Fun with zip ties...

Yesterday was beautiful here! The kids really enjoyed playing in the yard and I was thankful for a little break while I prepared dinner.



One problem...boys...and their fascination with the garage.



Normally the door to the garage is locked but for some reason yesterday it wasn't. That meant that I had two curious boys rummaging through the shelves in the garage. They came in wearing swim goggles and carrying the super soaker which was my first clue. After asking them lovingly to keep their precious hands out of the garage, I noticed Luke had also grabbed a couple of zip ties. He LOVES zip ties and will spend long amounts of time connecting them to make various rocket type ships.





A little while later I noticed that he had put them on as bracelets. That wasn't really a problem until he decided he was done wearing them and he tried to take them off. Can you tell where this is going?? For those of you who don't know, zip ties tighten but don't loosen so the more you pull them the tighter they become. Now imagine a 4 year old who is in a panic trying to get zip ties off of his wrists. What does he do? Continues to pull at them, obviously magnifying the problem and causing them to become tighter and tighter.



Now, enter...calm laid back mom. I freaked out! His hand were beginning to turn a dark shade of redish blue and he was screaming. I was in a full panic and not helping anyone else to remain calm. I tried to cut the zip ties off with scissors but I couldn't get the scissors between the zip tie and his wrist with out him screaming in pain. I tried a knife but that was just too scary. There's just something creepy about sawing with a sharp knife at your child's wrist. I was beginning to have images of a 4 year old with a missing front tooth and only one hand. Not the picture I wanted to share of my mothering ability.



In a panic situation, what do you do but call your husband who is at work and can do nothing to help. And that's exactly what I did. In a full panic. And what did he say?

C: Just cut them off!

Me: But I can't because it hurts his wrist!

C: It doesn't matter, you just need to do it!

C:Do I need to come home right now??!

So, back to the scissors we went. My heart was racing. Luke was screaming. Kate was talking incessantly (because that's what she does). John Patrick was crying hysterically. Caleb was...well..probably getting into something he wasn't suppose to, I'm not sure.

But, we got them off!

You can rest easy knowing the my 4 year old will indeed see his 5th birthday with BOTH hands in place. Praise the Lord!

Note: Don't allow your kids to wear zip ties as bracelets, even if it seems fairly harmless at the time. Take it from a seasoned mother of four.