Seriously? WTF?

Please share the things that you can't believe happened and that you need to get off your chest.

Spoiler: show

Everyone is physically ok, but the kids are probably a bit emotionally scarred.

Last week was Diwali and DH's family (as far extended as cousin's boyfriend) came over for food, sweets, drinks and fireworks. It was kind of a normal get together, but a lot bigger than usual (11 adults and 2 kids) and the first time I've seen them do fireworks.

SIL arranged the fireworks because she wanted her kids to enjoy them. We'll call the 4 year old N4 and the two year old N2. She bought the fireworks and wanted 'something with a bang' (famous last words) to get the kids excited. You can probably see where this is going. I'd already told DH that I wanted for us to avoid setting off any fireworks so if anything went wrong, we couldn't be to blame (SIL likes to place blame on others).

We waited for it to get dark to set off fireworks. N4 and N2 were already up past their bedtime and had been filling up on sweets and snacks and absorbing the attention for everyone, so we were already in risky territory (they were hyper and tired).

When we went outside, N4 said he didn't like fireworks. SIL told him 'Yes, you do. You love fireworks!'

N4 and N2 were held by adults and we were all around 10 metres from the fireworks.

BIL (N4 & N2's father) lit the first one. I assumed he knew what he was doing - he's in his 30s and while he is a city kid, he seems to have common sense and his kids were around, so he's best to judge the safety of the situation.

I grew up in the countryside and we were always far away from the fireworks (but we did have a lot more space), had a set up so they wouldn't go where they weren't aimed and made sure an adult who knew what they were doing oversaw the whole thing.

Here in London, there's just a tiny garden with a tree in the middle at FIL's house, but SIL's house has a garden about the same size, but without a tree.

The first firework was one that shoots up and explodes (a traditional firework like you'd see at a big firework display).

Well, the first round goes up into the tree (apparently it's set up directly under the branches) and explodes. Everything is wet from the rain, so we're not too worried about a fire, but still... fireworks should not be set up under trees.

The second round goes sideways, toward the fence (!) and explodes.

The firework continue for all 6 (?) rounds, aiming wherever it chooses as we run inside.

Kids were crying. My heart was beating faster than it had in a long while. DH and I realised how serious it was and how bad it could have been, but most of the adults were laughing at the situation and at the fact the kids were so scared.

It turned out BIL hadn't secured the firework to the ground so it had tipped over and the force of each round projecting out was spinning it in a different direction.

DH went out with him to build a little case for the firework with bricks so it won't shoot sideways... or so we thought.

We carried on (I don't know why) and lit two Roman candles (the ones that shoot up about a metre continuously like an upside down waterfall) with no issues. The kids were inside looking through the window and seemed to enjoy it when it wasn't about to go off in their face.

The fourth firework was another one like the first. We've now got the bricks to stabilise the fireworks, the kids are safe inside and no one is crying, so we're all good, right?

The first round of the firework goes up and explodes as it should (but in the tree like before).

The second goes up, hits the tree branches (why they put it under a tree, I don't know... that's like the worst thing to do!) and it redirect straight to us. It hits the house and goes off.

The other four rounds continue, but I was too busy taking cover indoors to realise what happened.

Kids were crying, SIL yells to not do any more fireworks (why we did any more after the first one, I've got no idea) and my heart is beating even faster than it was before. It took me about an hour until I was actually calm.

FIL gives N4 and N2 new toys to distract them. SIL, BIL and kids went home soon after the mishap. Cousins took the fireworks to set off at home. DH and I recounted all the things that went wrong - the fireworks were set off under a tree in very windy conditions with no stabiliser and some of the adults had been drinking (not drunk, but still...).

Apparently, when SIL and BIL got home and put the kids to bed, their neighbours started putting off fireworks and the kids lost it again. At least no one got hurt, but it must have been traumatising for them.

The next morning, I noticed a burn mark on the outside of the kitchen window where one of the fireworks exploded.

Geezus... Glad everyone is ok.
Fireworks cause so many injuries because of stupidity like that. 

Oh no!

My 3 yr old was so nervous last week as they were told at nursery there would be fireworks.  We got her ear defenders out (which she loved wearing and saying "what?" I can't hear you!" for the rest of the night).  But we got new windows last spring so when the fireworks started, she wasn't even aware.  Woohoo!

Geezus... Glad everyone is ok.
Fireworks cause so many injuries because of stupidity like that.

That's exactly what DH and talked about. Even people who seem like they have a reasonable level of common sense can be idiots when it comes to fireworks.

Now I understand why my parents tried to keep my brother and me inside when the neighbour kids were shooting off fireworks in the road for 4th of July.

Oh no!

My 3 yr old was so nervous last week as they were told at nursery there would be fireworks.  We got her ear defenders out (which she loved wearing and saying "what?" I can't hear you!" for the rest of the night).  But we got new windows last spring so when the fireworks started, she wasn't even aware.  Woohoo!

I've come to the conclusion (as a non-parent) that it would probably be better for kids to see fireworks on a big display (like a city's fireworks display) from a safe distance and gradually work up to home fireworks (if at all). I like those snap 'fireworks' that you throw at the ground and sparklers (obviously with parental supervision). There's no need for kids to experience loud bangs. Good thing she has ear defenders!

I've come to the conclusion (as a non-parent) that it would probably be better for kids to see fireworks on a big display (like a city's fireworks display) from a safe distance and gradually work up to home fireworks (if at all). I like those snap 'fireworks' that you throw at the ground and sparklers (obviously with parental supervision). There's no need for kids to experience loud bangs. Good thing she has ear defenders!

Last year she was woken up several times by neighbors fireworks and was so scared.  So we Youtubed lots of fireworks so she could see how pretty they are.  And she happily went to the local Bon Fire Night with her ear defenders.  Hoping for the same this year!

My dad lit our palm tree on fire one year with bad home fireworks.  Great childhood memory!  Hee hee!

Last year she was woken up several times by neighbors fireworks and was so scared.  So we Youtubed lots of fireworks so she could see how pretty they are.  And she happily went to the local Bon Fire Night with her ear defenders.  Hoping for the same this year!

My dad lit our palm tree on fire one year with bad home fireworks.  Great childhood memory!  Hee hee!

The adults screaming and running for cover wasn't exactly the best introduction to fireworks for either of the kids. It sounded like N4 had seen fireworks before (since SIL said he liked them), but I doubt N2 had ever seen them.

I think we'll try to avoid fireworks with DH's family from now on.

I'm probably going to hell for this, but that was the funniest story that I've read in a long time.  I especially loved how you foreshadowed accident #2 with "or so we thought..."

Reminds me of fireworks night in our small cul de sac where there was never enough room and it was dodgy AF.  It always ended in tears so we went to the park down the road until the cops showed up and told me it was illegal.  Now we light the fireworks and then run away, which actually makes it funner for the kids. 

All right, I've got one:
We went on a family Road trip to a town on the south coast that I can't name for legal reasons (you'll see why later on).  We parked in a big multistory car park and went out to be tourists. 

We come back at about 8 pm and find the car park shut and signs telling us we would have to wait until the next day to get our car back!  That was a pretty horrible prospect with two kids that need to go to school and two adults that need to go to work.  Even worse, there was an exit with the occasional car leaving since part of the car park was for the residents of the building.  They had special cards.  There was no good reason for the car park to shut that early except I guess the owners couldn't be bothered to support the ticket machine. 

Anyway, we convinced one of the residents to let us follow him out, and try to sneak two cars out while the barrier was open.  Instead, the barrier came down on my car and shattered into a thousand pieces of plastic!  The kids had eyes like saucers while I burned rubber to get out of there.  We made up some ridiculous story for the kids about how mommy and daddy didn't mean to be naughty.....

Thankfully, I never heard anything from the car park..,

All of this will go down in family history to be laughed over in the future.  Fawlty Towers eat your heart out.

Must admit - I found both stories hilarious.

Jimbocz, your story reminded me of a major wtf moment we had.

DH and I travelled around Europe and the US for 6 months after I became a UKC. We spent one month in each city, renting Airbnbs.

We were in Turin, Italy in January/February. The flat was in an apartment complex which was made up of about 10-15 buildings, 10 stories high with underground parking (we hadn't rented a car, so we didn't use it, but we knew it was there).

To enter the building, you went through a gate (with a key) and the building door (also a key) and then a lift up to the flat and through the flat door (another key).

To exit, the flat door would lock on its own (but you could set the deadbolt with the key) and both the outside door and gate were unlocked with a push button. There was one day the button didn't work, but we didn't think anything of it and used the key to manually unlock and open the outside door and gate.

The day we left, we planned on catching the bus to the train station and we had train tickets booked from Turin to Milan, through Switzerland to Basel and on to France, most of which we'd booked ahead of time for specific train with seat reservations. The Milan to Basel was definitely a train we had to be on as our tickets were specifically for that train and the route only had a few trains a day. A later train would have delayed us hours and possible gotten us stuck somewhere along the way.

The day we left, our host told us to leave the keys in the flat. Nothing unusual since the door locked behind us and he had a spare set of keys to get in later.

We tripled checked we had everything from the flat, closed the door and went downstairs only to discover the button for the outside door wasn't working!

We'll never know if it was a fault somewhere or what, but it didn't work and the keys were locked upstairs in the flat and we had a train to get to. We messaged our host for help but it was early in the morning and we got no response (he did apologize hours later when he saw our messages).

In a slight panic (we'd allowed extra time, but not for this), DH stayed with the bags by the door in case anyone came by (it was a ridiculous hour and unlikely, but would have been amazing) and I sussed out the car park. We decided the car park was our best option, so together we explored.

Seriously, the car park was like a maze. Emergency exit signs led nowhere, everything looked exactly the same and we got turned around. A few doors looked promising but led to dead ends (maybe personal storage for residents). We eventually followed wet tire marks (I guess someone had driven in recently) and found the car exit, but you needed the key to open the gate. That did us no good, so we kept exploring.

Eventually, we found a door leading to one of the other connected buildings and walked up to the ground floor. Luckily, their door button did work and we were free.

It all took a very panicky half an hour and in the end, we exited the building about 10 metres from where we should have come out.

We still made our trains and slept very well that night.

Spoiler: show

Everyone is physically ok, but the kids are probably a bit emotionally scarred.

Last week was Diwali and DH's family (as far extended as cousin's boyfriend) came over for food, sweets, drinks and fireworks. It was kind of a normal get together, but a lot bigger than usual (11 adults and 2 kids) and the first time I've seen them do fireworks.

SIL arranged the fireworks because she wanted her kids to enjoy them. We'll call the 4 year old N4 and the two year old N2. She bought the fireworks and wanted 'something with a bang' (famous last words) to get the kids excited. You can probably see where this is going. I'd already told DH that I wanted for us to avoid setting off any fireworks so if anything went wrong, we couldn't be to blame (SIL likes to place blame on others).

We waited for it to get dark to set off fireworks. N4 and N2 were already up past their bedtime and had been filling up on sweets and snacks and absorbing the attention for everyone, so we were already in risky territory (they were hyper and tired).

When we went outside, N4 said he didn't like fireworks. SIL told him 'Yes, you do. You love fireworks!'

N4 and N2 were held by adults and we were all around 10 metres from the fireworks.

BIL (N4 & N2's father) lit the first one. I assumed he knew what he was doing - he's in his 30s and while he is a city kid, he seems to have common sense and his kids were around, so he's best to judge the safety of the situation.

I grew up in the countryside and we were always far away from the fireworks (but we did have a lot more space), had a set up so they wouldn't go where they weren't aimed and made sure an adult who knew what they were doing oversaw the whole thing.

Here in London, there's just a tiny garden with a tree in the middle at FIL's house, but SIL's house has a garden about the same size, but without a tree.

The first firework was one that shoots up and explodes (a traditional firework like you'd see at a big firework display).

Well, the first round goes up into the tree (apparently it's set up directly under the branches) and explodes. Everything is wet from the rain, so we're not too worried about a fire, but still... fireworks should not be set up under trees.

The second round goes sideways, toward the fence (!) and explodes.

The firework continue for all 6 (?) rounds, aiming wherever it chooses as we run inside.

Kids were crying. My heart was beating faster than it had in a long while. DH and I realised how serious it was and how bad it could have been, but most of the adults were laughing at the situation and at the fact the kids were so scared.

It turned out BIL hadn't secured the firework to the ground so it had tipped over and the force of each round projecting out was spinning it in a different direction.

DH went out with him to build a little case for the firework with bricks so it won't shoot sideways... or so we thought.

We carried on (I don't know why) and lit two Roman candles (the ones that shoot up about a metre continuously like an upside down waterfall) with no issues. The kids were inside looking through the window and seemed to enjoy it when it wasn't about to go off in their face.

The fourth firework was another one like the first. We've now got the bricks to stabilise the fireworks, the kids are safe inside and no one is crying, so we're all good, right?

The first round of the firework goes up and explodes as it should (but in the tree like before).

The second goes up, hits the tree branches (why they put it under a tree, I don't know... that's like the worst thing to do!) and it redirect straight to us. It hits the house and goes off.

The other four rounds continue, but I was too busy taking cover indoors to realise what happened.

Kids were crying, SIL yells to not do any more fireworks (why we did any more after the first one, I've got no idea) and my heart is beating even faster than it was before. It took me about an hour until I was actually calm.

FIL gives N4 and N2 new toys to distract them. SIL, BIL and kids went home soon after the mishap. Cousins took the fireworks to set off at home. DH and I recounted all the things that went wrong - the fireworks were set off under a tree in very windy conditions with no stabiliser and some of the adults had been drinking (not drunk, but still...).

Apparently, when SIL and BIL got home and put the kids to bed, their neighbours started putting off fireworks and the kids lost it again. At least no one got hurt, but it must have been traumatising for them.

The next morning, I noticed a burn mark on the outside of the kitchen window where one of the fireworks exploded.

When you started this story, I seriously thought you were going to tell me this was you guys!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-41718533

When you started this story, I seriously thought you were going to tell me this was you guys!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-41718533

Yikes. No, that's not us.

I completely agree with the mum on this:

Please do not think that this type of incident will not happen to you because it can easily happen to anyone and ensure that you have educated your children about the dangers of fireworks.

And with the fire department on this:

We cannot over emphasise that the best way to reduce the number of injuries during bonfire celebrations is by attending organised events.

I looked up fireworks safety afterward and apparently it's completely legal to set off fireworks any day of the year between certain hours (7a to 11p, I think). Those hours are extended for holidays like Diwali, Bonfire Night and Chinese New Year and New Year's Eve.

Am I wrong in remembering than in the US there are more restrictions on when you can light fireworks?

I looked up fireworks safety afterward and apparently it's completely legal to set off fireworks any day of the year between certain hours (7a to 11p, I think). Those hours are extended for holidays like Diwali, Bonfire Night and Chinese New Year and New Year's Eve.

Am I wrong in remembering than in the US there are more restrictions on when you can light fireworks?

I don't know about using fireworks, but as far as the ability to buy/sell them, it varies by state (with additional restrictions within city limits).  In Missouri (or Kentucky... I don't know which side of the border the shop is on), there's a massive warehouse-like place that sells fireworks year-round.  In Arkansas, you're only allowed to sell them for a couple of weeks before, and up to a week after, the 4th of July and December 31st.