Inspired by the latest prompt for Friday Fictioneers from Rochelle Wysoff-Fields of Addicted to Purple I throw my hat into the ring and offer you my take on the prompt for 3/4/2016.
Copyright-Sean Fallon
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Batteries Not Required
It was with great alarm that Joan found her two-year old son, Bobby, chewing on a AAA alkaline battery. Snatching the dimpled and dripping form from his chubby little hand she yelled,
“NO! This is not candy!!”
Bobby burst into tears.
Examining him closely she saw no sign of irritation and checking the battery saw no signs of leakage. She immediately started storing them in a tightly sealed jar on the top shelf of the pantry.
She went apoplectic when, at age three, she found him atop the pantry ladder, jar in hand.
The pantry door is now locked.
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WORDS: 100
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Want to read some really great takes on this WEEK’s prompt?
Just click the little blue frog!
Life on the Farmlet 
No accounting for cravings!
As my mother always said, “Where there’s a will there’s a way”!!
Lori, as a child I had often done hair raising things and my mother had a heck of a time keeping me on terra firma. I do recall from a very young age being on top of the refrigerator and eating some forbidden substance.
Lynda, this sounds like a real event?
Scary! Children are so inventive and stubborn when their little eyes (and tummies) want satisfaction. Hospital emergency wards are full of them!
Carolyn, this is, shall we say, fact based fiction? An amalgamation if you will.
I, too, thought of this as possibly a false lure of candy. You did it justice with your tale.
Alicia, thank you! As a preschool teacher and later primary teacher I have seen and heard some things that made my hair stand on end. As a child I ran my mother ragged. This one practically wrote itself. 😉
Oh… those colorful things look too tasty…
They do! Thanks for your comment today, Björn
I hope she found a safe place to put the pantry key! Toddlers are endlessly resourceful. A lovely reminder of why I have so many high shelves 🙂
Siobhan, Thank you for visiting. As for Joan, she wears the key on one of those stretchy, spiral key chains you put on your wrist. 😉 No kids here, but I get you; high shelves and all cabinet/pantry doors in the kitchen are securely latched! I own a talented and tricky terrier! 😉
Dangerous lad this: Your story reminded me of when I used to play with lead batteries in the nineteen fifties, not my best idea. Liked the apoplectic ending.
Michael, people often say they wonder how a child made it to adulthood, but really the better question is how did their mother survive it?
Thanks for visiting and commenting today. 🙂
I used to joke to the owner of a tiny dog that I thought he ran on AA batteries. Perhaps I wasn’t so far off. On the other hand, kids are kids. There was a boy in my grade school who would eat a spoonful of dirt for a nickel. I’m not sure how much he ate, but i watched him do it at least twice, and he always had penny candy.
LOL! Linda, I new some nasty little boys who ate worms and tried to get me to do it too. (Was I three?) Nope, it was never gonna happen, because those worms were my friends and I kept them in my pockets… this was back in the day of wringer washers. Remember those?
You haven’t lived until you’ve stuck the prongs of a 9 volt battery on your tongue…
BOK-BOK-BOK-BOK-BOK…
I remember seeing other children do this, but not me, Bill! 😀
Lock that pantry door! I have two nieces who split their mom’s 36-piece chocolate-coated Ex-Lax bar. They went on to drink Javex (alkali disinfectant). One repeated the feat a year later. How did we live to get old? 😳 Great cautionary tale. 🙂
Archon, when I think about it I do wonder. No rest for mothers, or for preschool/primary teachers as was my case. And yes, I too remember how difficult I was! LOL!
Love it!
Thank you, Julie!
That made me laugh. Kids get everywhere. Good thing nothing bad happened.
Yes, Gah! Glad you saw the humor here. 😀
A real live wire child. Sweet story Lynda.
Thank you, Sandra. It is oft said: I wonder how we survived childhood. I counter with: I wonder how our moms survived our early years!
What a story! Wonder what a craving for batteries is called? They must come up with a term for it!
A charming story!
Thank you, Dreamer of Dreams. You know, just for the fun of it, I went looking to see if such a word exists. I couldn’t find one. I did however find that this is very common in very young children and dogs. The child usually does it in the teething stage, but now I wonder, does the dog do it for the same reason?
Kids!
Yes!
Ha! Clever boy! 😀
Yes, Maria. I can hear his mother thinking: When you grow up, if you make it, I hope you have ten just like you! 😉
Dear Lynda,
I think every mother of toddlers has a horror story or two. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Dear Rochelle,
I never had children, but I taught preschool and early primary grades for many years. There are some real corkers out there!
Shalom,
Lynda
Bobby’s a determined little tyke. Must have been something in those batteries he couldn’t resist. Very good story.
Thank you, Margaret, I had fun writing this one! 🙂