My oldest grandchild, Skylar, has a sparking personality backed by a strong will. Recently I got to spend a week with her and her family, catching up on her latest dreams and schemes. One thing she loves (along with every other two year old) is to join adults in whatever they’re doing, and I love having her assist me.
Ever since she was little, she’s “helped” me put on my make-up. As we approach the task, I’ve already removed the dangerous items from my zipped bag: a hair-cutting scissors, eyebrow pencil sharpener and nail clippers. Then, as I work to improve my old face, Skylar pretends to improve her flawless one.
The only questionable tool I’ve left in the bag is an eyebrow plucker, the kind with a scissors handle. Its “points” are flat, and I didn’t think Skylar could do any damage with it. Leave it to a two year old to prove me wrong.
While I was busy staring into a hand-size 10X magnifier mirror trying to put mascara on, Skylar hopped off her stool and wandered out of the room. In 20 seconds I heard a “Tszt” just before the power went out. Immediately Skylar’s alarmed voice came from the next room. “Something happened!”
We all came running, and there, sticking out of a wall outlet, was my scissor-shaped eyebrow tweezers. She’d plugged it into a socket and had experienced something new, an up-the-arm jolt like we’ve all known, unpleasant but not especially harmful.
Skylar ran to her daddy’s reassuring arms but never shed a tear, and I would have given anything to know her immediate thoughts. For a minute, however, our chatty Skylar was speechless.
I would never intentionally hurt one of my grandchildren, but this incident was probably my bad. There was an up-side, though. Skylar’s experiment taught her a few things:
- Outlets are covered for good reasons.
- Electrical shocks feel terrible.
- My parents were protecting me when they told me, “No.”
- I should obey my parents.
- I’ll never do that again!
Experience is our best teacher, and Skylar’s new respect for electrical outlets will never dim. No damage was done (except to the blackened tips of my tweezers), and important lessons were learned.
Once in a while all of us have to be taught just like Skylar, through harsh experience. Scripture is full of wisdom we don’t heed as we toss it aside in favor of our own flawed ideas. So God steps back and lets us learn the hard way. Once we learn to internalize wisdom simply by listening, we spare ourselves and others unnumbered “jolts”.
If Skylar had simply believed her parents when they told her electrical outlets could hurt her, she would have avoided her unpleasant zap. Hopefully that potent lesson will serve to increase the validity of her folks’ advice from here on.
As for me, when I work with my traumatized tweezers, I’ll try to remember Skylar’s example, because I’d rather learn by listening than by a jolting.
“Josiah was eight years old when he became king… He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight and… did not turn away from doing what was right.” (2 Chronicles 34:1-2)
Yikes… let me just say that most of the outlets in our house are child-proofed. But the cover for the outlet in her room was sitting on her dresser that morning. 🙁
LOL – When I was probably 3 or 4 I put a key into an outlet while watching the Andy Griffith Show. My mom said I shot across the room. I never did it again and I remember the zap I felt. I feel very connected to Skylar now!!
I’m so glad Skylar didn’t get hurt.My granddaughter and put on make-up together often.Now that she is ‘big’ ,all of 5 years old she thinks that she is quite a pro at it.What fun memories we are making,even if the eye shadow doesn’t always look very neat,
This reminds me of my sister and I with our grandma (though our experience wasn’t “electrifying”). Grandma said that later we could put on some of her perfume, so “later” my sister and I went into her room and put perfume all over our faces. Grandma was horrified – I’m sure she made us wash our faces – and she said our faces would “break out”. I remember waiting for my face to break up into little pieces and fall off, but thankfully that wasn’t what she meant!! 😉
Nothing like hot stoves and electrical outlets to provide those unforgettable lessons. My friend, Caren, was baby-sitting a little girl and heard her scream. She found this little one with Vicks Vapo=rub on her face. She thought it was face cream.
I am so glad that Skylar wasn’t hurt. I love it when the little granddaughters put their “cheeks and lips on”, without any assistance. The 3 1/2 yr old now knows how to twist the lipstick back down into the case, before putting the cap back on. “Look Gama, I pretty.”
I pray that you and Skylar continue to have many more precious / safe memories.
I am thankful Skylar didn’t try this at her British cousin’s house! 220 is a lot more deadly than 110, but I am still thankful to read to the end of this and find no serious harm had come to her (in fact, some benefit!).
If only I listened to my heavenly Father’s warnings more closely, I could save myself a lot of pain! Thanks for the reminder of how quickly disobedience can result in pain…even adults need to be reminded of this!
What does Skylar say she was doing? She has very nice matching skills–she did find an item with two prongs that neatly fit into the two spaces of the outlet. Good job matching, just some missing information!
My jaw dropped when I saw that picture … good reminder about how careful I need to be when my 2-year-olds are allowed to explore outside of their “gated community”!! Thank God he saw fit to give Skylar a lesson, rather than a lesion!
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