10 on Discovery

This morning I had to punish Katie for melting a plastic toy on top of the very hot wood stove. It's dangerous and destructive, not to mention stinky. I think a lesson was learned, hopefully the most important being stay away from the hot (HOT!) stove. A bit later I had to tell Lizzy not to drink directly from the milk jug!! Some of the things I find myself saying to my children seem so obvious to me. But I don't believe my kids are malicious or even particularly rebellious. Perhaps things that appear obvious to me...aren't. I started to think about how things become obvious to us, during the course of our lives. I know my parents used to get mad at me and my siblings quite often (whose didn't?). Although I don't remember many specifics at all, I'm sure there were many things similar to those for which I find myself frustrated with my kids. It only makes sense that the "obvious" things are actually learned through trial and error. Now, I'm sure we don't have to try everything, but I guess we need to try enough of certain types of things to then predict possible consequences from similar actions. My kids are just young enough to be near the bottom of the learning curve of "obvious" things. I should probably see these events in the context of a lifetime. Maybe this little insight will help me control the frustration level a bit, knowing that my kids are really just learning skills that will see them through the next 70-80 years of life.

Same subject, different angle: Do you remember the lessons you learned from those "experiments" you and your sibling performed as kids? Many have come flooding back to me during this journey of thought. Pepper sprinkled on a hot electric burner will ignite piece by piece in little flashes. Plastic doll hair will melt when held about 2 inches above a toaster that is turned on. You cannot iron tricot with an iron set to the cotton setting. It instantly melts, leaving an iron-shaped hole in the fabric. (I wonder if my mom ever noticed that robe went missing?) Also, you can get melted tricot off of an iron if you wait for it to cool down and then chip it off, flake by flake. The tape from an audio cassette will stretch from my house clear up to the elementary school, and beyond (How far beyond, I don't know, because by then enough cars had driven over the tape to break it, and I was late for school anyway.) Your brother can actually dial a number, and then hang up the phone without you seeing it, thereby leading you to believe he has called his teacher and confirmed that it is indeed a school holiday. Very few insects actually eat grass, despite the high hopes of millions of kids with grass and insect-filled mason jars. You really can catch things on fire with a magnifying glass and the sun. And last, but not least, you cannot, no matter how much effort you put into it, swing totally around the top bar of the swing set. Ah, the frivolous yet fascinating body of knowledge gathered in an active childhood.