Now I know how my dad felt...


nativetexan

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Now I know how my dad felt. When I was young, during the summer my parents left me and my younger sister at home while they had to go to work. My sister said she was hungry and wanted toast with Jelly. So I put two slices of bread in the toaster and went back to my room for a minute. A couple of minutes later my sister comes running into my room and says the kitchen is on fire. I run out there and the toast had caught fire and lit up a paper towel roll hanging on the side of the cabinet, which promptly spread to the drapes on the window, and so on. Remember now, I was young and freaking out called my mom and told her the house was on fire and hung up and ran to the neighbor, who called the fire department. My dad, who worked right down the road showed up right when the fire department had put the fire out. He was so freaked out the paramedics had to put him on oxygen and set him in a chair. My mom showed up about 45 minutes later on the verge of a heart attack herself. Safety about such things wasn't pounded into our heads by my parents when I was a kid. But I won't go into that.

Which leads me to this morning. I was awakened by my 5 year old saying "something is wrong daddy, smoke in the house." I darted out of a dead sleep right out of bed and ran to my boys room where my 3 year old was in bed, took one look at me and covered his head with the sheets. Then I ran downstairs into the kitchen to find the microwave door open, a kitchen table chair pushed up to the counter, and a box of microwave popcorn on the floor. Light smoke was in the house (not enough for the smoke detectors to go off), and it stunk to high heavens. I looked in the microwave and saw a burnt to a crisp package of popcorn with plastic still on. My son said "Jason did it." My 3 year old had gotten up and decided he was hungry and wanted popcorn. This all happened in about 1 minute. After deciding there was no danger and opening up windows and turning on fans, I went back upstairs to my son's room and chewed his butt. It took an act of the ultimate in control to keep from kicking his little butt. Ever been so angry at your child that you just had to walk away? That's what I had to do. He knew he screwed up because he rarely shows remorse, and the look on his face was one of sheer terror. Most likely from the smoke, and from me. Plus he stayed in his room which is also more rare than seeing a unicorn in your deer stand.

So today, I am going to have to get creative about child proofing. He has figured out every child lock and can climb over any gate on the market, so I guess I am going to have to start using padlocks on the fridge and cabinets at night until he gets old enough to know better, and unplug all of our appliances. To me, 3 is old enough, but he just doesn't get it. Hopefully now, he might learn a little something.

Nonetheless, it scared the crap out of me because of the fire in our house when I was young. I can handle most anything that is thrown my way, but fire and tornado's are my biggest single fear in life.

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Ho!

...Yeah, that must have been intense...

-I know exactly what you mean...-and there might be some parents reading, that might be thinking.."How could that happen...MY kid wouldn't ever do that..."

-But- I have one of those kids, just as smart and curious and bold...and annoyingly independant-it would take all but a straight jacket to guarentee that she wouldn't get out of bed in the middle of the night, and pull an outlandish stunt...

-Like...just the other morning, (almost...)-about 4:00 am...Rebekah gets in her head that we have frozen waffles....she gets in the freezer, pops what she thinks are frozen waffles in the toaster..we are all awakened later by a real intruiging, worrying aroma...

-We had some of those bulk frozen hamburger patties in the door of the freezer, in case we had a lot of unexpected company show up...-she had put those in the toaster!!...:eek::rolleyes:

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As much as I wanted to throttle him, he is actually taking his punishment well. I have forbade him from doing the things we were supposed to go do today earth fair (to mess with the hippies), go see Kung Fu Panda, the park, and then home to play in the water. His brother and mom are out doing these things now. He's upset about it, but he keeps apologizing for "almost burning house down, make firemen come." Honestly, I believe this is something that scared the dickens out of him because he has done everything I have told him to. Again, as rare as seeing a unicorn in a deer stand. We'll see. He is 3, and my parents have told me countless stories of myself when I was his age. We could be twins. :D

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