A Mother's Best Friend

As a child, I remember getting gum in my hair thanks to my sister.  My mom's solution was to rub peanut butter into my hair and then wash it.  Even after two washings, I remember going to kindergarten smelling like peanut butter.

Recently, while friends were visiting, my daughters and my friend's son went into my daughters' room (they are young enough that I can say that without cringing) to play even though there is nothing in my daughters' room except stuffed animals.

I had forgotten that the nursery across the hall didn't have one of those door locks on it.  I had removed it for some reason or another and forgotten to put it back on.  It sat dismantled in a box with other odds and ends in my husbands office.  As my mother would sarcastically say when I was young, "that's a good place for it, right?" 

Of course my two year old who had followed her sister went inside the nursery and got into the petroleum jelly (a fresh jar that had not even really been used after Ry came home from the hospital) that was sitting in a portable organizer on the ottoman.  When I went to check on them, I saw Madison in the hallway.  She was covered in it from head to toe. When Madison saw me she grinned as though proud of her handiwork.  In her hands was the jar with the lid stuck down in the jelly and about a quarter of the jelly gone.

I felt my stomach actually recoil at the site.  The smell and the sight were horrifying and many expletives were racing through my mind. I would have much rather found my child with gum in her hair.  I am sure it would have been easier to clean up after. 

I handed the baby to my friend and picked Maddie up under the armpits away from my body and deposited her in front of the bathtub.  All the while I kept repeating how we DO NOT play with petroleum jelly.  Yuck.  Yuck.  Say it with me, "YUCK".

Even after wiping as much of the jelly off as possible and lathering her hair and body twice, her hair and skin were still oily.

That night she got another bath and after washing her down two more times, it seemed she was no longer an oily mess.

That night when I told my husband about her escapades, he laughed and asked me why I didn't just use Dawn.

Uhh...

He was right.  If it works on oil coated animals, why not a petroleum jelly covered child?

It seems that Dawn and magic erasers are truly a mother's best friend.