What were you thinking???

from JoeUser Forums

My youngest is in some deep doo doo this evening.

He play with the kids at the end of our street quite a lot...his little friend W lives down there, and there's a family next door to W that has 2 boys aged 14 and 12.  Both the boys have developmental disabilities, one (J) has Aspberger's syndrome and the other (M) is educationally subnormal.  They play with the younger kids a lot, mainly (I think) because they're of the same mind set.

So, my Jake had gone off to play with W this morning, and I had gone outside to feed my roses.  I was setting up the sprinkler and I heard this 'crack' sound that sounded remarkably like a gun shot come from the end of the street.  As I headed down there I saw W's mom come flying out of her house yelling "what the hell was that???"...so I stepped up the pace a bit.

When I got there, I found Jake, M, and W in the back yard.  Jake had a magnifying glass in his hand, and M had 2 firecrackers in his hand.

M had given Jake a firecracker and told him to try and light it with the magifying glass.  Jake, not knowing any better and having had no experience with fircrackers, had done so.

I have so many issues with this I don't know where to start.  First of all firecrackers are illegal on base.  I don't know about the state, but on base, you can't have them, or any other fireworks.  You're not supposed to have possession of them, you can't have them in your car, in your home, on your person...you just can't have them.  Secondly, how in the hell did M get his hands on them?  Thirdly, what the fuck was my boy thinking??  It's pretty obvious that he wasn't, I think.

So, I dimed M out to his dad....who wasn't very happy that M had found the firecrackers and had taken them outside.  My Jake got marched home and we had a long, somewhat graphic talk about why you shouldn't fool around with fireworks (I was tempted to show him pictures of amputated fingers, toes and third degree burns but decided that a graphic description would suffice), why you shouldn't start ANYTHING on fire with a magnifying glass or any other kind of incendiary, and why it's not cool to do things that other kids tell you to do, especially if they tease you into doing it.

Jake's grounded for the rest of the weekend.  He's lucky his dad's not here...or else my grounding would have looked like a stroll in the park in comparison to what his pops would have dished out.

I still can't believe he did it.  I mean, I know he's no angel, but I really didn't think he'd ever do anything quite so stupid.

Guess he proved me wrong today, huh?

 

misc
3,419 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
LMAO!!!!!! God, if that was the worst thing I had done as a kid...

It just sounds like normal kid stuff to me.

I have a faint scar on my left thumb from setting off a .357 round using a pair of pliers and an ice pick when I was a kid.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
It just sounds like normal kid stuff to me.

I have a faint scar on my left thumb from setting off a .357 round using a pair of pliers and an ice pick when I was a kid.


Man, I know that this is probably 'normal' but.....I guess we all expect a little better from our kids, dig? Like 'I hope that my kids don't repeat the mistakes I made', etc etc.

You're lucky to still have a thumb to have a scar on...
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
LOL That wasn't even close to worst I did. Won't go into it, don't wanna give ya nightmares LMAO
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

That wasn't even close to worst I did. Won't go into it, don't wanna give ya nightmares

Yeah, please don't!! 

Hey, you got Yahoo IM?  If you do, shoot me a line...dharmagirl69

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sounds like some of the dumbass stuff my little brother did.... He spent a lot of time grounded after such incidents. I remember once him and some other boys were trying to knock down a tree in the forest behind our house, and my brother had the grand idea that if they lit it on fire it would knock down faster. DUMB... It was very embarassing for my dad, being that he is the captain of the fire department.... He got in sooooooooo much trouble.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

if they lit it on fire it would knock down faster. DUMB... It was very embarassing for my dad, being that he is the captain of the fire department

Yes!!  That's part of the reason I can't believe Jake did it!  His dad's a cop, for cryin' out loud!! (Oh, I thought about you the other day, btw...I was looking at this little pink dress that had matching knickers!  It was soooo adorable!!  Can you send me your new mailing address so I can get your baby gift out to you? Thanks, chickie!)

*sigh*...I suppose this is all part of raising boys....

Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Ok, added yahoo to my IM client, sent ya a message.
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top

*update*

D called this morning, and I told him what his son had done....and all I head above the static on the phone was snickering.  He thought it was hilarious.  Said that he too had done stuff like that when he was a kid...and that he was proud of jake for being ingenious enough to light it with a magnifying glass in the absence of matches or a lighter.  He aslo said that he was going to go tell his friends about it..apparently entertainment is is short supply over there.  Hmph...wonder if he'd found it as funny if someone had lost an eye or a finger.....

...boys!!  Grrr!

 

Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
It's a guy thing.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
Hmph...wonder if he'd found it as funny if someone had lost an eye or a finger.....


Nah, not much danger. If it had been a mortar or bottle rocket maybe, but most of the bangers like black cats and m-100s that are legal to sell (although there are a few exceptions) won't do more than sting like hell, even if they went off in your hand/face/some jerk threw one down the back of your pants..... Trust me on this one.

Now that things like the big ashcans and cherry bombs are illegal, they're mostly safe, but a GREAT way to set off a parent's panic button. Sorry he scared ya. (Again pretty smart with the mag. glass though.......)