To make my mommy feel better.

As an addendum to the last post, I just wanted to describe in more specific detail the circumstances surrounding the Alex-in-the-dryer situation in case anyone is truly concerned that my child will bake himself like a potato or somehow lock himself in or whatever other awful thing that could result from a child playing inside a large piece of heat-producing machinery.

First of all, the washer and dryer are housed near the front door, in a closet with double doors that open into the hallway. Those doors are only open when I am in the process of doing laundry, so I am always nearby when Alex has access to the dryer. It's not as if the dryer is located in the middle of the living room, where he may go in and out as he pleases.

Second, I am not one of those people who waits with bated breath for the dryer to finish running so I can switch my laundry the immediate second that buzzer sounds. Nope, not me. I am one of those who lets stuff sit in the dryer until it cools down completely and ends up a rumpled, wrinkled mess which I then have to iron, a task that actually requires twice the effort it takes to just hang the darn clothes up as soon as the dryer stops. Which means that, by the time I get to the dryer to remove the clothes, the machine is far from warm, and therefore, there is no chance that Alex will get burned or roasted or baked or heated in any form of the word. Plus, although he can now turn doorknobs and pull stuff off of countertops and access many other things you'd swear were too high for him to reach, he still cannot reach the buttons and dials that are used to operate the dryer, and thus, would never be able to turn the dryer on himself.

And third, assuming that Alex wanted to lock himself in (which he has been know to do in his bedroom or our bedroom or the bathroom or his closet), there is no handle attached to the inside of the dryer door, and thus, no way for one to shut the door from the inside. The only way for him to get trapped would be for Murphy to happen by, decide to settle a score, and slam the door shut with a swing of his paw. Call me crazy, but I just don't see that happening. Because then Murphy would have no one to steal snacks from.

Long story short, I am very careful and watchful when my son is in or near the dryer. I mean, just because I let him play with full cans of Comet toilet bowl cleaner and slam his hands against the hot oven door and fail to catch him when he repeatedly plummets to the hardwood floor from the tops of chairs and boxes and tables does not mean I would let him lock himself in a running clothes dryer. Sheesh, what kind of mother do you take me for?