For those of us who walk the edge betweeen Doing-It-Yourself and Screwing-It-Up-Yourself, and take our children along on the journey, it pays to have some sort of safety plan in place for when our ambitions exceed our skills.
Particularly when mom is playing amateur firefighter in the kitchen over a failed pot of candy.
I learnt a few things this morning. First, children who normally can't move their feet because their mouths are busy asking rapidfire questions will obey unquestionably when the smoke detector is going off.
Second, though the kids are listening about staying low and opening the front door, they are still fighting an instinct to run and hide under their bed. I'm so very glad Smootch is self aware enough to articulate what goes through her mind when I ask about it later. We shall be doing some drills soon, to make sure they know exactly what to do in a fire if I'm not there.
Third, candy, even failed candy, is totally cool. Pretty. But tastes awful. Still, I'm encouraged enough on that end to try it again. It takes more than a little kitchen fire to scare of a SIUYer.
Though this time I will make sure I have a back up firefighter. Or a firefighter's wife.
Oh dear. It is really pretty though :)
ReplyDeletei am glad everyone is ok, and way to take advantage of a scary teachable moment!
ReplyDeleteI just LOVE that first picture. So funny and so true in my case!
ReplyDeleteHoly Crapinoly. A great big, juicy, "WELL DONE!" to your kids, and to you for teaching them to be calm in an emergency! It makes me think of when Ma Ingalls slapped the bear thinking it was Sukey the cow and tells Laura that they weren't hurt because she did exactly as she was told and didn't stop to ask questions. Gosh. I'm glad you guys are ok!
ReplyDeleteMelted sugar IS pretty! It just scares me because it's so dang hot.
ReplyDeleteI'm a long-time lurker here. Just wanted to say that I love your blog. You're so real and honest and I really enjoy reading. :) Thanks.
Oh dear! I hope our kitchen is not too badly damaged. Fire is very scary. And yep burnt sugar tastes awful! Also a long term stalker (follower).
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it wasn't worse and everyone is ok! Fires are so scary, they're one of my biggest fears.
ReplyDeleteBut I love how tongue in cheek you are relating the story, and the awesome picture of the note above. :)
Wow that is scary but I bet they learnt a lot from the experience :-)
ReplyDeletebeen there! Hot oil caught fire here though not sugar (throw child out of front door, grab entire drawer full of cleaning rags... realise I probably don't need all of them... get tehm all wet anyway "just in case" and discover that actually one good thick rag is all it takes....)
ReplyDeleteits amazing how kids can react in frightening situations and how they listen. we were in an armed robbery and there were 6 guys and I was the only lady and i grabbed the kids and told them to do exactly as i said (there was no time to explain properly) and they followed every instruction i gave them to the letter. Nature is unbelievable.. hope you kitchen isn't damaged!
ReplyDeleteAimee
LOL. Our big fire moment in my childhood was when we tried to make soap...the old fashion way.
ReplyDeleteI am so embroidering the title of this post to put on the wall of my kitchen...
ReplyDeleteInfamous quote from my husband, who was banned from our community bakery after his first attempt at making grape jelly:
ReplyDelete"Evidently, sugar is flammable. Who knew?"
wow! glad it was nothing too serious and everyone is ok! your pictures are awesome! I just taught my little guy how to "umlock" my cell phone and call 911. I think we will do the fire thing too, better to be prepared.
ReplyDeleteahhh! glad to hear everyone got out OK. we had a grease fire in our kitchen when our youngest was just a baby in her little wheeled walker - SO SCARY! here's a link if you wanna read all about someone else's freak-out: http://www.raisetheranch.com/blog/august07.html#update082807
ReplyDelete(TWO tiny babies very close to the fire = NOT COOL)