"9-1-1, What is your emergency?"

It happened..........again. Last night was a typical Sunday evening at the inlaws. We were watching football while Hanna had Grandma tied up in another room demanding her undivided attention. Then the phone rang. Poor Larry was SO confused! Then I faintly heard Hanna say "911" from the other room and we figured out what happened quickly enough to let the dispatcher know. So began a stern talk that we remember having when JOEL did the same thing when he was in preschool....at the other set of grandparents!! (What is it about trying this stuff at their places?) We had tears and the constant "Are they going to come take me to jail?" in between sobs. When Joel did this, my dad told dispatch everything was okay, blamed it on the grandkid, and that was that. This time, we heard the doorbell ring about 5 minutes later. Whoo, that lit Hanna and her jail fears right up!! Sure enough, a uniformed patrolman was checking the situation...Andy spoke with him; he made Hanna apologize in person. Boy was she mortified as that nice young man gently reminded her of the proper protocol regarding 911. A lesson well-learned I hope. (Joel's never done it since 2007, so here's hoping.) So I wonder how many similar stories we'd get if we polled all the parents of preschoolers out there. I'm so glad that they teach it during those years, but I'm glad we only have 2 in the system!