Thursday, May 14, 2009

Remember my new running partner?

The pepper spray? Well, a couple of mornings ago I came home from my run and set it on the entry way table, then went upstairs and hopped into the shower. About 5 minutes later I hear a bunch of screaming (which in and of itself didn't make me even bat an eye) then Peter stuck his head in the bathroom and screamed that Zachary got pepper spray in his eyes. I started screaming and jumped out of the shower and went running down the hall. I have sprayed it before and know that a lot comes out and it is pretty powerful. I envisioned my oldest child, blind because I was careless and left it out. ( I was also wondering what the hell my 10 year old was doing playing with it!!) .

I grabbed Zach and threw him in the shower and started scrubbing him down like crazy. It was like the scene out of Silkwood when Meryl Streep gets contaminated in the nuclear plant (am I remembering that scene correctly?) I then got the story out of him. He picked it up (knowing it was my pepper spray mind you!), unlocked the switch and sprayed it on the wall. He panicked and tried cleaning it up with paper towels. He then rubbed his hands into his eyes. Not nearly as dramatic as a full spray in the face (thank God!!), but more excitement than I like on a monday morning before school.

My stomach turns just thinking about what could have happened. Christopher could have got his hands on it. Any of the boys' could have been sprayed in the face. All because of my carelessness.

Zach and I had a nice talk about touching things when you don't know what they can do.

He learned a big lesson that moning.

And so did I.

5 comments:

Suzanne said...

I'm so sorry that happened. Now that my boys are getting older, I have gotten lax about certain safety precautions. This is a very good reminder for me that temptation lurks around every corner. I would have felt horrible if I had been in your shoes.

Ash said...

You nailed it with Silkwood.

I'm so sorry about the scare!!

Katie said...

Oh jeez, thinking about anything bad that could happen to a child makes me all weird in the belly now. Must be hormones.

Phew, glad it was mostly just a scare! Right now Kaylee can't reach the counter...guess the rules change when they can. Hadn't even thought of that.

Laura said...

I wish you had given me the talk about NOT TOUCHING THINGS WHEN YOU DONT KNOW WHAT THEY CAN DO, before I got pregnant four times!

Aunt Becky said...

Some times I genuinely wonder how we make it thus far as a species. And not in a bad way, just a "how do we make it out of those kid years?" kind of way. Glad everyone is okay.