Cell Phone Bathing

Sometimes Mommies have to learn things the hard way…like just how far a toddler’s reach really is. One day last week, not surprisingly, nature called. Since Daddy was upstairs working and the big boys were engrossed in a video game, Sam came with me. (Don’t judge, we’ve all had to lose our modesty as Mommies and it was one way to keep him from playing on the stairs.) As I often do, I had my cell phone in my hand, so as I came into the bathroom, I set it down on the counter, far enough back to be out of reach of little hands…or so I thought.

As I’m, well, taking care of business, I hear a squeaky toddler-voice say, “Mommy phone. Mommy phone.” “Oh, great,” I thought. “At least it’s locked so he can’t call 911 on me.” (Yes, that happened with an earlier phone, when he was about nine months old.) Next I heard his little footed-pj feet padding over to the tub…playing with some tub toys that were left out from the previous night’s bath. I naively thought he had put the phone down, until I heard it fall – and come apart into 3 pieces (yes, I’ve dropped the phone enough to know what those three pieces coming apart sound like) – into the tub. Not ideal, but at least the tub was empty, and he can’t call China now because the phone is truly out of reach, and in pieces.

And then…I hear the water turn on in the tub. (Now, I don’t think he did that on purpose, because I don’t think he really knows how to consciously turn on the water. I think he was holding the faucet handles and stepped or lurched in just the right way to turn it on.) Queue me leaping off the throne, shouting “NO, SAM!” as I race, pj pants around my ankles to the tub to retrieve my now clean and wet phone. Sam is screaming because I yelled so loudly, and I’m sure I was a scary sight, doing the pants-on-the-ground hobble from tub to counter to try to towel off the phone in time to save it.

So, lesson learned…when you think you have something out of a toddler’s reach, move it at least another foot back, or another shelf higher. And, when small children are around, always buy the insurance on the phone.

(Note: the phone did actually survive the bath, but it took nearly the full day drying before it decided to work properly again.)

Julie Daneman is wife to Bryan, Stepmom to Jacob and Caleb, and Mommy to Sam. They are a boisterous, loving, happy interfaith family.