Attention Negligent Parents

If you feel inadequate as a parent or think you've messed up lately with the eternal development of your child(ren), this is the post for you! I'm about to make you feel GREAT! After reading this, YOU will see yourself as the exemplary parent which everyone else aspires to be.

Luke, 15 months old, has been tearing off outlet covers recently. Three to be exact...maybe four now that I think about it a little more. He's just ripped them off...breaking them off the screw in the center that holds them to the outlets. We're not sure what the fascination is. But it has kept him occupied and been only a minor inconvenience to us.

He's also had "bruises" recently. We've noticed them on his head and on his arms. The first time we saw it, we got somewhat upset with the older kids...thinking they had pushed him down or dragged him along the carpet upstairs. They appeared to be a mix between a bruise and a carpet burn--something we didn't think Luke was capable of doing to himself.

But he was. And Karen finally had an "ah-hah" moment as to the cause of them.

Electrical entry and exit wounds? Yep. This time the one on his arm is a bit bigger than the previous ones. We don't know what position he's in or what he's doing to have the entry wound on the back side of his arm and the exit wound on his forehead. Hopefully we won't ever find out. Karen is shopping this morning and I anticipate her coming home with several more outlet protection plugs. But all those plugs that you insert in the outlet when not in use won't prevent this from happening again. What do you do when the kid just tears the entire outlet cover off the wall?

Fortunately, he's still happy...and functioning. Perhaps he has some electrically-charged super power. I gotta go because he's crying now in the kitchen. Another one of his fascinations is weaving himself through the eight kitchen chairs and over the kitchen table support beam thingy. He gets trapped every time...but always goes back for more.