Children Should Not Be Left Unattended

I was trying to clean yesterday.  There was an area just inside our front door, where boxes and junk mail tend to pile up, and I wanted to sort through it and dispose of it and collapse the boxes and generally deal with the mess.  It's connected to our living room/play room, but there's an area beyond a turn in the room into which I can't see if I'm in the entryway.

But I could hear.  And I thought that was enough.  While I cleaned and threw away and broke down boxes and whatnot, I heard happy, cooperative voices, and a great deal of laughter and good humor.  I was congratulating myself on my good parenting, that my girls could play by themselves and have fun while I worked, and wasn't life marvelous?

And then I came out from my corner and saw what they were doing.

Maybe I'm not as good a parent as I thought.

On the other hand, Ellie has good balance, so that's something.