How Did They Know?

Your typical human has 5 senses. But when I was a kid it sometimes seemed my parents had 6 senses. Somehow they knew what I was doing when they should have had no clue.

On days when I was stuck in the house, I used to like to stand on the arm of our couch (we called it a davenport???) and fall backwards onto the cushions. I'd imagine I was flipping out of a plane to parachute down to the ground...or rolling out of a boat to go scuba diving. My parents weren't in the room, they couldn't see me doing it. But somehow "super dad" knew and he'd yell, "Stop jumping on the davenport!!!" Weird!

One winter when I was about 6 I found a bag of marshmallows in the kitchen. I REALLY wanted toasted marshmallows. But we didn't have a fireplace and I didn't know how to light a match anyway. But I did know how to turn on an electric burner on our stove. So I turned one of them up to high, put a marshmallow on a fork, and I was in business. Once the burner turned red I touched the marshmallow to it and it flamed up. It worked perfectly. The marshmallows were yummy and the smell was wonderful. And to top things off, the burner had burned off any residue and was clean. Since I was being very quiet, no one would ever know the fun I was having. But somehow "super dad" sensed what I was doing and came in from the living room. Spooky! My butt ended up almost as red as the burner. I wasn't sure why I was punished...no one ever said I couldn't use the stove!!!

And then there was the night I couldn't sleep, so I "climbed" up to the ceiling of the hallway outside my room (by pushing off against the opposing walls and inching my way up to the ceiling). My dad got out of bed to use the bathroom. But I wasn't worried, I knew he'd never see me up near the ceiling. Unfortunately it wasn't dad in the hallway that night, it was "super dad". I got caught....and I had to wash all the walls in the house. Again, I wasn't sure why I was punished.

I've heard similar stories from my friends--which make me feel better, I'd hate to think I was the only kid too dumb to realize that even though his parents couldn't see him, they could hear him...or smell a burning marshmallow...or notice a weird shadow being cast by a hall way light! "Super dad"!!! LOL!

So, do you have any stories that could offer me a little more comfort?

PS - I'd like to thank a nice girl for eating marshmallows today and inspiring this goofy post! ;)