Friday, December 05, 2008

Grr!

Putting up the Christmas decorations was fun and exciting. I thought that I had properly impressed upon the children that they should leave the ornaments on the tree and that the lights were off limits. Yeah I know, funny huh?

Yesterday while I was doing something else I heard "Lights are broken, owie!" which of course set off my mommy danger alarm. I got Evan to show me what was wrong. He had broken one of the bulbs of the lights on our Christmas tree. I was steaming at that point but also searching his hand for any cuts. Thankfully there were none and he earned a trip to his bedroom until dinner time. I unplugged the lights and picked up all the glass that I could find.

Not too much later I hear "Lights working" which also set off my mommy danger radar. Harry, who had witnessed all that had happned to Evan, had plugged the lights back in. Steaming again Harry earned himself a trip to the bedroom until dinner time (which with all the giggling I kept hearing was probably not much of a punnishment).

I had reached my limit of frustaration and promptly after dinner removed the lights from the tree. We now have a light less tree which removes a lot of the prettiness from the tree. Sigh. I know that the kids are very sad about not being able to see the lights on the tree too, so maybe the lesson that we do not touch things that mommy and daddy tell us not to will sink in. I am not holding my breath though.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

you should get the LED lights they are plastic and indestructable.

Aunt Kathy said...

I know I shouldn't but I am laughing. LOL. Kids are so funny.

Heather said...

Aw. That's too bad. My kids still can't resist touching the tree. Even the 6-year-old. I put the breakable ornaments that I REALLY care about at the top, and the rest? If they get broken, lesson learned and they won't have the ornament anymore (they're mostly theirs).

We have the lights plugged into a power strip so that the kids can just push the button to turn them on instead of plugging or unplugging. Felt safer to me and I didn't have to yell at them for wanting to make the tree light up. Maybe that will work for you?

It's so hard to have such a tempting object in the house.

Anonymous said...

Your story brought back memories.
Will never forget the year we finally put the Christmas tree and presents inside the playpen. And another year we decorated the tree with balloons and candy canes (bad idea) and still another time we decorated the tree with all non breakable ornaments and used curling ribbons streamers instead of tinsel. For years and years the older children wanted to place the wrapped gifts under the tree but had to compromise on doing that on Christmas Eve.
Ah-- the memories of toddlers and Christmas decorations.

Anonymous said...

We are setting up the tree soon .... I am frightened!

chichimama said...

I second the LED light thing, they are fab.

Tama said...

I'll trade ya!!

Jen S. said...

If only there was a way to punish them without punishing yourself in the process!

Sheila @ Dr Cason.org said...

Yesterday i looked at our tree and then quizzically cocked my head to one side. "Honey, did you noitice that the bottom half of the tree is conspicously without ornaments."

"Yes", he said. "That's about as high as little man can reach!"

Damselfly said...

Do you think you will put the lights back on later in the month?

It's obvious I have a lot to learn about Christmas trees and kids!

Awesome Mom said...

Unless we buy LED lights (which I have been a bit to cheap to do before now) we will leave them off for the rest of the time we have the tree up. It is just too dangerous if Evan is going to keep breaking the bulbs.