I am the proud mama of 4 children.
I have a handful of stories that will always remain in my brain that happened when they were real young. Those preschool years.
Here is one of them…
We lived in this tiny brick house. Our smoke detector was situated near our basement steps.
The kitchen stove was also near the basement steps.
So, several times per week…When I would be boiling pasta or cooking hamburgers or some sort of food that created heat and or smoke, our smoke detector would alarm…
Every time that happened, my husband or myself would take a kitchen towel and starting waving it up and down right next to the round apparatus on our ceiling. The towel would help move the air around that general area as to clear it away from the smoke detector faster.. … To get that darn thing to stop beeping.
Sometimes we would even stand on our tippy toes while doing it and start blowing air out of our mouths to get the thing to stop beeping…
It was quite funny, actually. It was a common occurrence. Always waving that towel like we were in an old time war, surrendering to the enemy…Always around dinner time.
So, one day at one of our kids’ preschool..
The fire department was there discussing fire safety.
I was also there that day, as a parent helper.
The fireman went over all the rules of “stop, drop, and roll”… “Don’t hide, go outside”,…. “have an escape plan” .. etc….
All tiny little people sitting there listening intently. Staring up at the fireman…with these big, curious eyes.
The firefighter said to them… “Boys and girls, Does anyone know what they should do when they hear a smoke detector go off?”
My son raised his hand…
And then, suddenly, that image of our kitchen towel waiving ran through my head..
Oh nooo…
I was so afraid my son was going to say to go get a towel, flap it around, and blow air up to the ceiling……..
Unmmmm… That would be the wrong answer….
He acted all cool, like “I got this”…
So, then he began talking and I was relieved he did not say to waive a towel..
Instead he said “Go to your phone right away and dial “Nine Nine One”
That’s right, he said “9-9-1” .. With 2 nines !!
He looked so proud of himself for “knowing” the answer…..
Hahahah… So, he still got it wrong..
I was laughing because, at first, I was so glad he knew, for real, how to handle the smoke detector situation… But, then I was laughing because he didn’t really know the phone number to 911..
Nine- ONE- one..
At first I was all like “Yess, he got it..”…Then, I was all like “Dooooe, ……No he didn’t !…”
That’s today’s story…