Our fire alarm went off at the library today. It was an odd moment when I thought, "who's in charge?" and then I realized,
"oh, that's me. crap."
As we were moving people out of the building, a woman came up to me looking agonized, and holding a little girl - maybe 1 and a half.
She said, "I think my baby set this off."
I asked where they had been, and she pointed to a wall where there weren't any fire alarms.
So I asked, "How did it happen?"
She said she wasn't watching her little girl (for just a second, of course), and she stuck a pencil into an outlet. My first thought: good grief, your kid is sticking things into outlets? My second thought: Wait, that wouldn't set off the alarm.
I told her so and she looked skeptical, and I had to say, "There's no way that would set off the alarm. She'd have to have pulled the red alarm... thingy." (Yes I am a master of communication) The young mom looked immensely relieved, and told me how she had turned around just as her daughter was sticking the pencil in, and at that exact moment the fire alarm went off. I would wonder, too, with timing like that.
As she walked away I heard her say softly to her daughter,
"It wasn't your fault, honey" in this reassuring and loving way.
It was so sweet!
+5 points for being a sweet mom.
-10 for the outlet thing.
4 comments:
So I take it the true culprit never confessed? Ah, well, it was yet another good library story. Thanks for sharing.
Security reviewed the tapes and found out that it was another kid in some other part of the library who accidentally pulled it.
I like your use of the word "accidentally" in your last comment! Plus, I wouldn't be the mother saying "it wasn't your fault" - I'de still be yelling at my kids for sticking something in the outlet!
Same thing happened a couple of years ago during sacrament mtg. The culprit was one of Jack's friends (about 3 yrs. old at the time). Why don't they put those things up higher on the wall???? The thing that I thought was so funny was that the alarm went off and no one moved. And no one moved. And no one moved. Everyone's first thought was, "some kid must have pulled the alarm." No one thought that the odds of a fire were greater than the odds that one of the millions of toddlers in the hall had pulled the bright red lever. It took 10 minutes to get it shut off because the bldg. was new and no one had the code. But no one ever left their seat!
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