....

[pyat]

Claire, our youngest, is a very adventurous child. She can climb a chainlink fence higher than my head. She does very willful and headstrong things. Sometimes, dangerous things.

For example, she knows never to play with lightbulbs and sockets.


Sometimes she forgets. Ah well. She unplugged a night light and removed the light bulb. No big worry. I'll put the light bulb back in, no problem. But... huh... it won't go in. Because there's a piece of metal in the socket. Good thing it was unplugged!


Uh... except it wasn't, originally. She removed the light bulb and jammed in an IKEA widget while the night light was plugged in. You see all the burn marks inside, and on the metal widget?

I'm buying a solar powered night light tomorrow morning.

Comments

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I'm glad she's okay.

[relee.livejournal.com]

Um, did she do all that without hurting herself?

I think the most dangerous thing I ever did with electricity when I was a kid was when I took the electric leads from my dad's/my train set and instead of putting them on the train tracks, I put them in a vase full of water and ran a current through the water. I didn't really know what was happening at the time, it seemed to bubble. We later did something very similar in high-school science class, and I learned that the electric current was seperating the hydrogen and oxygen from the water, and releasing them as gasses.

Maybe you should tell claire to wait untill high school, when everything will be revealed?

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

To the best of our knowledge, she did not hurt herself. Either that or she burned up her - I think she's on the third - of her nine lives.

[relee.livejournal.com]

No no, if she regenerated she'd look all different, I'm sure you'd notice.

[ladyceleste.livejournal.com]

Heh.. I stuck a fork in a light socket when I was pretty small. Shocked the heck outta me, push ash all over my hand, singed some of my hair. FREAKED MOM OUT. But survived to never do it again.

I'm glad she's okay too.

[halfelf.livejournal.com]

Wow. o.o I'm glad she and the house are okay, and that no real damage was caused.

I was electricuted the first time when I was 8. That whole 'don't play with sockets' thing? I never learned that. That's the problem with growing up working with electronics.

I went on to be electricuted 3 more times as a kid. Good times.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

There's a reason her fursona is that of a kitty cat. She had nine lives originally. I think she's down to about six.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Here's my three part question:

a) where was that Ikea widget removed from? A desk? a book-case?

b) just how stable is *that* device missing this widget?

c) if this is just a spare loose Ikea part, why do you still have it handy for junior MacGyver's to fondle and frolic with?

::B::

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

And if I might add a fourth question, "Can you pop an arc arrest circuit breaker in on Claire's room, or is it still in the dark ages of wiring?"

[kianir.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's not a bad idea.

Also, Pyat, consider installing GFCI outlets if you don't have them, especially in the bedrooms but also around the house. They're not too expensive (cf. this one from Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&N=5yc1vZ1xr5Zbm4n&R=100561821)) and they're extremely worthwhile.

I don't think they trip on arc faults (fork stabbed in both slots, Ikea doohickey across a light socket); that duty goes to your circuit breakers. However, they do trip on ground faults, which are more important than a shower of sparks; they protect from the "kid-to-ground" sort of fault, like hairdryers dropped in the sink, frayed cords, and the like. It doesn't protect against everything, but for the extra personal safety, there's no reason not to have them now that they're cheap.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

It was re-wired about 2 years ago, because there were no outlets in it at all when we moved in. A bedroom without electricity!

How does one pop in an arc arrest circuit breaker? :)

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

A bedroom without electricity - and now you see why! The wisdom of the ancients.. n.n

Well, if you have circuit breakers in your electrical box, you kill the mains power, unscrew the retaining screw on the current breaker that services Claire's room, remove it, plug in a new breaker of equivalent amperage rating and physical dimensions, put in its retaining screw and turn the mains power back on.

If you still have fuses, you ignore all that - replacing your basement box with circuit breakers, while technically simple work, is the sort of area even I go "Eeeeeh, get an electrician" and they don't make AFAs for fuseboxen, AFAIK. I agree with other comments about putting in a GFCI, though, whether you do an arc fault arrestor or not - it's added safety for the little one, and it's really easy to do. Put them in your bathroom and either side of the kitchen sink while you're at it...

[pyat.livejournal.com]

A) I believe it's from her old crib.

B) It's in pieces in the garage!

C) I don't know where she was keeping it, because we cleaned and swept the room thoroughly.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

*blink* At this rate by the time she's a teenager, she'll have built a rocket out of parts from Active Surplus, IKEA, and Erin's knitting stash.

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

She climbs fences higher than your head?! Holy crap. And I'm glad she's OK!

[used_songs]

That's scary! I'm glad she's OK.

Perhaps this is a sign that she's a future engineer or scientist?

The Dreadful Handiness of Children

[ankhorite.livejournal.com]

The scene: my dearest savant_da_rat and five other family adults around the table, the sole toddler in the clan bouncing around on the floor fewer than two meters away.

And like a bad product-safety movie, Toddler fishes keys out of Mommy's purse and is jangling them while the adults look on smiling. And then Toddler selects one key, leans forward, and tries to jam it directly into the electrical outlet while the adults are all frozen in horror, even unable, in the first moment, to shout, which suddenly they all do in unison:

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

I'm glad she's alright, though it reminds me of the joke.

Do you smoke?
Only the one time I frenched a light socket.