Balloons
Monday, June 1, 2009 at 05:39PM While I have the time, I could not pass up the opportunity to warn others about the dangers of balloons which is something my husband, Mr. Anti-Balloon, has long been advocating. When our kids were very little, restaurant servers and hostesses would tie balloons onto our kids' highchairs to help entertain the children. The children, in turn, would knock over their meals, drinks and what-not to pull the balloons down to their mouths.
Quickly figuring the extremely low probability of a balloon mishap, separate from the fallen meal mishap, I have never been averse to the occasional balloon. My husband, on the other hand, regarded every balloon as an instant catastrophe. "They could pierce the balloon with a tooth and inhale the entire balloon right into their throat and choke." It sounded awful the way he said it and I knew he could be right, despite the fact that I had already figured the low probability of such a catastrophe. But, my husband and I have always worked as a team and when one of us feels strongly about something, we usually defer to the passionate parent. So, in those early years, I often pried balloons out of the fingers of crying children while their dad would remind them, "You'll thank me later." As the kids have grown, he has eased back on his stance just a bit, but still considers balloons to be a huge nuisance.
Today, our girls went off to volleyball camp for the entire afternoon. As I kissed them goodbye, I decided it would be a nice treat to take the boys to lunch on our way home, just the three of us. I let them pick where we would go. They chose Chick-fil-A, which is an establishment that prides itself on the instant availability of balloons. My boys know this. They also know that Mr. Anti-Balloon is not with us. As you walk into our particular Chick-fil-A, they've got 30 or so colored balloons hovering along the ceiling as the bright curly ribbon tails hang below, teasing the children who pass just underneath.
We ordered our lunch and the boys chose a booth in the back, facing the balloons. As soon as they finished, they ran off to choose their balloons. I continued to sit and enjoy the little book that came along with their kids meal. They came back with their balloons and immediately began untying the knots that kept the helium trapped inside. Buck got his open first and sucked out mouthfuls of helium while I immediately started to look around for their dad. It would be just my luck if Mr. Anti-Balloon walked in while Buck had his completely in his mouth.
This brings me to the second part of balloons. Helium. When the kids were much younger, it was I who taught them the fine art of sucking out the helium in order to talk like Donald Duck. I know, I know, there are probably people who think this is awful. I am not one of them. I lived a fairly sheltered childhood and if occasionally sucking helium out of balloons as a child did not cause my parents alarm, I figure it should be fine for my own kids.
Just as Donald Duck was chatting happily to his little brother, a lady who worked there stopped to offer a solution to Colton, who could not untie his balloon. She obviously missed the entire part about the helium and thought the boys wanted just a flat balloon. "Would you like a brand new balloon that you can blow up yourself?" Colton just shook his head yes. So, out came the little yellow balloon fresh from the package. He was thrilled.
Noticing the time, I hurried the boys off to wash their hands while I finished reading their kids meal book. Out they came, clean and happy as we walked to the car. We got in, fired up the air conditioner and took a moment to seat belt ourselves in. As we drove out of the parking lot, Colton stuck his yellow balloon up into my face and asked me to get it started. As I stuck it in my mouth to blow it up, I muttered something about how nice it was to have a clean balloon.
"Well, mom," his brother said, "he did drop it on the bathroom floor when we went in to wash up."
Colton smiled, "Yea, it's true. I accidentally dropped it right under the urinal."
Mr. Anti-Balloon is right. They are dangerous.
Reader Comments (3)
I see your glass as half full, knowing it could have been "in" the urinal!
Thanks, KC, you know I'm an optimist :)
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