Children love to experiment. They are little daredevils that are ready to jump at any opportunity to satisfy their curiosity. They are eager to learn through experience. That is often because, unlike many adults, they do not think the negative consequences through that well. They simply jump and hope to land on their feet.
However, sometimes they don’t. Who is to blame then? The adults? The parents? The child?
This is the dilemma that the author of the following story is in. She got into a tricky situation where her nephew got too curious and she ended up the one to blame. Scroll down to read how the story unfolded and why the Am I the [Jerk] community thinks she didn’t do anything wrong.
Accidents happen, especially with children who are always so curious about trying new things
Image credits: drazenphoto (not the actual photo)
The child in this story was also very curious. However, the accident he got into doesn't seem so accidental
Image credits: macniak (not the actual photo)
Image credits: hospitalbillpost
One should keep medicine out of reach of young children
The sad truth is that medicine poisonings are a common occurrence. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 35,000 of young children (under 6 years old) end up in emergency rooms each year because they got into the medicine when no one was looking. Around 25% of them are hospitalized and around 30 of them lose their lives.
That is why organizations like Safe Kids Worldwide have guidelines about how to properly store medicine when you have young children at home. You should always:
- Put all the medicine away. It doesn’t matter how tired you are or how quickly you will need it again. You cannot allow your child to find it when they’re on their own.
- Do not trust child-resistant packaging. According to statistics, about a half of accidental poisonings involves child-resistant packaging. Children are clever. They will find a way to get into it.
- Keep the Poison Control number of your area in a visible place. Better yet, save it on your phone.
However, in this situation, the kid was not that young
The unfortunate part of all the emergencies related to accidental poisonings is the fact that they’re accidental. It’s little kids getting into medicine cabinets and taking pills without knowing the dangers of it.
In this story, the 12-year-old was old enough to understand the risk. He even admitted he did it on purpose. This means that hiding the medicine would not have necessarily worked as he would have sought them out wherever they were.
The problem here is not the placement of medicine. It’s the reason behind his desire “to get high.” Was it because of curiosity? Peer pressure? A yet unknown mental condition such as anxiety or depression? Low self-esteem? The root cause is for the parents to figure out and hopefully they can do so without continuing the family drama.
Many commentators showed support for the author's decision
