I found my daughter playing with scissors in the playroom and immediately told her to stop. I knew it was her safety scissors but I felt that scissors need to be used at the art table and with at least some initial parental guidance on the art project rather than random cutting while sitting on the carpet next to her brothers.
Daughter: “They’re safety scissors so no one will get hurt…see?!?!”
[pause for introspection]… This puts me in a difficult situation that I find myself in more often than I’d like. I’m trying to set some safety rules to prevent injuries but when no one gets hurt, the kids think it’s a stupid rule. For example, I let my kids walk ahead of me when we’re out walking but I make them stop at all streets, alleys, and driveways to look both ways. If one of them forgets and starts running, I yell out and, while they do stop, they look at me with “stink eye” as I hold their hand to cross a street that didn’t have a car in either direction for as far as the eye can see…[end introspection]
Daddy:”Well, I don’t like you playing with them on the floor, and not when your brothers are around because they aren’t old enough, so please put them back where they belong for now.”
Angered, she throws the scissors down on the soft carpet and it bounces up and hits my middle boy in the arm and he starts crying, more out of shock than anything else. Instantly, I see my opportunity and I seize it.
Daddy: “See, I TOLD you they’re dangerous.”