Plug Obsessed

By Whitney

The tree is gone. The lights are down. The ornaments are back in storage where they belong until next December. What am I left with, in addition to lovely family memories of this holiday season?

A five-year old who is obsessed with plugging things in.

After the Safety at Home wreath-making party, I told Julian that he could plug in the lights that were wrapped around his wreath as long as an adult is watching him. This seemed simple enough. He loved the new privilege, and each day when we came in the door after school, he raced over to his wreath and said, “Mommy, can you watch me plug this in?!”

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Then, when we really started decking our halls, he became enthralled. The simple strand of lights that turn on when plugged into the wall? Now they plug into an extension cord! And the extension cord plugs into the wall! He wanted to plug and unplug both of these connections on a regular basis. “Plugs are not toys.” I have made this motherly statement about 693 times since Christmas.

When we decorated the plum tree in our front yard, the excitement grew to another level. Three! Strings! Of Lights! All plugged into one another in a glorious daisy chain of electricity! He walked back and forth from the tree to the outlet just inside our crawl space where the cords meet up with the juice that powers them. I could see him tracing the logistics of what plugs into what over and over again. He was getting geekier by the minute.

And then? When we visited festive destinations (such as every single retail store during December), he would disappear behind fixtures and underneath curtains, on his knees examining the system by which the holiday lights were being powered. We could not walk by a store window without stopping to discuss where the lights or moving reindeer might be plugged in.

Now that the Grinch has visited our home and removed all of the holiday lights, Julian is acutely aware of how many outlets are in our house. (42, he’ll tell anyone who comes to visit.) For every outlet that’s not being used, he has a suggestion. He’ll dig an extension cord out of a cabinet in the laundry room and bring it over to me in the dining room. “Mommy, can I plug this in?”

And I don’t know where this obsession will end. Just yesterday he realized that many of our appliances have USB outlets and headphone jacks. He walked around with a set of headphones, looking for a place to stick the jack. And, I caught him trying to plug a microphone from our video game console into our home computer.

So if you ever need an electrician with absolutely no experience, but full of unbridled enthusiasm, I’ve got a 5-year old who would very much like the job.

(If you’ve got kids under five in your house or visiting your house, make sure to keep all outlets covered with childproof plug inserts. Even the outlets behind the couch – those are the most compelling to toddlers!)