Many parents admit taking on their kids’ chores to avoid injury
Every parent wants to protect their child, but how far should they take it when it comes to them doing household chores?
While almost all UKbased parents admit to not taking the right precautions when doing household chores, almost as many (84 per cent) admit they shelter their children – 16 and under – and don’t allow them to do various household chores that might cause injury.
Cleaning with chemicals, gardening and DIY/decorating are the top jobs around the home that UK parents consider to be dangerous.
The pain relief therapy experts at www.Biofreeze. co.uk undertook a study where almost 2,300 UK parents were quizzed about some of the dangers involved in everyday household chores, as well as finding out some of the reasons behind why people aren’t taking the correct precautions to avoid a potential injury.
It was initially found that a large proportion of adults (94 per cent) don’t take the correct precautions while carrying out household tasks. Of those adults, more than two thirds admitted to not wearing rubber gloves when dealing with household chemicals (68 per cent) and more than half admitted to not checking if switches had been turned off before cleaning (53 per cent). When asked if their children assist with household chores, 76 per cent admitted they do help but they would like their children to do more tasks around the house, with washing up (44 per cent) and hanging out the washing
(30 per cent) coming out on top as the most favourable chores.
However, 85 per cent of the adults asked stated they did not want their children under the age of 16 to clean anything that may expose them to high heats, harsh chemicals or cause any sort of injury.
Some of the most dangerous household chores, according to UK parents, included: Cleaning with chemicals – 43 per cent
Gardening – 24 per cent DIY/decorating – 22 per cent
Cooking – 17 per cent Hoovering – eight per cent.
Additionally, when asked if they’d ever been injured doing household chores, two thirds of respondents claimed to have hurt themselves more than once. Some of the top injuries included, burns from cooking (45 per cent), falling off a ladder while decorating (22 per cent) and even back pain caused from making beds (15 per cent). Less than one in three (30 per cent) deal with injuries at the time, with more than half (52 per cent) admitting they deal with it at a later time of the day.
Bharat Gohil, spokeswoman for www.Biofreeze. co.uk, said: “Injuries that occur around the house are often ones we tend to ignore.”
She added: “It’s very easy to just run your hand under the tap for a few minutes to relieve pain from a burn or perhaps ignore a sprained wrist, but ignoring injuries altogether will only lead to further problems down the line.
“Although sometimes difficult to avoid, taking the correct precautions when carrying out household chores can help to prevent injury in the future.”