pyramid he had made. An enormous thing. One of his master pieces. Super expensive and also super heavy. He dropped it and it shattered into a million pieces.
I still have the crystal they got me as a souvenir. It makes nice rainbow colours when the sunlight falls through.
My teen brother parked his motorcycle on the driveway. I don’t even remember how I managed to tip it over; I must have tried to climb on the seat or something and pushed at just the right angle to make the kickstand give way. Then in a panic and adrenaline fueled panic, I pressed it up… and tipped it over on its other side. I left it as it was dinged up on both sides. I tearfully confessed to my brother what I had done and he didn’t really care; ends up it was a total junker but in my little kid eyes it was the coolest thing ever.
I worked briefly at dominoes. One day I parked my bike a little too close to the others and didn’t put the kickstand properly. It tipped over and dominoed five other bikes.
They used to make these things called “Shrinky-Dinks”, which were sheets of thick plastic that you would color with pencils, then cut them out and stick them in the oven and they would shrink down to a smaller size.
Well one day when I was 3, I decided I could do this by myself, except that I put them in the toaster oven on the grate on like 400 degrees. Of course that shit melted through the grate and onto the heating element inside the toaster oven. Thankfully my parents noticed the smell before a fire started. Not sure how much a toaster oven cost in the '80s, but they had to get a new one one.
I broke a microwave when I was little because I didn’t know I had to remove my fork from my plate of broccoli, then proceeded to accidentally break the garbage disposal trying to dispose of the broccoli because I didn’t know broccoli couldn’t go down the disposal.
Certain materials found in foods, such as an overabundance of fiber, clog and damage the blades in the garbage disposal. Broccoli is at the top of this list.
I didn’t break something expensive in terms of dollar amount, but my Mom knits. In high school she asked me to do the laundry for her while she was out of town. I knew sweaters went in the delicate cycle, but what I DIDN’T know is even the delicate cycle was too much for her very nice, hand knit, cashmere sweater that fit her perfectly.
It came out felted and 2 sizes smaller. And I felt HORRIBLE then. Now, I’m all grown up and I’ve learned how to knit myself. Now I think back on that and marvel that I’m still alive and she didn’t come home and just bury me in the backyard. That’s how I know she loves me. <3
Sadly I was never able to perfectly recreate that cashmere sweater, though I came close. Getting perfect gauge is really hard to do on fitted garments for knitting. Mom had wanted me to learn to knit since I was really little but it never caught my interest until I was an adult. Through the pandemic we did work together to knit a modular blanket and sewed it together once we could meet up in person again! imgur.com/a/u4M4ynb
I feel like, depending on your age at the time, this is more on her than you. I’m an adult, and I don’t buy myself clothes that can’t handle the normal setting on my washer and dryer. I know it would be a case of when, not if, I’d forget. No way I’d trust a child to pay attention to something like that.
So in her defense (and another aspect of why she didn’t murder me I’m sure.) Is that she’d forgotten entirely that she even wore that sweater. Apparently it always sits on the edge of her hamper so she visually sees it and removes it to her special wash bag for extremely fancy clothes. But she’d left town in a bit of a hurry for family matters and I’d even volunteered to do laundry. I didn’t realize that sweater was extra special on my own.
That “on the side of the hamper” method is what I use for my extremely delicate stuff now, and so far I haven’t shrunk anything. yet
Jesus maybe? At church during the Christmas service. Accidentally dropped it. No clue how much it was worth, but I don’t remember breaking particularly expensive things.
I grew up in a very unorganized town that wasn’t really regulated with traffic laws. I learned to drive a truck at about 12.
When I was 14 I was driving my dad’s truck around town. I suddenly had the urge to see how well the brakes worked. I drove fast down a gravel road than slammed on the brakes as hard as I could. Within seconds it blew both front brake lines.
Later that same year in the winter I got the truck stuck on some ice. It wasn’t bad, I just happened to stop on a very slippery patch of ice and couldn’t move forward. I got the idea that as the tires spun, they were getting hot which meant it was melting the ice. If I did it long enough I would eventually get down to the gravel. I got impatient and spun the wheels faster smoking them like crazy while the engine roared. In the middle of the noise and smoke, a tire exploded and the truck jumped and deflated. I had blown out a tire.
Dad wasn’t happy with me for a long while because the truck went to the shop and we had to pay a lot of money to get them fixed.
At the very least, I never made these mistakes again.
When I was 6 I microwaved a metal measuring cup full of water, which ended up arcing and burning out the transformer. Apparently it fucked up my parents’ finances for a while at the time
Early 2000s. My dad is a farmer and it was a rough year for the harvest. It didn’t help that my parents were pretty poor for a long time, and didn’t seem to recover until after their divorce during the 2008-9 financial crises
Eventually. My dad saw an improvement with corn and soybean yields for multiple years in a row in a very strong market, as well as getting his crane operator license so he could move grain bins and paying off several debts. My mom moved to the same town as her job, got some promotions, picked up a couple weekend gigs bartending at the local bar, and heavily subsidized groceries by going to meat raffles.
I have a similar story, when I was young I had this weekly science magazine that would come in the mail.
The one page showed a match lit in a microwave with a glass measuring cup to catch the hot plasma. I obviously tried it because it looked cool. When my mother heard the microwave making all kinds of noises she opened it up and pulled out the measuring cup not realising that its really hot, she dropped it and it shattered all over.
I was probably 9 or 10 at the time, visiting at a (wealthy) friends house, and my friend was showing me a bunch of his dads cool stuff, among which was a legitimate whip, like straight up indiana jones style. Naturally, I had to try it out…indoors…underneath the crystal chandelier hanging in their entryway…I wasn’t allowed over anymore after that.
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