Bean Bag Day

Written by Elaine M. Gibson

The following true story was first posted on the parents' of ADD kids line and is used with permission. The mother was responding to the following concern expressed by Shayne:

Yikes, a bean bag chair in the same house as an ADHD child! My kid is always poking holes in things...

and Tammy's response

Ohmigosh! Your fears are not unfounded! This brings back memories of one of the most, well, shall we say, "eventful" days I can remember with our kids.

Let me set the scene here, this day had already been a horrible day for me. My husband is the Rural Fire Chief in our town and was on a very large, out-of-control fire that was threatening another town nearby. I had been glued to our scanner, (that was at that time located in our bedroom), listening to his every word

Now, I KNOW that when your attention is directed somewhere else, as mine was, that that's when the kids are going to get into things. However, due to the enormousness of the situation, I forgot all about my own words of warning about not checking on the kids.

(Incidentally, they are all girls, at the time they were 5 (ADD), 4, and 2 (suspected ADD). They were in the next room, with double "open vented" windows between us and although I could hear them, I couldn't see them. My first mistake!

As I was on the floor in tears, my littlest one comes in with little white balls in her hand and says, "Look what Tina found!" I immediately recognized the syrofoam balls that make up the inside of a bean bag chair. I rushed into the living room, where the kids were, and to my horror, was greeted by a living room COVERED with little white balls!!! It looked like it had snowed in there!

Now folks, if you've ever had the "pleasure" of dealing with this stuff, you'll know that they're full of static electricity... they don't just fall on the floor, they go phllfftt and STICK to everything! They were on the walls, the furniture, their hair, their bodies... you name it! Oooooh, as if I could deal with more stress at that particular moment. So I got the vacuume cleaner out, with the nozzle on it, and started sucking.

It was a slow, tedious process, so I told Tina, the main culprit, (the 4 yo) to start sucking so I could go check on the scanner. I told her to stay in the middle of the room and to NOT get close to anything. My second big mistake... It was only a few minutes when I heard... clunk. And then the vacuume cleaner shut off. Tina comes running into the bedroom in tears, exclaiming that she sucked some money into it! I calmed her down and asked what color it was. It was brown. No big deal, I said, I've got lots of those, I'll get you another one. She seemed satisfied and went back out.

It was quiet for several minutes and I got to worrying about what they were doing now. I went back out to check on them. This time, I was greeted to the vacuume cleaner bag, ripped open ALL OVER THE FLOOR!! She had been trying to find the penny! Oh, I about lost it this time. I spent over an hour cleaning up the living room.

About 2 hours later, after I'd put the kids to bed, my husband finally drug himself through the front door, exhausted and smoke/soot covered. As I was about to ask how the fire went, my 2 little ones came racing out of their room to see Daddy. I took one look at them and began to hyperventilate... they had cut their hair!!!

Tina was sporting bangs about 1/2 inch long and her shoulder length hair was now a nice, uneven, cut over the ears look. Taylor, the 2 yo had that ever popular "step" cut, with one side about 3 inches shorter than the other. I gasped, "Look at their hair, look at their hair!". As we went in search of the missing scissors, we were again greeted to a horrible sight... They had done this IN BED, in the dark.

The blankets on their bunk beds were covered with short little hairs, sticking everywhere! I took one look at the scene and said to my husband, "I can't handle this" and WALKED OUT! My poor husband, as good as he is, and as exhausted as he was, had to drag the over-used vacuume cleaner out and clean up the hair!

After he put them back to bed, with warnings of what would happen in the morning, he came to find me in the kitchen. We took one look at each other and cracked up laughing! You know, it's the type of thing that you can't laugh in front of the kids, but after you're alone, it's too much! And the funnier thing yet was that after looking at their hair, as I'm the beautician in our house, he thought I had cut it!! He couldn't see why I was so upset!

Oh my.

Well, I'm sorry to have gone on so long, but I just had to share with you about the day that we "fondly" call "The Bean Bag Day" in our house!

Tammy Ratcliff

P.S. My ADD daughter was not the instigator here, but she definately joined in the bean bag fun. I'm sooooo thankful she was in another room during the hair cutting escapade... Taryn has gorgeous, brown, down to her rear-end, hair and I would've really fallen apart if HER hair had been involved!

next: Bad Hair Day