trapped

In the photo below, you will see a smiley, happy Chloe. But just moments before, she was screaming for dear life.The girls have been playing "house" a lot lately, where Ella is the Mommy, Britten the Daddy and Chloe the baby. They have a whole set-up in our unfinished basement with a bedroom for naptime, toys in a playroom and even a kitchen for their happy little family. Ella and Britten are good little parents, taking good care of their little baby. Clothing her, changing her diapers, and even strapping her in her booster seat and giving her a bottle of water.

The problem with having a 4 year old and 6 year old as parents, is that they can become easily distracted and forget altogether about their baby. They become so distracted, in fact, that they unintentionally leave their baby strapped in her booster seat, all alone, screaming her head off in the unfinished basement. This has honestly happened at least a dozen times in the last couple of weeks.

Chloe's screams are like white-noise around here, so she literally has to scream and scream for way too long before someone actually hears her or remembers they left her strapped in her seat, all alone in the basement.

Andy and I have had many talks with Chloe's "parents" about not leaving their baby unattended, and despite their promises of never doing it again, the fact is, they are 4 and 6. Their promises don't mean much. Chloe is either a glutton for punishment or has the child-like ability to forgive and forget, because she agrees to play "house" with Ella and Britten day after day.

But as you can see, she doesn't seem traumatized by it at all:

Let's hope her REAL parents do a better job taking care of her! :)