One I recently began reading is "Carrying a Cat by the Tail". It is by a single Dad of six kids. He is very entertaining as well as thought provoking. His kids remind me of when mine were younger.
Today's post reminded me of the several grass fires we had when living in Marlow. Most were started when the kid assigned to burning trash got careless. We became pretty proficient at putting them out ourselves. His kids accidentally started a grass fire with a magnifying glass. The many times
I think that I am pretty lenient with my kids... letting them try things many parents deem "too dangerous". The looks I got at work when I got a call from my middle kids, wanting to use gunpowder in their tennis ball cannon, since hairspray wasn't working. (They had gotten non-aerosol hairspray.) The co-workers were appalled that I would let the kids build a CANNON in the first place- never mind what propellant they wanted to use in it. (I told them NO, they could NOT use gunpowder without adult supervision, on that call.)
The kids once built themselves a catapult... and tried for best distance at chicken flinging. (They were supposed to be using balls! The chicken was ruffled but unharmed. She also became quite good at avoiding capture.)
Yesterday, Dan wanted to build a paper balloon, which he envisioned rising to the air, powered by a tea light candle. He eventually gave up... for the day. (Or else I may have got to practice my firefighting skills again!) He and Sam moved on, this time asking to refit the potato cannon to shoot paintballs instead of potatoes. I vetoed their idea of shooting at one another with the re-fitted paintball cannon. They made a target of an old wooden crate and the plastic swimming pool I planted my 'garden' in last year. They used an empty plastic water bottle inside the potato cannon, cutting the top off the bottle, and putting the paintballs into the remaining portion. It worked quite well.
Not being allowed to shoot this at one another led Sam to lament how people used to get to do things that 'might be' considered dangerous... "like that blogger guy Mom read to us... he got to shoot fireworks at his 'single digit siblings'". Ummm, yeah, I'm pretty sure they missed the part about his parents not knowing his siblings were used as targets!
I let the kids climb trees. That is hard. They scamper up like squirrels... wearing BOOTS rather than sneakers. And they climb high. Every time I see a kid head up the tree, I remember the time the branch broke with Bill Joe (OF COURSE IT WAS BILL!) and he came plummeting down through the branches as Tom ran scrambling beneath the tree to try to catch him.... and Bill caught the last possible branch and stopped the fall himself.
I am thankful my kids have all grown up relatively unharmed!
Have a blessed day!
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