The hazards of having smart children

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I bought a paper shredded a few days ago. Yesterday dad and I set it up and started shredding stuff. Sophia immediately came over to see what was up. After a few minutes she started trying to put paper in the shredder herself. Ethan didn't like the noise at first but after a while the fun of sticking paper in the shredder was too much for him. He would run up, stick a piece of paper in the shredder, and run away as soon as the motor started.

Meanwhile, Isaiah appeared to be occupied elsewhere and totally uninterested in the shredder. That is until we turned our backs. Dad and I turned back to the shredder to find that Isaiah had materialized from the other end of the room with a piece of paper in hand, and was succeeding at putting it in the shredder. Lucky for us we had turned it off. Unfortunately he figured out almost immediately how to turn it back on despite the fact that you have to push down on a button on the power button to get it to move.

Dad and I realised that we'd have to take extreme measures to keep the kids away from the shredder. So last night before we went to bed we made sure that the shredder was turned off, unplugged, taken apart, and set on the table next to my filing cabinet.

This morning while mom and I were cleaning the fridge and dad was helping with breakfast we heard a whirring noise coming from the livingroom. I thought it was one of Ethan's toy cars. I heard the noise again accompanied by Ethan whining. I thought someone had swiped his car. Dad went to investigate and found: the shredder sitting on the floor; put back together, plugged in, turned on, with paper sticking out of it; Ethan running away from the shredder; Isaiah standing next to the shredder trying to hide the envelope in his hand behind his back; Sophia watching it all from a safe distance.

Thankfully the kids were cautious enough not to hurt themselves and they didn't get any important documents. It seems I'll have to hide the different parts of the shredder to keep the kids away from it.

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