Around age three or four I was boarded out for several months while my mother recovered from surgery. I stayed with family friends who had just moved to the area and had very thick accents, as a result my speech became close to incomprehensible.

Shortly after returning home, as I played with pots and other sundry utensils on the kitchen floor, a cast iron skillet suddenly burst into flames on a burner someone had inadvertently left on.

Shrieking "FIRE FIRE", I ran to my parent's room only to have them try to fob me off with the likes of "Don't worry, it can't hurt you" and "It will go away on it's own".
Not until the smoke started to billow up through the hall and into their room did they realise that I wasn't screaming "SPIDER SPIDER".

I'll never forget the sight of mother trying to douse the fire with teacups of dishwater (which of course made it worse) or father flinging that flaming skillet through the window with the remnants of the breakfast sausages flying out of it like miniature meteorites, in turn starting small fires of their own.

The moral of the story is twofold. Never ignore your child when they are frightened, no matter how silly it may seem and always open the window before attempting to toss flaming objects through it.

Oh dear, that's not very recent but it will have to do as the recent misunderstandings are far too numerous to choose from.
( sosumi, Thu 13 Oct 2005, 9:24, Reply)