The Weather Inside Is Frightful

Kids do dumb things, and with four kids at our house, we often have four times the stupidity. As parents, Mark and I try to curb the insanity by making and enforcing rules designed to protect our home and it's inhabitants from the brunt of our children's brainlessness. We've tried to cover all the bases with rules like 'no playing with things that are not toys' or 'get an adult when there is trouble'. But far too often, the need for a rule is not anticipated until it is too late. Like our rule about 'no vomiting at the dinner table' (a personal favorite of mine which we were forced to institute when Brandon kept making himself gag in order to get out of eating certain vegetables), or our newest rule-- no turning the bathroom into a swimming pool.

I walked in the house Friday afternoon, after dropping Emily off at gymnastics, to the sound of water splashing on the floor and Natalie running through the kitchen with an armload of towels, reporting that it was "raining in the house". I ran to the hallway in between the girls' bedrooms, and sure enough, there was a stream of water pouring out of the ceiling light fixture like a hose. My first thought was that our roof must be leaking. But, as I ran upstairs to get a bucket to catch the water and heard Mark screaming, "You idiots! What were you thinking?!" I knew our problems were not weather related.

Brandon and Bryce had thought it would be a fun rainy day activity to fill the upstairs bathroom (notice I say bathroom and not bathtub) with water. They clogged the drain in their shower stall with a washcloth, sealed the crack under the bathroom door with their discarded clothes and then turned on the water. They were able to fill the whole bottom of the shower stall and at least an inch of the bathroom floor before the water started leaking through the downstairs ceiling alerting Mark and thus ending their fun.

I'd like to think that the kids will grow out of such thoughtlessness. But, upon relating the story to my parents, my dad informed me that a college acquaintance of his had been kicked-out of BYU for pulling a similar stunt in the dormitory shower.

I wonder if our insurance policy has a child stupidity clause?