bunk bed story

My mom wrote this email to my brothers (I got a phone call initially and then a cc on the email!) and I thought you would all enjoy this little story. :)

This story is titled, “Things Can Happen Even After A Very Long Time”.

 

So your bunk beds are about 19 years old, and today a child got his head stuck. Yes, Ethan.

 

I was babysitting today (apparently not all that well) and Kaylee and Ethan had helped me move their toddler beds into your former room. I had let them go up on the top bunk, and we had spent quite a while discussing how they can only go on the top bunk when I’m there, and they can’t jump, and they have to be careful, etc. etc. I got them off the top bunk, agreed that it was okay for them to sit on Darren’s lower bunk, and went downstairs for about three minutes. In the back of my mind I was thinking that I needed to start letting them play with a little less supervision (despite what might have seemed an obvious lesson after the Kaylee haircut incident), so I was in my office, listening to them play, testing my theory that I could leave them alone for short periods of time.

 

The test failed.

 

The kids were playing together, and I could hear them prattling back and forth with each other. For just an instant it was quiet, my ears perked up, and I heard a soft whining sound that sounded like Ethan. I got up, and as I went up the stairs I heard this tiny voice saying, “Nana? Nana?” ... so I ran up the stairs calling to him that I was on my way.

 

I can only say that I never expected to see him with his head caught between the slats on the end of your bunk beds!

 

Poor little guy He knew that being trapped was not a good thing, so he was scared. He was just barely starting to cry, so fortunately it wasn’t too hard to calm him down.

 

Skipping forward, I can now tell you that Ethan’s head, at least in every dimension we tried, is greater than 7” across. Because that’s the height of the opening between the slats. I called Dad up from the office, and we just couldn’t get him out. Dad tried to unscrew the bunk bed, but couldn’t do that either. So he ran down and got his power saw. (FOR THE BED, of course!!!)

 

The picture I’ve attached shows where Ethan was stuck (see Pluto, but without his arms through the slats). He was fairly comfortable kneeling on the bed, with me behind him so he was sort of sitting on my lap. Dad showed him how the saw would be noisy, I covered his eyes so no sawdust would get in, and a few seconds later he was free.

 

 

 

So my question to you is, did either of you guys, or any of your friends, ever stick your head through the slats and get stuck? In all these years it hasn’t been anything I’ve ever worried about. If you buy a crib, there are safety standards for how far apart the slats are, but I’ve never heard of an issue with horizontal slats on a bunk bed.

 

The good news is, Ethan is completely fine. It’s possible that he will get over this before I do! Still shaking just a bit ...

 

-- Mom

 

As a follow-up, my mom has now researched bunk bed safety and has concluded that my brothers' old bunk bed is out of compliance on two counts (one of which is the "ethan issue") so they're going to get rid of it. And, in case you were wondering, Evan doesn't think he ever put his head through, and Darren says he did it several times, but that his head was apparently smaller than ethan's! our new kid's head is currently measuring in the 94th percentile, so... I think we have another large-headed kid coming our way. what fun.