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Readers stop their kids just in the nick of time

Little Payton Bushnell made for some fascinating TV this morning when it seemed as if she almost put more magnets in her mouth while on the TODAY show with her parents. (Her dad quickly swatted her hand away.)Kelli and Aaron Bushnell were on the show to discuss their 3-year-old's recovery from an emergency surgery to have 37 magnets removed from her stomach. The magnets had been on the family��

Little Payton Bushnell made for some fascinating TV this morning when it seemed as if she almost put more magnets in her mouth while on the TODAY show with her parents. (Her dad quickly swatted her hand away.)

Kelli and Aaron Bushnell were on the show to discuss their 3-year-old's recovery from an emergency surgery to have 37 magnets removed from her stomach. The magnets had been on the family’s fridge, but the Bushnells didn’t see Payton eat them. They figured out what happened after a doctor took an X-ray.

If a toddler can do something like that on national TV, how many other parents can relate to stopping kids from doing something dangerous, just in the nick of time? (Or sometimes, just a second too late.)

Judging by the responses to that question on our TODAY Moms Facebook page, many do. And the scenarios run the gamut from kids jumping unsafely, to eating weird things to running into danger. (Just the other day my 9-year-old son -- who knows better -- ran into the street to retrieve his basketball, just as a car was speeding by. He was fine, but does it EVER end?)

Stacking and climbing and jumping, oh my!
For many parents, near-accidents revolve around the pursuit of flight.

Rhiannon Willard writes:

My 3-year-old likes to stack two kid chairs on top of one another so that she can reach things in her closet better ... I've caught her "at the last moment" too many times.

LaVon Shearer Ihrig says she’s amazed her “2 dare devils” have survived so many near accidents.

Mostly climbing and creating stacks from which they plan on jumping from ... always areas way too dangerous...heart attack every time followed by guilt because God forbid we take a 5 min bathroom break... always amazed what a kid can do while we are busy making dinner, taking a shower, going potty, making beds, running the laundry downstairs... ack!!

Kelli Clendaniel Nechay caught her 4-year-old son “getting ready to jump off his top bunk with his Buzz Lightyear wings on,” while Kathy Downey walked in just as her son had “pushed a chair up on the counter and was ready to take a flying leap off!” Her son’s nickname after that: Evil Knievel in Diapers.

Jolene Wollember was a minute too late. Her child dove face-first into the full bathtub while mom was turned around for a second to grab a washcloth.

Randi MaShea Cain Edwards says after all the shenanigans her three boys have pulled, she “could write a book about all the dare devil things they have tried or the things they have tried to eat.” She adds:

There is never a dull moment at my house. My 14-month-old is a climber, we have moved bar stools and chairs into other rooms just to keep him safe. Last week my 4 year old left the gate open while I was loading the dishwasher. I walked past … to see my 14-month-old standing on top of a bar stool, giggling of course….

Edwards thinks a lot of things happen because “sometimes we just don't have enough eyes or hands. This doesn't make us bad parents it makes us human.”

Jammed fingers (and other body parts)
For Nicole Nichols, trouble came where her 11-month-old tried to close a bedroom door.

[She had] her hands on the hinged part, which would have severly pinched or cut her fingers. I jumped and pulled her out of the way, stumbling and breaking my own foot. I was 9 months pregnant at the time, delivered my son a week later with an aircast boot on my foot -- but my daughter's fingers were fine!!

Amanda Contento describes herself as  “one of those parents that is afraid of something bad happening.” But she realizes sometimes you have no control. One time, when Contento was sitting right next to her 3-year-old daughter, “she somehow got her head stuck in the back of the chair at a restaurant. LOL.”

Eating weird things
Just like Payton Bushnell, aka Magnet Girl, there is always temptation for little ones to put things in their mouth. One parent talked about her 10-month-old eating part of a lizard. Others talk about small toys, usually which belong to older siblings.

TODAY Moms editor Rebecca Dube recently caught her 2-year-old son brushing his teeth with shaving gel.

 “Toothpaste, shaving gel -- both green, close enough! I didn't quite stop him in time but think I managed to swipe most of it out of his mouth with my fingers…Truly amazing/terrifying what they can get up to when you turn your back for literally 10 seconds.

Girls will be girls
Little boys are known for their daredevil antics, but little girls are capable of their own chaos.

Becky Roseborough Crabtree had this anecdote:

In 2005, Hurricane Rita was headed right for us. I started packing quickly. While I was packing, my (then) 3-yr-old daughter somehow managed to open a latched cabinet in my bathroom, open a bottle of red nail polish, and she drank it. Thankfully, I walked in when she did it, but I was too late -- she had already swallowed some. I called poison control immediately and they had me read the list of ingredients on the nail polish. Thankfully, there were no 'harmful' ingredients in there, so I just had to try to clean her up.

Rachel Arguijo recently caughter her 2-year-old daughter in the makeup drawer.

[She] got into one of my eye shadows (dark purple and black). She decided to dip my powder brush in the toilet, and then proceed to rub it in eye shadow and then on her face and arm. I didn't catch her in time, but it was early enough that it still came off easy in the bath tub.

Writes Cathy Cole Mitchell:

 I stopped my daughter right before she applied superglue to her lips, which she thought was lipgloss.

And there’s the embarrassing…
Nicole Dietrich Graziano posted:

I wish I could write this so no one would know it is me, but ... When I was getting dressed one moring, the 15-month-old went into my dresser next to my bed, got a hold of K-Y jelly, and sat on our couch and dumped the whole bottle all over herself, her clothes, her hair & the couch.

For Denise Salcido Haro, stopping her child worked…the first time.

Kept my daughter from pulling a fire alarm at a family wedding reception ... the first time, second time we were a second too late.