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Growing up I had never heard of such things like electrical socket plugs, safety gates or anything else that prevented small children from going where they ought not to go, like under the kitchen sink. We were taught at an early age that items under the sink were for cleaning purposes and not for playing. We knew we weren’t allowed to touch them despite our access never being prohibited.

It was for this reason that I never bought any “child proof” or “safety” items while pregnant. They seemed like a waste of money and I was certain that if I did my job as a parent I would never have a need for them. I’m sure many parents may disagree with me on this. There must be millions of people who utilize those little plastic things on the inside of draws which prevent them from opening. I’ve even seem toilet lid and oven locks. Are these really necessary?? Why are kids even playing with these things?

Never have I had issues with my son throwing things in the toilet, opening or turning on the stove/oven, or sticking things in the electrical outlets. AJ is now 6 years old. His dad and I are electronic freaks and so we taught him to use a lot of appliances/electronics at an early age. Right now he can warm up his own food in the microwave, record, fast forward, rewind, stop, pause and play all his own shows on the DVR, he can play games on the wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, V-smile, GameCube, DS, and even knows how to hook them up to the TV and switch out the wires when necessary.

Like the average kid, AJ likes to watch movies… Normally he’ll watch his new favorite movie over and over and over again. Last week it was the Bridge To Terabithia. The fact that he watched it incessantly was ok since we had recorded it to the DVR. Shortly afterward Firehouse Dog started showing on the movies in demand channel. Twenty four hour movie tickets can be purchased to watch movies. AJ had been bugging me to buy Firehouse Dog for him.

His dad had mentioned there being a special way to DVR pay per view movies. Since he was the one that ordered Firehouse dog I assumed he has also recorded it. My son must have watched it 7 times this week. The truth is I didn’t think much of it, until last night when Jeff asked how many times I had purchased Firehouse Dog.

“huh? You mean you didn’t record it?” I asked, to which Jeff shook his head no.

He then called AJ over and asked him to explain the steps he went through to watch the movie. “First you go to channel 1000, and then you find Firehouse Dog, and then you press select, and B, and then B again.” lol We were both in shock. AJ had just given us a tutorial of exactly how to order a movie in demand.

Jeff was in disbelief but thought it was too funny to yell at him. He accepted it as being his own fault for forgetting to teaching AJ NOT to order movies (which of course he went over with him last night.) We hadn’t planned on taking any extra precautions since AJ seemed to understand that the “B” button was for “Buy” and we’d have to pay for every time he watched it. Things were ok again….or so we thought.

The Firehouse Dog movie ordering fiasco came up in conversation today. We were curious to know how many times it was really ordered. When Jeff signed on to view the bill we were struck with another surprise. Someone ordered the Playboy Channel in demand at 3 O’clock on a Monday afternoon. What, what, whaaaaaaaaaaaat? We confirmed it wasn’t either of us and realized it could have only been one other person.

That being said, I think it’s only fair to give it a little time to see if AJ truely learned NOT to order movies. However if any other mystery Playboy charges show up you better believe I’m setting those parental controls with the quickness. Maybe it’s not such a waste after all.