My son got one other marriage proposal before he entered kindergarten. This was from the daughter of a coworker who told me, "Ms. Jill, I'm going to marry Jared, your son, because he's so funny and so WILD!." That mom better watch out!"
When I signed up on the dating service, I requested someone who enjoys a "harmless yet demented sense of humor." I think I was right on with he demented part at the very least...the harmless part perhaps not so much...
I heard all kinds of reactions to this camp incident, from outrage ("How could they do that?!?!?!?") to disbelief ("What's with these kids that they wouldn't know better?!?!?!?"). I, on the other hand, found the entire situation infinitely absurd, hilarious: someone decided that it would be a great idea to have approximately 100 children shave balloons.
Sound like fun? I'm sure it would have been. Except, they armed the children with about 20 disposable razors. As far as I know, they did not give instructions about keeping the razors closed. As one councilor wiped up the blood from the floor (Yes, wiped up the blood), and one girl headed to the infirmary, they went ahead and just brought a nurse straight to the activity area.
This is what it looked like after the announcement, "Anyone who has cut themselves on a razor to please go to the back of the room to see the nurse.":
I've blurred it a little, just 'cause. All injuries were minor and I'm sure we can chalk that one up to "lesson learned."
13 comments:
Kids and razors? I'm trying to wrap my mind around this one...makes for good blog material, though! :-)
It's okay for kids to have box cutters in the schools here, which would be great if the kids weren't so fascinated by opening and closing the box cutters. I take them away every time I hear the sound. At last count I had confiscate dover 130 box cutters that had previously been considered toys!
oh hell, that's what "natural consequences" are all about. now little johnny and suzy know better for next time.
Okay, forget the part about handing out razors to children. I'm still stuck on "shaving balloons"...what on earth IS that, LOL?
I'm always tempted to have the neighborhood kids over to make Smores in the fire pit - that's when I remember - oh yeah, they're kids and this is fire! It wouldn't be possible to supervise them enough - someone would surely push another into the pit.
But I can (and do) this activity with my kids all the time - so perhaps the counsellors were thinking that it is a fun activity with a small, secure group. Many fun small group activities do not translate well to large group activities! Pity, but true - children act completely different in groups than as individuals - and when you take this age and mix in boys and girls - even dodge ball can get dangerous!
Did all the parents sign waivers? They must have! I dunno - it sounds whacked to read "Kids + razors" but I have seen the contest where a balloon is sprayed with shaving cream and then the cream is shaved off - the goal is to NOT pop the balloon!
On the one hand I think kids should not be running around with razors. But on the other hand, maybe parents are overprotective these days. I'm not a parent so I am not sure how I'd react in the "real world!"
I just know that there are kids out there driving tractors (a former Omaha farm girl told me about this) and probably there's kids out in other countries swinging a scythe hacking down some wheat.
So razors and balloons? Kids's stuff!
I accidentally cut myself with a razor as a kid. Eeek. I had NO IDEA they were so sharp so did the dumb thing of testing it. Gives met the willies just thinking about it.
I did get to use an acetylene torch or something like that as a kid. Yeah - I got to play with fire! I was about 7 years old. This was the beginning of by becoming handy. I had to use the torch to remove the peeling paint from the windowsills of the ancient home my parents had purchased.
Child labor in action. But being given a torch to use - MUCH more fun than sanding!!
Your online dating profile is sounding more and more hilarious! But it sure seems to have worked!
Yeah, what's balloon shaving??
Balloon shaving is spraying shaving cream on a balloon and then "shaving" it off without out "killing" the balloon. At least, that's my understanding of it.
jp - Kids & razors - good clean fun! Actually I'm all in favor of giving them the shaving cream & I used to play with gun powder at that age, most likely razors too, who knows?
Saradevil - Box cutters, now why didn't we offer them any of THOSE to play with????? :-) Why are box cutters so rampant there?
Disa - Good thinking! :-)
Lara & Toners - Never quite got that far. They just told us we were going to shave the balloons. They didn't actually tell us what the point was (luckily Ms.Q fills us in on her comment!).
Barbara - Yeah, I love the whole IDEA of s'mores, but every time I do it with kids, I end up a nervous wreck!!!!
Ms.Q - Yeah, my friend's son used to chop the firewood at this age, haul it into the house & get the wood stove started no problem. It's different doing work and playing with razors in a frenzy of hyperactivity for one thing though & perhaps also different to risk injury for something necessary like heat compared to something that was supposed to be fun.
Thanks for clearing up the point of the game! I had wondered about it myself...
I did the same thing as you on a cactus. I just had to find out for myself if they were really ALL THAT PRICKLY!!!! I bet that was SO FUN on the torch!!!!!!!!!!! All I ever got to play with at that age was gun powder...
Oh & Ms.Q on the online dating profile working - someone asked me yesterday if online dating was "fun". I was like, "I dunno. I was only on it for a week." I had to look when I got home of course, and it turned out to be ten days. :-0
Ummm... yeah. Arming kids with razors??? Wow. Just asking for an incident to happen, no? But then again, some of the commentors are right; we used to play with far more dangerous stuff without even thinking about it. If you cut or burned yourself, well, lesson learned. Which I did. A lot.
thats a good lesson learned OMG! Jill I hope you have a awesome Thanksgiving :D
Maureen - Yeah, I didn't spend much time playing with razors as a girl. I was more into the gunpowder...
Roger - SAME TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll be looking for those blog updates, now that you got me moving on some myself!
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