Beware of the monster sucker!!!

What is it about a vacuum that can send a child into a terror-induced scream-and-run? This morning, the minute I turned the vacuum on, it was as if I'd flipped a switch in my children's heads on to "crazy mode." My daughter ran around screaming at a glass-shattering pitch and my son began going into what I like to call his "spider legs" dance. Both ran around the room as if someone had spiked their morning juice with speed or something.

This gave me flashbacks to my own run-ins with vacuums as a child. I spent a great amount of time at my grandmother's house. And, my grandmother liked to keep a clean house, which was something I loved coming from a house that was quite the opposite. My grandmother had an old Kirby model vacuum. You know the ones made out of metal that are almost too heavy to move? Well, this vacuum had a face if I ever saw one on a cleaning appliance. Two eyes, a triangular nose and a big sucker mouth. Anytime she'd turn it on, I'd run screaming and hands flailing to the closest piece of furniture I could scramble upon, just sure that vacuum was going to suck down one of my precious little "piggies" or a leg or something. The only time I'd venture back onto the carpet was if I had to rescue a toy that was left in the monster's path. I'd retrieve it and then run screaming back to my perch until my grandmother finished her chores.

I just wonder if vacuum manufacturers know something that we parents do not about getting a room clear of kids and toys. It is enough to make me want to vacuum every day, I tell you. Well, almost enough...