Keeping an eye on a toddler at all times is an unpaid, full-time, 24/7 job that requires more energy than anything else I've ever done.
Yet sometimes, I just don't have the energy to stop the play and give him a lecture about safety.
So, I have been known to let him:
- play with long rope
- watch the 5-year old neighbour play with rope and then copy her ideas, like tying buckets to one end of the rope and the wrapping the rope around a tree to hang up the bucket
- climb onto his stroller without opening the cupholder thingy at the front
- play with the vacuum cleaner cables
- play with loose coins
- play in the bathtub with more than an inch of water in it by himself while I get a drink of water, a towel, the phone, etc.
- cross the street without holding my hand (although I speak incessantly about cars coming and not stopping to admire dog poop in the middle of the street and walking quickly to the sidewalk and not loitering, bladibla)
- climb into the driver's seat of the station wagon from the open trunk
- close the car door all by himself (along with a lecture about never putting fingers in certain locations)
There are probably other things that elude me right now which would likely make me cringe if I were to think about them too long.
But so far, he hasn't required any stiches, casts, or visits to the emerg. Although there was that one incident where daddy slammed the car door on the toddler's thumb....and where daddy and mommy got into a huge, useless fight about whether or not we should go to the emerg, ending with daddy stomping off after mommy insisted we wait and see, and mommy spending a sleepless night worrying about her baby's thumb having to be ambutated....
PS The thumb is fine. He wanted a bandaid on it, and fell asleep with some Montrin in his system.
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