All parents experience messy firsts, whether they are new to being a parent or simply entering a new stage with a child. These adventures—or “bleachable moments”— are those times when all you can do is laugh your way through the mess (and sometimes grab a bottle of Clorox® Regular-Bleach, as you will soon learn).
I have experienced many of these moments in parenthood, but none as unexpected as the night my daughter made the entire room glow…
Some kids like nightlights. Some kids like glowing stars on the ceiling in their room. Some kids like to keep a lamp on. My daughter, Babs, usually likes a little taste of all three, but one night she took her nighttime light options to an entirely different level.
Babs has a large room and when her cousins come over they usually sleep in with her. Extra mattresses on the floor. All of the cousins snuggling and singing before dozing off. Sounds like a good plan, right? I’ll let you be the judge…
The first time that my daughter slept in the same room as her cousins, the oldest one ever so helpfully taught her how to climb out of her crib (Thanks for that K). The second time, it led to an impromptu smear campaign. You probably don’t want to know what that means, but if you do, read this.
The third time my daughter slept in the same room as her cousins, her explanation after “the incident” was “I just wanted to make my room glow.”
Let’s backtrack a little bit. Babs (3 at the time), and her cousins, Kayleigh (5) and Joseph (4), all went into the bedroom around 7PM. Right on schedule. They were playing rather quietly, so we assumed come 8:30PM that maybe they were settling down.
Around 8:45PM, Joseph came out, and said, “Babs made the room glow.” We told him to go back to sleep, it would be okay.
Five minutes later, Joseph came out again, and said, “You have to come in here, the room really is glowing.”
The four parents entered, expecting to see a nightlight and lamp glowing, but electricity was no part of this equation.
Turns out Joseph was right…my daughter had indeed made her room glow. Due to the excitement of sleeping in the same room as her cousins, and the mistake of us leaving a glow stick in her room, my three-year-old daughter had not only lit said stick, but she lit it with so much force, that the alcohol started leaking out.
Babs must have then realized in the darkness that this liquid glowed, so she spread it throughout the room on the beds, carpet, dresser, cousins… everywhere.
It was spectacular. It was like the fireworks from the 4th of July combined with the lights of Christmas. She was celebrating her own personal Diwali. I was proud of her, until we recognized the smell of alcohol, and realized how much immediate cleanup we were going to have to do.
Lucky for us we had plenty of Clorox cleaning supplies handy, and the bedding went directly to the washing machine along with some Clorox bleach. The mess was a work of art… the cleanup was not, but it was one of those “bleachable moments” that we will never forget.
P.S. Babs and her cousins have not slept in the same room since.
Make sure to visit www.bleachitaway.com to share your own unique bleachable moments for the chance to win $20,000. Everyone who submits a moment will instantly receive a coupon for $0.50 off any bottle of Clorox® Regular-Bleach via email for the first moment they submit.
This is a sponsored post. I love Clorox Bleach dearly, but I was also compensated to write this post on their behalf. #BleachItAway. #Ad.