A Pearl Of Wisdom

I know I promised no pearls of wisdom. (see paragragh under "About Us".) However, I am going to make an exception today, because I figure sometimes it's better to learn from somebody else than to have to go through it yourself. Today is our AMC Summer Movie Camp. Basically the theater shows free movies on Wed. mornings all summer long. The movies are usually a year or so old, like Barnyard, Charlotte's Web, Flushed Away, etc. and the kids can get the Kid's Pack with popcorn, drink and a candy for $3.00. That makes me giddy all by itself. Ok, I'm getting off track. On to the pearl of wisdom.....

After the movie, we headed home and took the escalator down to leave the mall. Halfway down, the escalator grabbed Holland's shoe and sucked it off of her foot and down into the moving stairs. We were in the MIDDLE of the escalator. Fortunately, Holland was wearing her Crocs which have a lot of give to them. It still hurt her because it grabbed and twisted it off so fast. But she is fine. However she is none too pleased about losing her shoe, and I had a hard time telling if she was crying so hard because her foot hurt or she was so mad that the escalator took her shoe. So here's my pearl of wisdom: Have your child stand as close to the center of the stair on the escalator and still be able to hold onto the rail. And be extra, extra careful if they are wearing shoes with laces. I can't imagine what might have happened if she had had shoes with shoelaces (that I always doubleknot) on. Would her foot have gone into the stair and gotten trapped, twisted, or crushed? I didn't want to go there, but as a mom, I have to consider that possiblity. Needless to say we filed a report witht the mall and they shut down the escalator. So there's my pearl. Don't worry, I'll be back with nonsensical posts tomorrow.