Teachable moments. "Unplanned opportunities that present an ideal situation to teach or explain a skill or idea."

Parenthood feels like one long teachable moment, especially the unplanned part. My dad subscribed to the theory that there is no such thing as common sense, only good sense and bad sense. He also believed that the only way to acquire good sense was to practice a little bad sense.I try to stand back and let the teachable opportunities happen, so that my children can increase the amount of good sense that they have. But darn it, they make it difficult sometimes.I'm as guilty of helicoptering as the next parent, but I don't necessarily do it out of fear and worry for my child.I do it because I've already had to sit in an emergency room waiting room and console one kid, while entertaining another and keeping the other one from licking every surface in the joint, and there are days when I'm just not up to reliving that experience.I helicopter because you really can't get a toddler to understand the consequences of playing in the cat litter box. Come on! There's a little tiny personal sand box in the house.In between flights, I do my best to infuse their lives with teachable moments and let them learn to live with the results of their actions.Case in point: kids and knives. A few years ago, while on vacation, a restaurant refused to provide our children with a complete set of tableware, as they, per policy, "did not give knives to kids." We've always used real silverware and full place settings for most meals, so we found this to be a tad ridiculous, and after slipping the kids our butter knives, just asked for additional ones for ourselves. Granted, we probably gave the kids a good lesson in being special and the rules not applying to us, but we also managed to enjoy an expensive meal without constant interruptions to cut someone's spaghetti or butter their roll.As the kids learned their way around the kitchen, they've picked up additional knife skills as necessary. On top of that, A has been a Cub Scout since he was 6 and has earned his pocket knife card, which states that he's been trained in and understands knife use and safety.So, imagine my surprise when one Sunday morning he almost chopped his fingers off while hacking apart a bagel. Typically, we make a big breakfast on the weekends since we are all home and have the time to cook. But summer has caught up with the Wonderful Husband and me in a big way, and while he headed out early to work on a home improvement project, I used a few quiet morning hours to catch up on paying bills, submitting swim meet entries, finalizing soccer rosters and finishing up quarterly reports for work.When A came down and asked what was for breakfast, I barely looked up from the computer before mumbling, "You'll have to find something yourself."Almost simultaneously, the Mom part of my brain started blaring, "TEACHABLE MOMENT AHEAD!!!"After rummaging around in the kitchen for a few minutes, he brought a bagel and a steak knife to the table and began trying to cut the bagel in half. (Teachable moment: Don't buy the pre-sliced bagels!) After fumbling around for a few minutes and a few halfhearted stabs into the bagel with a knife that was clearly not up to the job, he asked me to cut it for him. I resisted the urge. I asked him to look at the tool he was using and think about it for a minute. He knew darn well that he was using the wrong knife, but it was the first knife in the block and the easiest to grab.There was much drama, eye rolling, and feet dragging as he proceeded to return the steak knife and get the bread knife. Then, he proceeded to hold the bagel at the bottom with one hand, while sawing the knife back and forth on the top.It is truly amazing how much data a mom's brain can process. I quickly calculated about how many swipes he would have to take before the knife took out his knuckles. I then calculated how much damage to his fingers I could tolerate. I also tried to establish at what point he would realize that he was breaking every single rule of knife use. Finally, I calculated if the resulting blood pool would make the bagel inedible.I was willing to take an early morning ER trip, but then I remembered that he wouldn't be able to swim with stitches, which would not only impact him, but the rest of his swim teammates. The helicopter had to come in for a landing.Trying to keep things teachable, I asked him to stop what he was doing and tell me what would happen if he continued cutting in his current position. He realized that his fingers were in imminent danger and changed his position. At long last and with much aggravation, he finally got his bagel sliced in two pieces and his fingers sliced in none.Trying to hammer home the need to take his time, pick the right tool for the job and follow safety rules, I asked him to explain to me what he learned that morning."Next time, I'm just going to have cereal instead."Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.