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Just because they’re small doesn’t mean they’re not clever.
Back when my son was about eighteen months old, my now ex-husband and I decided to take a little holiday. We left him in the care of my in-laws and took off for a week to the snow. Naturally, I needed to ring everyday to see how things were going, and whether or not my son was behaving himself. As is the habit of grandmothers everywhere, I was told without fail (and with a completely innocent voice) that all was well and that my little man was being an angel.
It wasn’t until about three months later that I learnt the truth.
Apparently, the day after we left, my little man was happily playing away so my mother-in-law decided it was safe to make a phone call. Now my mother-in-law can talk. And talk. And talk. So it’s safe to assume that when she’s planning on making a phone call it’s not going to be a quick “hello, how are you?” conversation.
While she was on the phone the doorbell rang. Answering the door, she tells me she was rather shocked to find an elderly couple standing there holding my son. They’d found him wandering down the street.
A check of the house found all the doors locked and all but one window closed tightly.
Yep, obviously my son had decided that playing with toy cars was boring, so he’d head on outside and take a closer look at the big cars. He somehow managed to climb up onto the windowsill and then out through the open window.
My mother-in-law was never going to tell me about this, I think she was worried I’d never leave my kids with her again, and perhaps if someone hadn’t let it slip, to this day I may have never known. While I do shudder to think what may have happened, it was a needless worry on her account. After all, if you’ve got free babysitters, who wouldn’t take every opportunity possible to palm their kids off to grandparents?
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V Brown is a mother of two primary aged children and one high schooler. For more stories, articles and other related information please visit Family Life
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