Childhood perils

As a parent, you spend many hours worrying about your child's safety. Everytime he runs a high fever, or suffers through a chest cold, you worry it is the early signs of lukemia or multiple sclorosis. Every time he darts out of your hands and heads down the sidewalk at breakneck speed, you worry he'll veer into traffic before you can grab him. Spider bites, tick bites, dog bites, little kid bites -- you can worry yourself sick about this child.

And then there's the worry of toxic shock. Wait a minute... I have a boy, that's not something I need to worry about. Or so I thought, until my son learned to open the child-proof cabinets, unwrapped two of my favorite brand of tampon and tried to shove the cotton in his ears.

Also, please note the barrette holding his pretty pony tail.

I knew staying at home with him was a good idea. I bet he never learned about tampons at preschool...