Dummy Jar (or box, as the case may be)

My daughter, like many young children, has a fascination with scissors. If she sees a pair, she wants one. If she has a pair, she uses them. When I give her scissors (safety scissors, obviously), I also give her paper. When she finds scissors, she cuts whatever happens to be near her. Usually her clothing. Because of this, scissors are kept either out of reach or locked up. Well, yesterday she found a pair. It would seem that I forgot that I keep scissors in the bathroom cabinet. And, because there’s a mirror in there, she cut…. her hair.

When she realized that cutting her hair meant that the hair was no longer on her head, she started wailing, “My beautiful hair!!!!!!” Fortunately, her hair is pretty crazy as it is, so it’s not super noticeable. She cut the top front pretty close to the scalp, and she cut off three or four ringlets on her right side. Now she’s crooked.  I made an appointment for this afternoon to try to even it out a little, so we’ll see how that goes.

My dad tells this story about himself as a child. Like many kids, he liked lighting matches. When his dad found out, he gave him a big jar and a box of matches. My dad’s task was to light all the matches and fill the jar. It was aptly named “the dummy jar.”

At this very moment, Madeline is holding scissors and sitting in front of a pile of fabric and paper. Her task is to fill the box with cut up paper and fabric. She thinks she’s having fun, but we’ll see how she feels about it once that box is full. If we’re lucky, she won’t want to pick up another pair of scissors for a while.