Reasons I'm Not Qualified to Do This Job

I'm sure I'm not alone here when I say that I am not always prepared for what motherhood throws my way. At the end of the day, my kids are fed, usually clean, sometimes behaved....but that's normal, right?

A good friend of mine used to be a lifeguard. When 12YO was first born, this friend and I would spend a lot of time together. She didn't 'do' babies. She didn't hold them, do diapers-nada! So, imagine my surprise when she held my baby one day just so she could show me the difference between infant CPR and CPR for a bigger person. When she was done, she handed her right back.

It was then and there that I realized that this person who does not hold children was more qualified to take care of my baby than I was. Why, you ask? Because I don't know CPR! ( I still don't!) What kind of parent doesn't know CPR???

I mean, besides ME.

Another thing I am totally not prepared for is a fire. I had my first kitchen fire last night and that was the first time it occurred to me that I don't even own a fire extinguisher! The fire was in my stove. Apparently, David made bacon and let a good portion of the grease drip under the burner. The stove top was clean and I had no idea that there was about 1/2 inch of bacon grease under that burner. I went to boil some water and saw flames within minutes. I've been using my crock pot so often that I guess I hadn't used that burner since then! So, I used the lid from the pot and place that over the burner. But, since it was an electric range, the fire still had oxygen coming from the other burners. I was not really sure what to do! Luckily, a nearby neighbor came over at just the right time and told me to throw some baking soda on it.

See? I didn't know about that, either! I did know not to turn on the vent over the stove because the air flow would just fuel the fire even more. The fire never left that one burner and everything is just fine. We pulled the burner apart and found the big puddle of bacon grease that had just been burning away. The whole thing has since been cleaned and I think that I'll put some new rules in place for David when he's making bacon.

In the meantime, I think I might want a fire extinguisher for my birthday.