Look Away!! This Post Is About Children And Sharp Objects!

Dear Mom,

Please leave now. That way you can claim ignorance when 'they' come after me.

Love,
Your Daughter

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For the rest of you fine folks, understand that this post is not for the faint of heart. There was no blood involved, just a Mommy caving into the pleas of my preschoolers to be helpers, albeit with much hesitation on my part.

The day dragged long and the children were feeling a bit pent up. I finally got everyone down for a nap, including me. When they started waking up, the two older girls found me in the kitchen making half-hearted preparations for dinner. I was pulling out veggies to rinse and cut up, thinking it might save my sanity at the witching hour.

As I got set up to begin, Sarah Grace entered and begged to be allowed to help. I assigned her the task of rinsing. It was not enough. She wanted in on the heavy action. So I handed her the veggie peeler and set her to work on the carrots. She had just found her groove when Elizabeth entered the kitchen.

I tried to convince Elizabeth that simply putting the chopped carrots into the bowl would be of great service to me, but she wasn't biting. I finally handed the two year old a knife.

Re-read that last sentence a couple of times. Let it sink in. Make sure you absorb the full impact of what I just admitted to.

I gave my two year old an instrument sharp enough to do bodily damage with. Sharp enough to mutilate with. To the TWO. YEAR. OLD.

I am nothing if not ripe for the asylum.

To their credit, they handled the sharp objects with grace and ease. Probably better than I usually do, really. But my heart was thudding along as I stood over them and directed.


However, I did step away for just a moment to be sure that I could catch this all on film. Or a memory card. Whatever. And I took the knife with me. I totally gave it back to her for the photo op, though.