The one where the Daycare calls about THAT

As a mom, I think our greatest fear is our children being hurt or sick. We spend countless hours and energy in the pursuit of making our home a safe haven for them. We prepare healthy meals and wash their dirty little hands hundreds of times.

Of course it is inevitable that they will catch a cold or some nasty virus, especially if they go to school or have siblings that do. We give them medicine and take them to the doctor and stay up all night worrying about them.

Then they grow, and they start forming a strong sense of independence I like to call PITA syndrome.

They don't want your help with anything, even if that means walking around with shoes on the wrong feet all day.

This was the stage my middle son was in when he was around 4. I don't remember where I was this particular Saturday but I had managed to escape was away from home for a few hours. I came home to find blisters on my little mans fingers. Seems that when my husband was warming up his lunch, and made the dreadful mistake of leaving the kitchen for a minute, little man took it upon himself to grab the hot plate. Blisters appeared almost immediately on the pads of each finger. I'm sure ice was applied and then a little neosporin and a cute spiderman bandaid for each finger.

These were minor burns and were all but gone by Monday morning when he returned to day care. He had not complained for one minute all of Sunday. Come Monday at nap time though, those fingers must have been horribly uncomfortable. I mean, who can be expected to rest with that kind of pain, even if there is no visible damage - there is a bandaid for goodness sake!

This is when the daycare calls. Might as well have been Child Protective Services. Apparently my cute little man had changed the facts of the story ever so slightly. In his mind, HE was doing ALL the cooking. And of course, the administrators believed him. It seems totally plausible that a 4 year old managed to get a glass plate out of the cabinet, grabbed the big bag of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, placed them on the plate and turned on the microwave. When I told them what happened but mentioned that I wasn't actually there the director told me "I'll have to call and confirm this with your husband, this is highly unusual." And she did. And he felt like a heal!

Talk about guilt! Is it not bad enough our little man had been hurt? In a deep recess of my mind, I'm thankful they look out for the kids well being. I know they have a duty to protect. That did not make me feel like less of a good parent at that time though! I was sure that CPS would be knocking on our door at any minute. And not just for the burns, but for the fact that we were feeding him dinosaur chicken too!

We had a long talk that night with our son about telling stories. I don't think it worked, this boys imagination is a force to be reckoned with!