When the walls come tumbling down

My youngest is almost six. The baby gates were removed long ago, as were the drawer latches. The outlet covers are there mainly because I'm too lazy to remove them, not because I really think they are needed anymore.

And, oh yeah, the bookcases are still anchored to the wall, probably forever.

Except they aren't.

We found this out last night when D, my almost six year old, tried to reach something on a higher shelf and pulled his six-foot-tall bookcase down on top of him.

The anchor behind it? Snapped like a small twig.

I was in the next room, tucking the girls into bed when I heard a scream and loud BANG! I ran into his room and, to my horror, a scene that will be forever seared into my brain, saw that bookcase lying on the ground, no child in sight.

Oh please, oh please, oh please is all I could think as I pushed the bookcase up. My husband, who was right behind me, jumped over me and into a pile of shattered glass from the picture frames. Our son screamed in fright and pain and reached up to him.

If there is any "good" in a bookcase falling on a child, it's that this particular bookcase was a piece of crap. The shelving "floated" on plastic clips so, instead of pinning my child to the ground and breaking every bone, they collapsed on impact. The wood was cheap particleboard, not heavy hardwood. The only books on it were on the bottom two shelves; the upper shelves were just a few picture frames and nicknacks.

And our little guy escaped with just some bruises and cuts. A quick trip to the ER and an x-ray confirmed that he may be sore for a few days, but no major problems (mad props to Norwood Hospital and Dr. Kim for their amazing ER).

My husband had checked and replaced all the bookcase anchors that had grown old and brittle, though this one, on a bookcase we were tossing just "as soon as we buy a new one" may have been overlooked.

So use our late night experience to your benefit and make sure you don't have any anchors that are no longer holding your furniture to the wall. We were so, so, so very lucky. I can't even think about what would have happened if our luck had run out.