I was vacuuming a few weeks ago, very cognizant that my 3 year old was hot on my heels. I marveled that he’s the first of my 3 children that I haven’t managed to hit with the vacuum back swing.
In my defense, as a first time mom with the vacuum running & my child safely occupied with toys, it never occurred to me that she would sneak up and stick like glue in my blind spot. Step forward, push vacuum, pull back…”bonk.”
She and her brother are 4 years, 3 1/2 months apart in age so apparently I had forgotten this lesson and did the same thing to my son some years later. My 3 year old is still safe from the vacuum back swing but he made a new “first” recently.
He was having one of those “it’s hard being three” days and didn’t want me to console him, he just wanted to sing me the song of his people. So I was in the laundry room folding laundry and he was laying on the rug watching me and occasionally screeching and whining. There were a couple things that weren’t quite dry so I tossed them back in. As I was getting ready to close the dryer I noticed he had his foot on the edge and I told him to move his foot, which he did. A second later I realized the hooded towel I was folding was still damp & needed to be tossed back in. In the .5 seconds it took me to open the dryer, toss it in and close the door, apparently my son had put his foot back up.
Yep. Pinched his toes in the dryer. Fortunately I didn’t slam the door but I pushed it hard enough that it bounced off and pinched his toes. I didn’t even realize his foot was there until the door bounced back.
He cried, got a “boo boo bandaid” and held onto the boo boo bunny for a little while. He got lots of attention from everyone and he’d suddenly realize that he was no longer crying & let out a sad “wahhh” and a little lip pout. 😉 Fortunately he was fine. Imagine explaining that injury. “How’d you get that boo boo?” “Oh my mom shut my toes in the dryer.” “She…shut your…toes…in the…dryer?”
I’d hoped that he would be the exception to the “terrible threes” I experienced with my first two, and it’s possible that the behavior is just a coincidence. After all, he’s only been three for a month! Just what you need when you’re dealing with being three years old – your mom shutting your tootsies in the dryer!
So a word to the wise: check for children before you swing the vacuum back, and check for toes before you close the dryer! I’m always watching for fingers but I never thought to look for toes.
Have you ever experienced an odd or unexpected injury?
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
I smacked my son in the head with the sliding door of the minivan. Felt like I was the worst mommy ever! It’s amazing what can happen in a split second that I would never have dreamed of before becoming a mom! I grabbed the door handle and looked back just in time to see him drop his truck out of the supermarket cart and as I pulled the door open (really just one motion tied to grabbing the handle!) he leaned over the side of the cart to see where it went. Head and door collided! I was able to slow the momentum of the door a bit so it wasn’t as bad as it sounds but he did get a little bump on his head and he cried his eyes out for five minutes. I felt so awful! There are so many times in parenting when I wish I could have a do over! Just a 30 second rewind would be helpful please.
Aww poor guy! I agree, where’s the rewind button?
Yes this has happened to all of us I can’t quite remember a specific time, but I do remember a few when I was little. Me being the youngest and the only girl I was my mom’s doll as we were walking one day she told me ” I love you, I will always protect and keep you close always, I will protect you from all the hurt in the world” she hugged me tightly gave me a hundred kisses, grabbed my hand and held me close and we started to walk, few seconds later I tripped over her feet (since she was holding me close) and I fell right on my face on the pavement…oh the irony… I was probably five and I never forget it, my mother always reminds me of it and we always joke about it
Not going to lie, this made me laugh out loud!
Oh, the line about him wanting to sing you the song of his people! So funny. Yet another great blog entry. Not only funny and entertaining, but some good advice. Who would’ve thought to be concerned about the vacuum back swing? And toes getting shut in the dryer?
You know this is the best piece of Mommy advice I’ve got so far! My 11month has started the stealth sneak up now and I’ve come close a few times but caught myself before I’ve trapped a finger or toe.
I know one day we’ll collide at some point, but hopefully we’ll avoid the dryer now 🙂
I have had so many with my kids, yet I can’t even think of one at the moment. How odd is that?! I have been cut by a plastic spoon before, though…
Hey I can see it, some of that plastic has sharp edges! 🙂
It was actually legit… it just sounds funny saying I got cut by a plastic spoon. 🙂 I was trying to get a small spoon of (HARD) icecream, and when I pushed into the ice cream the spoon broke straight in line with the handle (so the side of the mouth piece just stayed sticking up while the rest of the spoon went into the ice cream). It sliced into my finger as the spoon (still attached to the handle) moved down.
Oh man!