When I was little, I remember my mom treating a scrape on my knee by applying hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball. After she was done, she told me to put away the hydrogen peroxide bottle. I didn't. I forgot. I was a very busy child and there was probably something very important going on in my dollhouse which needed my immediate attention. Little tiny plastic babies are not going to feed themselves, Mother!
My mom later found the bottle still on the counter with the cap off and I remember very distinctly her telling me that I must replace the cap to the bottle otherwise it would evaporate. She made such a point of this that I began to believe that hydrogen peroxide, if left exposed, would immediately evaporate. I believed that some chemical element or combination of substances making up hydrogen peroxide caused it to evaporate faster than other liquids and for the rest of my life I was very vigilant about replacing the cap every single time I used hydrogen peroxide in my teenage and adult life.
Until one day when I was a grown person living on my own and I decided to leave the cap off and just see what would happen. I know. REBEL. That's how I roll. So that's what I did. I left the cap off for days, fully expecting to find an empty bottle when I finally checked on it because hydrogen peroxide evaporates, that's what my mom told me. Days later, I checked and as far as I could tell, the bottle was still perfectly full. The hydrogen peroxide did not evaporate. Or if some of it did, certainly it did so no faster than every other liquid on the planet. I felt a bit betrayed. My entire life I had been extremely proactive about making sure hydrogen peroxide caps were screwed on tight because my mother had led me to believe this was important. I was misled. Possibly even lied to outright. I will never forget that day. The day I found out hydrogen peroxide will not rapidly evaporate if the cap is left off. The day I found out not everythinig my mother says is necessarily entirely true.
This also reminds me of the time I was a young teenager and my dad told me "Hey, kid, don't sweat the small stuff. And remember, it's all small stuff." I thought that was brilliant. How clever. My dad is so smart. Until the day I was in a bookstore and saw a book entitled, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...And It's All Small Stuff" by Richard Carlson. And then I had to come to terms with the fact that my dad isn't so much clever as he is a thief and possibly in violation of a copyright.
So, in conclusion, parents, be careful what you tell your kids. They remember. And one day, they will find you out. And they will resent it. And it will have a direct impact on the quality of home you are eventually confined to. Actually, perhaps, this is a post better saved for after Mom and Dad are done paying for my education. Never mind, you two, we're cool, okay? Love you!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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4 comments:
You TURKEY! It doesn't so much evaporate as it DEGRADES into water and oxygen gas because H2O2 is a reactive oxygen species. While you think none of it evaporated and you still have a good amount of liquid in the bottle, what you have now my friend is some delicious drinkable water!! So your Moms was right! :-)
First of all, who knows things like that? My friends, that's who. Utterly ridiculous. I suppose, on second thought, that my mother, the doctor, might in fact know such things. And I suppose she thought it easier to explain evaporation rather than degrading to a young child. But I still stand by my story, dammit. I think we all learned something today.
I feel your pain. When I was in 6th grade we were studying the great potato famine and my father told me I shouldnt neglect how my Italian relatives suffered through the great pasta famine. I went into school the next day, so excited to share this news with my fellow classmates...my dad thought it was hysterical
I stopped believing anything they told me after the truth about Santa came out. F'ing liars!
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