Oh dear, someone Help! My 3 yr old has done it again...
@quiltedblessings (1066)
United States
April 20, 2008 5:09pm CST
You know, there are those days when you should just go back to bed... Last week (I think it was Thursday), well, I should have just gone back to bed.... Nope, instead I made dinner! Yea, well I tried...
Here's how it went down. Dinner, hmm maybe I will make oven baked bbq chicken. The kids all like it, and the adults tolerate it. So, defrost the chicken. Check. Turn on oven. Check. Put chicken in the baking dish, cover in bbq sauce. Check. Place chicken in oven. Check. Walk away. Check.
Okay, no fast forward 20 minutes. The house smells funny. What is that smell? Is it dinner? I open the oven just a crack, nope, I smell bbq sauce. Close oven, walk away.
Fast forward 15 more minutes. Now the smell is much much worse... What is that smell? Is my kitchen smoky? (Hard to tell as I am legally blind, and smoke, unless it is very thick, is hard for me to see...) Open the oven all the way. Smoke billows out. What the heck? I can't be burning dinner! I pull out the baking pan. Wait. What is that behind the baking pan?Okay, who the heck put a plastic bowl in the oven???? I found a melting plastic bowl full of strawberries in my oven!!! It had melted all over the bottom of the oven, and the smell I was smelling was burning plastic!!! So, I was afraid that the fumes would infuse the chicken that was cooking, so I through it out. Started a new batch in the microwave (I hate cooking in the microwave! Here is a lovely photo. Now I have to remelt the plastic, and scrape it out of my oven. Geez like I don't have enough to do, right?After some sleuthing, I discovered the origin of the bowl of strawberries.... Apparently, the 3 yr old wanted to make a strawberry pie. So he put the bowl of strawberries that I had cut up for him, into the oven. Of course he did not turn it on, cause he figures that the oven just cooks as soon as you put it in the oven.... Nope, he didn't cook his pie, I did...
So much fun.....
7 people like this
17 responses
@blackbriar (9076)
• United States
20 Apr 08
yikes! Good thing you were able to finally track down the source of the odor or you could of had a fire on your hands. That smell is going to stay for a longggggggg time. Best thing to do is get some Febreze and spray the heck outta anything in your house made of fabric cause that smell is already seeped into it. Wait a few days for it to all dry. If the smell is still lingering, do it again. Tell your lil one next time she wants strawberry pie, to please ask you to make it or buy her some instead. When my 9yr. old was that age, I learned to always check the oven and microwave b4 turning them on. Hope you can get that mess AND smell out of your oven.
2 people like this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
21 Apr 08
LOL!! 3 year olds and ovens do not mix! Apparently neither do 26 year old men and ovens. My best friend and I were preheating her oven and after awhile we noticed an odd smell. Her oven light doesn't work so we didn't see anything, and we didn't open the oven (OOPS). Fast forward about 10 minutes, now her entire house smells like burnt plastic! There is a melting cutting board in her oven - and when we opened the door, the whole thing caught on fire. We managed to put it out and then she called him to tell him about it. Apparently he put it in there the night before and forgot to tell her. Thank God her oven is wall mounted and the handle is up too high for her two and a half year old to reach it!
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
21 Apr 08
Take two... my older kids left a pizza (and pizza box) in the oven and my daughter was preheating the oven to make some brownies. SHE was the one who put the pizza box in there and when the oven started smoking, she didn't even make the connection! The box - of course - was in flames when we got the oven open. Heh.
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
21 Apr 08
quiltedblessings I think that almost all of us at one time or another have had something similar happen to us who have had a three year old. I,this is years back, was hurryiung to get the wash done as we had some plans to go to the fair later that day. my son kept getting in my way wanting to help so finally I sat him down in his playpen with his toys and turned on the last load of clothes. almost done I thought. When the time was up I went to get the clothes out of the washer and into the dryer. I opened up the washer full of my blouses and dresses and some lingerie and woe was me. Everything was a delicate shade of blue even my peach blouse was blue. oh no. my son had put a blue salior doll intoo my washer and the dye was not fast so everything was tinted this odd shade of blue. I mean everything.. so everything had to be rewashed with some bleach added and I hoped the stain would come out. my son comes to me and says I washed my dolly my sailor. Isaid do not ever put anything in my washer again without I tell youtoo. his little blue eyes got all teary and I felt like a heel but an angry heel.
@jenni7202 (1598)
• United States
24 Apr 08
Oh wow! Children really do the darndest things. I bet that is going to be a pain to clean up. I don't think any of us ever did anything like that before. Although, my sister was potty training, and she tipped over the whole potty onto the kitchen floor one day. How, I don't even know. I was sick, but my boyfriend was there watching over her. He woke me up and told me he'd do anything, but he just couldn't clean that up! lol. Needless to say, I ended up doing it.
@SweetVanillaKisses (173)
• Canada
21 Apr 08
Oh my goodness LOL I am so glad neither of my kids have done that lol. Even if they did I have always been in the habit of checking my oven because I used to keep my baking pans in the oven LOL
I hope you didn't have too many problem getting all that plastic off hun.
@shannonjyl (421)
• Canada
20 Apr 08
snicker...i know it was not funny at the time but it will be. life is filled with little curve balls ..they only make us stronger, or pass out from the fumes!
@quiltedblessings (1066)
• United States
20 Apr 08
Ummm yea, I might pass out from the fumes....
And yea, it will be funny someday... Now just to figure out how to clean out the oven!!!
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
21 Apr 08
Life with 3 year olds is very challenging and and interesting. They do keep you on your toes. I used to store my skillets in the oven until I melted the handle of one in the oven because I forgot and turned the oven to preheat. So I know the mess you had to clean up. Consequently I stopped storing any thing in the oven.
@livewyre (2450)
•
21 Apr 08
That's very good logical thinking from a three-year-old.. maybe you should actually make strawberry pie with him so that he can do it for himself next time....
Come to think of it cooked strawberries doesn't actually sound like a good idea, if you can direct him towards the fridge...err...no...maybe not....
@p3halliwel2005 (3156)
• Philippines
21 Apr 08
awwww sorry to hear about that...but it's kinda cute that your kid wants to bake something on his own. I wonder why you didn't look inside the oven to see if there is something left in it. Anyways, a little extra care and tell your kid that if he wants something mommy will bake it for him. Kids are kids..they do silly things most of the time. We just have to go with the flow. 
@serialmommy (639)
• United States
21 Apr 08
At least he didn't try to cook the pie on his own. You should give him credit for his creativity, even if he did create a huge plastic mess in your oven. I have learned through time and practice (I have 4 kids, and my oldest is now 10) that I ALWAYS look in the oven before turning it on! I hope you can get that bowl off the bottom of your oven without too much work.
@luvstochat (6907)
• United States
21 Apr 08
What a mess but also very cute and smart of a 3 year old he wanted to make strawberry pie so he figured he would cook the strawberries. I am so glad you did not have the oven on when he put that bowl in there though so he did not get burned!
I hope you got the mess cleaned up I bet it took awhile happy to hear your stove did not catch on fire too!
@blueangel_7298 (362)
• United States
21 Apr 08
i am so thankful that my children do not play with the oven. but i have stuck stuff in th oven before and forget to take it out. but thankfilly it was only cookie pans.
@Pmcbride (1081)
•
21 Apr 08
I really is quite funny from here, if i was you however i would be going mad, if i were you i would try reheating the oven at it's lowest temperature and scraping what i could off, then put ice on it when the oven has cooled and chip off as much as you can other than that use a small blowtorch to burn it out of the oven, i really feel for you but i cannot stop laughing is that how you make plastic strawberries?
@minnie_98214 (10557)
• United States
20 Apr 08
That sucks I know that smell it is very very bad. I have melted plastic a few times and that smell stays for a lomg time. So did you tell your daughter how well her pie turned out hehehe.
@whittby (3072)
• United States
21 Apr 08
So you have to turn the oven back on to soften the darn stuff to get it off! I don't even want to think of the job you have ahead of you cleaning this stuff off. When your 3 year old, has his own program on TV as a chef, you'll remember this and will have a fun anecdote to tell at parties . I know I've had a few episodes on this order with the kids. I'm willing to bet you'll be thoroughly checking the oven before you put anything in it again.
. I know I've had a few episodes on this order with the kids. I'm willing to bet you'll be thoroughly checking the oven before you put anything in it again. 