Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

What emergency?

Yesterday morning after the kids left for school I putzed around the house, got lights on the tree (it  might even get ornaments tonight!) , then Asher came home for lunch. When that was done I put the dogs away, started the dishwasher and at 1:00 we headed out the door to pick up Axel for therapy Tuesday.

Angela came home at 2:40, and as she always does she went to the basement and turned on the t.v. A few minutes behind her at 3:00 Dean arrived home. He sat down and thought, "Where do I hear water running? A LOT of water!"  He went to the basement and found a pipe had burst and there was 2 inches of water in the pool table room. As he ran to see what was going on he passed Angela who didn't really seem bothered by the fact she was sitting in water!

Seriously????

When the boys and I came home at 4:30, Dean had sucked up most of the standing water, but the carpet...ugh!!! I used the steam machine to suck up as much of the water as I could.

While doing that it occurred to me that we had missed a step in teaching  Angela about being home alone. She has a cell phone and we have talked about "emergencies" and what kinds of things she should call mom for. Angela is very literal, and I am pretty sure that "flooded basement" was  not on the list of emergencies we discussed.  I just didn't think to include that in our discussion! What was I thinking???

Then I started to think of the "what if's". What if the cord for the TV had been in the water...and Angela had walked in it? I started to think of all the other things that could have happened, or could happen in the future, and got a bit freaked out. Mostly when Angela is home alone she either watches T.V. or watches videos of her youtube playlist. She knows not to answer the door (won't even let Dean or I in if we come home unexpectedly and knock on the door!) She knows if she comes home and for some reason can't get into the house she should call me or go to the neighbors. She knows some other stranger related emergencies which warrant a phone call and other actions. Apparently she does NOT know that just sitting in a puddle of water, all in the name of watching her beloved T.V., isn't really a very good idea.

So, it's time to backtrack a bit and reteach the "home alone" thing, going over all the possible scenarios. I don't want to leave out any possibilities!

4 comments:

Hope Anne said...

Oy. . . yes, kids who take things literally have to be taught so much more than kids who can intuitively extrapolate what information they know to new scenarios.

I deal with that too at my house. I think I told you the story about my teen who was sure that even a female police officer should be addressed as "Sir". We went round and round on that one and I finally gave up trying to convince and just pulled out my "I am the Mom and just trust me on this one! You do NOT want to address a female officer as "SIR". She will think you are being a smart alek or are drunk or on drugs."

Hope Anne said...

Oy. We deal with that at our house too. I think I told you the story about the teen who was SURE that you always addressed even female officers as "Sir" because becoming a police officer meant that they were to be addressed as "Sir".

Becca said...

Oh, wow, amazing advice from you yet again!! Stuff I wouldn't have thought about... Thanks for this, glad everything's okay (hoping your carpet recovers...)!

Unknown said...

I agree with Becca.....totally wouldn't have thought about this at all. Hoping your carpet comes back to life!