Adventures on a Shoestring

No, this isn't a frugal travel guide. It's a double-knotted safety and sanity manual.

When Danger Baby was tiny, he loved to crawl across the floor to attack my shoelaces. I never let him suck on the shoestrings. Blaaaaackkkk! In frustration he developed the habit of pulling threads and unraveling his socks. I don't know what it is about kids and strings!

In the olden days of the 1960's we wore saddle shoes or oxfords to school, black patent Mary Janes to church, and Keds all summer. Somehow we all learned to tie our own shoes so they stayed tied. We had school clothes, scout uniforms, ballet leotards, play clothes, and Sunday School/birthday party dresses. We came home from school and changed into play clothes. Sunday School dresses, play clothes, and leotards never went to school, and vice versa. I think we had plenty of fun, but childhood and school were viewed as more of a Basic Training for Real Life than they are today. We learned quickly that different behaviors as well as different clothes were required for different situations. As long as I'm in pet peeve mode, I might as well say that we knew not to act like we were at the school carnival or basketball game during the school orchestra concert!

Shoestrings was the topic, not the decline of civilization brought on by children's Velcro shoes. Once I had to rescue a preschool boy who managed to get his shoestring ensnarled in the hinge of the folding chair. He dang near broke his ankle falling off the chair and hanging there!

This week a little darling pulled the drawstring out of the waistband of her designer sweatpants by chewing and sucking on the string. [We were glad she was wearing underwear this time.] Then she pulled the drawsting of her groovy pantleg until she could tie it in a knot to the buckle on her shoe ON THE OTHER LEG. She was getting herself quite cat's cradled and macrame-ed! The knot was so bad, not to mention so soggy from being sucked, that I had to cut the string so she wouldn't tie herself into a big knot. Just try jumping rope with your own shoestring. Reminds me of the Chinese jumprope we used to play on the playground using that rope made from rubber bands.

And now for the safety note. I wrote about Danger Baby standing up in his crib and tearing the wallpaper off the bedroom wall. Only the wall was damaged. A friend's own Danger Baby stood up in his crib and reached the pull cord for the window blinds. He got it wrapped tight around his neck, and nearly died. I know "a man's reach should exceed his grasp...", but please consider that your child's reach may exceed the safe environment you've tried to create for him.