Don't Swallow Your Gum!

My daughter LOVES bubble gum. I am constantly finding her rifling through my purse looking for the pack of Trident. She chomps away at it like a pro. She reminds me of a gum cracking waitress from the '50s. Or a cow chewing it's cud.

Mr. Schmitty bought her a pack of her very own at the grocery store. Darn those candy displays at the checkout.

I did not know she was in possession of this pack of gum, not until I began to find the wrappers, like a trail, to her room. After making her hand over the remaining pieces, I told her that she is only allowed to chew ONE piece at a time. I explained that I would hold on to her gum and that if she wanted some, she needed to ask.

I left her room and walked into my bedroom. Here I found shreds of foil, along with an apparently chewed up gum wrapper.

RUBY!

Thus, another reason that R. should not be allowed to "hold on" to her own package of gum. She leaves it on the coffee table and on the rug in the living room. She might as well put it in the dog's food bowl.

I called R. and T., as he can have a tendency to leave things lying around too, to my computer. I told them that they needed to be more careful with their things and to make sure to put them in their places. Especially food like items. I showed them the half eaten wrappers and then told them that I needed to show them something.

I pulled up a picture on the Internet and said, "This is what happens when you swallow gum. I'm not sure if Ruby actually ate any gum, but we don't want this to happen to her if she farts, do we?"


Their eyes got big and their faces took on a mixture of concern and amusement. I'm sure they were contemplating whether or not I was pulling their leg.

I then pulled up this next picture. I pointed to each word on the poster and read it out loud. T. and R. looked at each other. Could this really happen?


I do believe they will keep track of their gum from now on.