Yesterday at work, 3 nine year old boys rode their bikes into our parking lot and started screwing around. They went to the gas pump, took the nozzle and sprayed gas onto the ground.
AND THEN THREW A MATCH ON IT. Apparently the resulting flame up went right up into the face of one of the kids. Thankfully, they all walked away unhurt.
Or more accurately, panicked and ran up into the parking lot to hide among the buses when the general manager ran out to put out the fire. The police arrived and the kids were unsurprisingly caught and given the scared straight treatment. Moms were summoned.
I commented to my co-worker that I would have been spanked. My mom was very formal on spanking. We talked about what I did, then she pronounced the punishment, we went to cedar chest and I was spanked. She never did it in anger. But I think if I had nearly burned my face off, she might have been a bit more terrified and that might have come out in the spanking. Because anger is often a byproduct of fear.
Perhaps lessons were learned. Ideally by our company. Put a lock on the gas pump. It can be one of those coded locks, but something that protects it from the idiocy of humans and children alike.
Anyway, 3 kids nearly had a life ending/changing experience. Happily they will go on to make more mischief, hopefully elsewhere.
It's a Thought 
Yikes, kid flambe does not sound good. On the other hand, I have idea how I survived to adulthood. OK, I never really reached adulthood, so I guess I should say that I have no idea how I survived to an age usually considered adulthood (and now closer to “middle-age”!)
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They say it’s best to keep the childlike thoughts, but when you consider how dangerous children are… I have consider that bad advice.
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lol, good point!
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Yeah. As a parent, I find that “natural” consequences are the most effective, but they are also the ones most likely to end in tragedy. Getting off with singed eyebrows is is pretty lucky.
Kid who have time to be bored are often the one who become the most creative. Or criminal. Parenting is walking a lot of tightropes.
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It’s moments like these that make me grateful that I never had a kid.
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You have to wonder how they come up with these really stupid ideas!
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I think they are like wild things. Just too much energy and not enough experience.
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I worked at a school for almost 20 years and I was constantly amazed how some of those kids survived adolescence. I admit I did some stupid things when I was a kid, but none of them were ever actually life threatening, for heaven’s sake. I guess common sense isn’t really all that common?
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I’m going to guess common sense has had a chance to develop in a 9 year old. Or maybe nearly getting our faces burned off is how it gets developed?
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I suppose I shouldn’t say much. I was a “free range” kid when growing up. A lot of days after chores in the morning I was out the door and gone until my stomach told me it was time to go home. I had 150 acres of farm, woods and streams and I knew every square foot of it by the time I was 7 years old. I got my first knife when I was like 6 years old, but a good knife was an essential tool on a farm. Got my first rifle when I was 9, a .22 single shot. I was driving tractors and trucks on the farm by the time I was 11 or 12. Gads, today parents would be arrested if they did stuff like that.
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Nice blog
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