Last night My Dear Husband spent his time replacing electrical sockets and light switches in the room Miss 8 and Miss 3 share. The reason he had to do this was Miss 3. Miss 3 decided it would be a good idea to wrap one of Miss 8’s necklaces around the night light and then plug it in. As you might imagine, this was not a good idea.
It was a t e r r i b l e idea.
I am feeling incredibly blessed that Miss 3 is still with us. and our house didn’t burn down. and she was wearing flame retardant jammies.
I am feeling distressed that one of my little ones could do something so dangerous despite all of my best efforts to see her safely into adulthood.
I am a pretty cautious, overprotective Mom in general. Always on the lookout for possible accidents, I worry and fret and shepherd my kids out of potentially harmful situations all the time. But yesterday morning, when Miss 8 said, ‘Mom, come look at Miss 3, she has weird owies on her leg from getting too close to the night light’. . . I realized in an instant that my children, who I strive to protect and watch over all the time, and my life, which I try to steer in a straight and even course, are not under my control. All of that is an illusion. We all just do what we can do, and then the rest is left in the hands of fate, God, and the powers that be.
It is unsettling to say the least.
But, in the interest of faith, bravery and human spirit, we struggle on to maintain our sanity.
In our case, a new light switch with a nightlight that Miss 3 can’t burn herself with has brought security to our hearts.
And in Miss 3’s case, she is feeling quite content to receive a pretzel M & M whenever mommy has to pull off a band aid, soak her in the tub, and debride her owies.
On a lighter note, I don’t know how many times I have put the girls to bed and said the following:
“DON’T COME OUT OF YOUR ROOMS UNLESS YOU’RE BLEEDING OR ON FIRE.”
I am thinking I won’t say that anymore. Darn kids, never listen anyway.
Carrie, I’m SO glad she wasn’t badly hurt!!! But it sure reminded me of one of my dumber moments. I was about five, and had a little wooden chair that I stood on in the bathroom. (It had rubber tips on the legs – thank heaven!). My dad had this bad habit of leaving the cord to his razor plugged into the outlet (you must remember, this was the 50’s and we weren’t nearly so safety-conscious as today)…and one day I got up on my little stool and took a pair of embroidery scissors that were sitting on the side of the sink and I decided to cut the razor cord in half. The electrical charged knocked me off the chair and literally onto my butt. It also burned a hole in the scissors. If it hadn’t been for the grounding effect of the tips of the chair I wouldn’t be typing this today! You do the best you can to try to keep everyone you love safe…and trust in the Lord. You are a GREAT MOM!!!!!