Prize-fighting with a cat tent

Children's toys are apparently a lot more dangerously than I previously knew ...

The boys received a Playhut Twist & Fold Animal Tent for their birthdays. It has been sitting in a box for the past 3 months, but I decided to open it this morning in hopes that the boys would be distracted for an hour or two so I could clean up the house and write a few cover letters. I looked at the instructions, read that the product will "spring open quickly" and prepared to open the bag. Because of the warning about the product springing open quickly, I was trying to keep Ben away from me -- and without warning, the pop-up tent literally exploded out of the case, flying open, hitting me in the face with several pieces of the metal frame -- which caused my top teeth to bite through my bottom lip, and my top lip to be cut open from the metal. I stood there in shock for a second, as I could feel my lips immediately swelling and blood starting to drip down my face. A choice, 4-letter word escaped from my quickly-bloating lips, and Sam and Ben stood there, just staring at me, not moving.

I try not to cry in front of the boys too often, but tears were definitely springing to my eyes after getting hit so hard in the face. I spent the next hour with a big icepack on my face in hopes that the swelling would go down. Ben was fairly distressed over my face, and told me he didn't like my mouth bleeding, and kept giving my face kisses to "make it feel better." It doesn't look too bad now -- I have a cut on my upper lip and two bite marks on my bottom lip from my top teeth, and my lips are still a bit swollen, in a "just had Botox" kind of way.

I folded up the tent (but not all the way, I was afraid it would spring open again!) and put it downstairs. It is way too dangerous for the boys to play with. I am going to go online and write a nasty letter of complaint to the company about it.

So -- beware -- toys are dangerous!!