Silly Putty...The Devil's Play Dough

I'm known for being exceptionally tolerant of messy things--play dough, paint, glitter, glue, markers, crayons, various goos and gels, Moon Sand (for a while, then even I'd had enough and it disappeared in the dark of night). Everything can get cleaned up and eventually scrubbed off the table. I have one exception...silly putty, a product surely invented by a father, not a mother.

A couple of years ago, I spent part of an afternoon cleaning silly putty out of my carpet and instituted Rule #310 (I don't really have that many rules), Silly Putty Shall Never Enter Our Home Again. Two years pass and Summer10 comes home from school all excited, "Hey, look what I bought from the school store!" Apparently, he'd forgotten all about the carpet incident and Rule #310. Against my better judgement, I told him he could keep it but to remember that it's disaster waiting to happen.

Two days later, at 11:00 on a Friday night, I hear a sheepish knock on my door. Summer10 enters with silly putty completely covering his hands. He'd been playing with it so much that it was no longer sticky so he thought he could wet it down, clean it off and therefore make it more sticky. Water indeed made it more sticky in a liquid sticky sort of way made worse by Summer10 trying to get himself out of the mess. Mike, Summer10 and I laughed until we cried. The Devil's Play Dough had led him into temptation and he paid the price.

Removal was not easy and involved a lot of time, warm water, soap and a very coarse wash cloth (which had to go into the trash).

A new rule has since been instituted. Rule #311 Silly Putty Shall Never Enter Our Home Again, and I Mean It This Time.