Wednesday, June 14, 2006

'Never work with children or animals'




Oh dear - major disaster struck this morning!

Picture the scene -

8.10am - twenty minutes until we leave the house.

DH left for work almost an hour before so blissfully unaware of scenario about to unfold - typical! DD1 left for school 10 minutes before, DS has breakfasted, dressed, done his and his little sister's lunchboxes. Mum goes up to wake DD2 alias Noddy or Sleepy Noggin! for the usual procedure of half asleep guided journey through dressing, washing, breakfast, hair brushing and shepherding out of the door to school.

Gentle shake of child in top bunk - has to be roused gently this one - Mum has the procedures off to a fine art (usually).

Mum goes into other room to put on work clothes when a wail filters through from DD2's bedroom - 'Mummy, there's something sticky in my hair - I don't know what it is, I have no idea how it got there!'

Mum smells rat - or rather on closer inspection smells the faint aroma of mint - deduction: chewing gum in end of plait!!! aaarrghhhhh!

Drastic action has to be taken due to the lateness of the hour and the stubborn sticking properties of aforesaid chewing gum.

Mum has to chop off the bottom 5 inches of the plait - daughter distraut, mother not far behind her with a close eye on the clock as time is ticking away rapidly and school and work beckon menacingly.

Daughter is totally inconsolable, Mum ends up almost late for work as she has to go into school to explain reason for child's hysteria to less than sympathetic teacher. Hair (aka DD2's pride and joy) now only reaches waist rather than bottom.

Final net result - chewing gum banned especially from bedrooms until final notice! - especially as it had been purloined from elder sister's bedroom without her knowledge!

Somebody please enlighten me - Whatever possesses us to go into parenthood? Nobody, I repeat nobody tells you this at ante-natal classes :o) Boy is it just a good job we can look at these situations and see the funny side - although don't think DD2 will find it remotely amusing for some considerable time

(Photos show culprit and decapitated plait end along with the new look shorter plait)

12 comments:

Joyce said...

Her hair still looks pretty cute to me. And the good thing is that hair grows.

quiltpixie said...

at least it was a fixable... even if the fix wasn't desirable :-)

Pam said...

Poor girl having the chewing gum in her hair.

This parenthood thing -- I'm still trying to figure out what possesses us - and it just never seems to end, no matter how old they are and how long it has been since they lived at home.... it goes on and on and on!

KC Quilter said...

Amen to what Pam said!!!

Doodlebug Gail said...

Oh dear - I'm so glad you didn't have to cut any more of the plait off. How is she feeling after a day of shorter hair?

Doodlebug

Lois R. said...

I'm glad to see that you took the extra time to take pictures of the incident -- even if it might make you later. Now there's blogger dedication! ;o)

Fiona said...

Could have been worse - if the chewing gum had been somewhere near the top (and her scalp).

Jeanne said...

Too funny ... but not for her, poor dear!
Jeanne :)

Quilts And Pieces said...

Your story cracks me up! Oh I remember those days and a similar situation at my house! I tried the peanut butter trick - poor daughters hair smelled like peanut butter for days! I did end up having to cut quite a bit of it off in the end anyway! Pam said it all I think!

Saska said...

I am not a mother to girls, but boyz also can get into predictaments that aren't real pleasant. Here's a product that I keep on hand:
http://www.organize-everything.com/googone8oz.html

This stuff is wonderful and would've taken the gum out of her hair. Sorry....

kim said...

So sorry for the loss!! I remember a friend using a round brush on her hair and getting it tangled up so badly, her mom had to cut it out. It was cut extremely short, and my friend was so sad!! We now laugh about it, but it took some time to get over it. I hope she recovers quickly!

About the parent thing, my mom says she only had kids so she could have grandkids. That made having kids all worth it :-)

Judy said...

I can see the defiant, arms crossed stance even though she is standing with her back to the camera! Oh she look so angry and the hair mess is almost painful to see!!