We had a small get-together at our house recently and to make it more festive we inflated about 2 dozen balloons and scattered them all throughout the house. My young daughter probably got the most enjoyment out of them. And to be honest, we mainly got the balloons for her entertainment.

Well, fast forward 1 week later and there were still many balloons wandering around the house. However, now they were getting underfoot and basically getting in our way. Since my daughter would have protested at the sight of me gathering up her colourful air-bags and disposing of them, I had to wait until she was at daycare before I gathered them all up. Then to avoid waking up my baby boy, I took all the captive balloons to the basement and one by one I popped them with a safety pin.

While I was doing it, the same words kept repeating over and over again in my head: balloon murderer! It was true. With each pop, I winced because it reminded me of a circus scream. Oh, the horrors….