Calling 911!

Of course it happens to everyone who has kids, yet no one actually 'fesses up to it.  Co-sleeping? Bribing children to behave? Empty threats? No, I'm referring to the kids calling 911 resulting in red-faced parents having to apologize to the busy police officers who have to come to the house to ensure there really was no "emergency".
Yep, my kids did it. On the May long weekend, at the cottage. The monkeys were playing some imaginary game, involving super heroes, enemies and monsters. I vaguely overheard some mentioning by one munchkin that 9-9-1 was going to be called. Dismissed it, as I hear such rumblings on a daily basis when they're playing.
Then there was a call to the house.
It was the 911 operator wanting to know the nature of the emergency. Mortified realization dawned on us, quickly followed by anger as we parents realized that in fact, one of the monkeys did in fact accurately dialed the numbers.
Despite reassuring the operator that there was NO emergency and no one was in peril (other than some kids who were going to get IT from their parents), a squad car was to be sent to the home to clear the call.
While we waited for the arrival of the police officer, Ceilidh and Devlin both received a stern lecture. So stern, that by the time the police did arrive, they were quite shaken. When I marched them out to apologize to the police, it was obvious to the officer that they now knew those three numbers were to be used only in the event of a real danger - fire, lots of blood and no adult around, and the like.
Yeah, it happens when you have kids. But what are the chances that it happens twice? Yep. Ceilidh once dialed 911 when she was 18 months old. Completely at random, while she playing with the phone. We've since replaced the phones in our homes with the complicated ones that require you to press "send" after dialing a number to reduce the chances the kids will accidentally dial 911 once again.