heart to heart blog

You know how little kids do things that confound parental understanding? Like when your little one licks the dog, or eats something off the floor totally disregarding the 5 second rule, or takes to fingerpainting on your walls with “organic” materials. You wonder “How can you not see that’s a bad idea?” But then, on second thought you think, he’s young yet, he’ll learn.  Wouldn’t bet on it.

Forest Gump said “Stupid is as stupid does,” and boy did my boy do stupid. The other day while I was sitting in my chair reading a book, Gus walked by and slapped my forehead. I’ll grant you, with my receding (read:non-existent) hairline it’s a pretty tempting and an easy shot, but why? After about five seconds, my forehead started to sting, then burn. “What the…..?” I shouted. I reached up and pulled a gum wrapper off my melon while Gus stood beside me laughing his pants off.

“What’s that?!?” I again shouted. (there may also have been some expletives in there too)
“Did it sting?” he asked.
“Sting? It burned! What’s that all about?”

Turns out if you take the wrapper of Big Red cinnamon chewing gum (not sure if other cinnamon gum wrappers do this – they may, but I was not in an experimental mood), lick it, and stick it to your forehead, not only does it stick, but it burns too. In fact it burned so much that even after I removed it, I had to go wash my forehead for relief.
“Where’d you learn that?” I asked
“I tried it the other day” Gus said. Then he lifted his bangs (which hang down past the bridge of his nose) to show me. There in the middle of his forehead was a bright red square.
“The other day?!? It’s bright red! How long did you leave it on?” I asked
“I don’t know. A while I guess. Pretty cool, huh?”
“Cool?!? Didn’t it hurt?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Then why’d you leave it on so long?”
“I don’t know.”

So my son somehow got this great idea from a “friend” who got it from someone who got it from somewhere. Guess who we restrict his time with now? Who thinks of this stuff? I wanted to know more so I looked it up on line and among other things, found a collection geniuses doing it on YouTube. Guess what we now restrict on his computer and even more closely monitor his use thereof?
The thing is, it didn’t just sting – it burned. Really burned. Gus’ red square turned to a reddened square with blisters! It took a couple weeks for it to start to heal. “Stupid is as stupid does.” What next?

Be vigilant, you never know when or where kids will try something “stupid.” They’ll still be prone to bad choices as they grow. Kids aren’t “stupid”, but some of the things they do certainly are. After all, Gus is an honor student, but that’s never stopped him.

Oh, by the way, Gus has since switched to spearmint gum.

Jon writes our “When a Toddler Turns Teen” posts here on the blog because believe it or not, your adorable bundle of joy will grow up…