MARK MY WORD: REACHING OUT: KIDS FIND KITCHEN COUNTERS, TABLE IN TOUCH

Our countertops need to be raised a few feet or we need shorter kids.

Our kitchen counters and dining room table used to be childproof. But not any more.

Gone are the days when our counters and the dining room table could be counted on as safety deposit boxes for all that stuff you don't want your kids to have.

At age 5, Becca has long been able to reach the kitchen counters. She also has been known to stand on the dining room chairs to reach the kitchen cabinets.

At 19 months of age, Bailey is following in Becca's footsteps.

The other day she managed to climb onto a kitchen chair and haul down a box of cereal.

In a matter of minutes, she had scattered cereal all over the kitchen floor. She even deposited some in the bottom of the dishwasher as I was trying to put away the dishes.

At this point, I've decided our countertops need to be raised a few feet, or we need shorter kids.

Of course, there will be those who will say that anything important in a home should be locked up anyway.

But Joni and I aren't like that. We take Webster's definition of a counter to heart.

The dictionary defines a counter as "a level surface over which transactions are conducted or food is served, or goods are displayed or work is conducted."

At our home, we think you can do all those things on the same table, sometimes simultaneously.

Our dining room table often resembles the dead-letter box at the post office. Actually, in most cases, it is dead bills that sit on our table, along with crayons, books, bags and other assorted odds and ends of life.

We regularly clean up the mess only to find a new one surfacing in no time.

Becca and Bailey have been known to climb up onto the dining room table to get a better view of the mess when Joni and I aren't looking.

Of course, we remove our children when we see them on the table. You have to draw the line somewhere.

We just don't allow living things on our table.

We'd like to ban bills too. But I'm afraid if we filed them all in a drawer, we'd soon forget about them.

You know what they say: Out of sight, out of mind.

Of course, I may have to put the cereal boxes on the kitchen counter under lock and key. They are in sight of Becca and Bailey and within their reach.

So too is the tube of toothpaste and other items on the upstairs bathroom counter.

I regularly find Bailey standing on a plastic stool, reaching to grab a toothbrush, cup or anything else left in plain view on the counter.

Kids have an amazing reach. Adults would suffer severe strains if they stretched their arms as much as kids do.

Another thing that has been in my sight lately is a black, plastic snake.

Becca acquired it at a recent birthday party for a boy, who is a day-care classmate.

As the father of two girls, I previously haven't had to deal with snakes or puppy dog tails.

At any rate, this snake has found a home in our kitchen, dining room, living room and anywhere else that Becca and Bailey can deposit it.

I've grown accustomed to seeing the wiggle-shaped plastic snake under foot.

If I ever get tired of it, I can always stash it away in the bill drawer.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.