Friday Memories - Mom Fails

Hello Friends -- it's time once again for another installment of my "Here's What I've Been Thinking About" series - this one about Mom Fails! For your viewing enjoyment (and mine) - here are some photos that are from this same time of year (Thanksgiving) from 2008 on to 2014 (i think). Photos have nothing to do with text -- I know, I'm weird that way.

1. Killing the stinking gecko . . . by accident! My sons had the stinkiest gecko when they were growing up that somehow fell to me for care for most of the time. I did draw the line at hand feeding it live crickets, so they did that, but the yucky crickets lived in the refrigerator next to the milk. GROSS! One bright, sunny warm spring day, I figured the gecko would LOVE to be outside in the sun. After all, I had to buy a warm rock for it to sit on in the house, so a bright sunny day sounded perfect. So, I put it on a little table on a deck in its glass container. The deck was black and I suppose reflected the sun back up into its glass home. Guess what was a crispy critter when we got home from work!! Yep -- that disgusting gecko! It looked worse than an extra crispy burned piece of bacon. Bye bye stinky gecko. Truly was an accidental killing as I figured that geckos like the heat in Arizona, why wouldn't it enjoy it on my porch in a glass container on a black deck???

2. Fireworks! Aren't there always fireworks incidents/accidents with kids? Who could forget the time that I allowed them to have some fireworks when I was at work. Who knew they would chase each other around with a lit punk and a paper bag full of fireworks with 2 neighbor boys?? You can guess where this is going, can't you? Of course, the punk lit something in the bag and loads of fireworks exploded in advance of July 4th - burning a hole through a table umbrella AND a huge burn mark on the patio table! I dreaded the 4th of July for many reasons after that year!

3. Magnifying Glass Incident. So proud the year one of the instructors at the tennis shack called me and Rickster over to say the boys had started a fire! WHAT??? Well, they were doing an experiment to see if using a magnifying glass with the sun focused on old dead leaves would result in a fire -- yep it did. It was quickly put out - but my face stayed red for a long time!

4. Sending kid to doctor on his own. You know how there is so much talk now about adulting and having your kids learn to be adults and do things on their own??? Guess I started early as my oldest was probably 12 or 13. We did not live far from the doctor's office and I had to work. I instructed him to ride his bicycle and go on his own and show them the rash on his legs. I figured they'd give him some lotion or creme and that would be it. Nope -- they got some needles out, dug in and cut into the abrasions on his legs! Who knew?? He rode home for the doc with his legs bleeding. BAD mom!

5. Ear Issues. Another one for the oldest. He had loads of ear infections and problems with his ears when he was young. After finally feeling like his ears were in good shape, I didn't want him getting a lot of water in them when he was swimming one summer. Every time he went swimming, I'd put some drying drops in each ear. Lo and behold, he complained his ears hurt. Took him to the pediatrician who said --"I don't know what's going on, but his eardrums are so dry, they are about to burst!!!!!!!!!" Oooops! Oh dear -- another fail! I threw those drying drops away and never admitted they might have contributed to the dry eardrums . . . until now!

FYI - That's my little sister Amy in that photo with a couple of her coworkers. We both went to parties that weekend (hers in Florida; mine in Nebraska) and I think she may have had more fun then me! :) Wasn't that a fun trip down memory lane? :) Have a good weekend!