Next week is child safety week. What is that you ask, well it is an annual campaign run by The Child Accident Prevention Trust who are the UK leading charity in this field. This year is focussing battling morning mayhem.
I am working with Betta Living to help publicise this as it is a subject close to my heart, especially after an incident we had last week. Let me tell you about it.
Mornings in The Mad House
I am not a morning person, seriously I walk round in a haze until I have had two cups of tea and a shower. Mini takes after me and we are often prodding him 5 minutes before we have to leave the house as he will get dressed and go back to bed! Maxi, however, is an early riser, often up before even MadDad gets up at 6am for work.
The boys are becoming pretty self sufficient when it comes to mornings now, they mostly get their breakfasts and have even started to use the toaster. Well I am growing men!
Last week, we had some waffles left over from the weekend and Mini popped them in the toaster whilst I was upstairs in the shower. The first I knew that anything was wrong was the smoke alarm going off and Mini running to tell me that there had been a fire in the toaster, but Maxi had dealt with it.
The waffles had not gone in the toaster straight and had been unable to pop up automatically as they got stuck and being full of sugar they set fire.
Thankfully we have a fire blanket in the kitchen and Maxi had use that and turned off the toaster. I rushed out of the shower to find that he had even opened all the windows and the back door.
Amazingly Maxi had covered how to deal with kitchen hazards at Cubs a couple of weeks previous, but it could have been much worse.
What Can you Do?
Take a look at your morning routine and figure out the hazards that you can reduce. The Child Safety Week website has some great resources.
The Child Accident Prevention Trust have two competitions running for Child Safety Week:
- a wordsearch competition for parents and carers
- a design a poster competition for children.
Post brought to you in conjunction with 
This sounds like a great campaign to raise awareness. What a scary experience for you, I bet your heart was in your mouth! Amazing that your son was able to deal with it, you must be very proud of him.
what a story, i dont think i ever had any accidents in the kitchen when was a kid myself, but he is very clever boy for hat he did-opened windows, used blanket
My goodness – that’s a scary story. Amazing they dealt with it themselves pretty much. So glad everything is okay!
What a great campaign to raise awareness for x
A very worthwhile post. What an awful shock for you! My son set of the smoke alarm the other day, thankfully nothing caught on fire.
What a scary story and how fantastic that your son dealt with it so well. How old is Maxi? He acted so maturely, you must be so proud and relieved that he knew what to do.
I must admit I laughed at the title as we certainly have “Morning Mayhem” here! A very important post though 🙂
A scary incident but good to hear that Maxi has his head screwed on and dealt with the situation
Phew for Maxi knowing what to do. It’s a very valuable lesson for children to learn about safety.
Scary stuff, it’s a reminder that even something as simple as making toast can go wrong – great that your son knew what to do about it! Thanks for covering this important topic.
what a clever boy! good he knew what to do
Waffles are lethal! I’ve been the wrong end of toaster incident too – not fire though. My fire was caused by accidentally leaving the microwave running with nothing in it (well in my defence I was trying to pop the remaining few un-popped corns kernels) – Reuben can reach AND turn on the microwave, so this stresses me out. But it’s not so much our house as our parents’ houses. Blind cords, little breakables, etc…argh! xxx
Amazing that your son knew what to do 🙂 My eldest is only 5 so hasn’t started making things yet but they are both cereal lovers so i am glad they won’t be going towards any electrical stuff x
Wow Maxi did amazingly well to stay calm and not panic. A great campaign that need more highlighting! x
Fab campaign. I feel like there are always little dangers popping up at different stages in kids’ lives.
Wow how scary that could have been if Maxi wasn’t around! This is such an important campaign because unfortunately most of us don’t even consider these things until it’s too late! I know I’ve underestimated my kids before and they’ve shocked me by doing something I never thought they could do and almost hurt themselves. I now try to think about anything left around and as soon as they are old enough I’ll be teaching them how to act in an emergency x
There are so many harmful situations that arise in the home, this is great to raise awareness for that because we do all get complacent. I set fire to sausages under the grill once lol had to call the fire brigade. It’s a VERY funny story but not funny at the time 😉
How very scary. So pleased he kept a clear head, clever boy
Wow, well done Maxi but how scary! It shows how easily things can turn to tragedy, thank goodness he managed to deal with it and that you have a fire blanket, I admit I haven’t got one but will go and get one now!xx
Wow, Maxi had amazing presence of mind to deal with the fire so quickly and safely. Well done x
Maxi sounds like someone we could all do with in a crisis – calm and efficient. So glad you had a fire blanket. Sounds like a really useful campaign.
Your CommentsWow that would have given me a heart attack, thank goodness maxi knew how to use the fire blanket! x
Wow! That is super clever thinking of Maxi.
Mornings and that 30 minutes just before dinner are probably our most dangerous times.
I like the idea of a campaign to raise awareness of safety.