How do you keep children away from fire? (Mama FWL)
You push them. (Mama Gomez)
As parents, I think that loving our kids is inherent, so I would argue that keeping them healthy and safe share the top spot in the “parental duties checklist”. But what are you supposed to do when foreign variables are introduced into your normally predictable life that pose serious danger to your curious toddler but are required to keep them healthy (read: fed)?
We recently went camping with some close friends and their two toddlers, so for those counting, that’s 3 toddlers (the number of parents is irrelevant, because there are THREE toddlers). On the “camping scale of proficiency” (I made that up) I’m a total amateur, Mama FWL is a confident intermediate, and our friends are firmly planted in the advanced category. And being the rookie on my second real camping trip, I was largely unaware of the host of nuances while camping; like making sure your mattress is situated properly so you aren’t slowly sliding down an incline in the middle of the night, washing dishes (we figured we’d create enough waste with poopy diapers that we could reduce our carbon footprint by not using paper goods), or starting a real fire with homemade kindling
Naturally, kids quickly gravitate to the crackling wood, mysterious smoke, and flashing light of the fire (mostly the flashing light). And what do we as responsible parents do when they start inching too close to our outdoor oven? We tackle them to safety! You got a boo boo? At least you still have two opposable thumbs! While a gentle approach is always preferred, toddlers think they are invincible and don’t listen, so sometimes we have to take drastic measures.
Nobody was actually pushed (or burned), but there was lots of “GET AWAY!” “HOT!” “DON’T TOUCH!” “FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE TO PLAY!” I’m sure our neighbor campers wanted to kill us. Oh, and where can I get a fire-shield?
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