I have an informal co-op going with a few of the teachers at Vinny's school. It works great. I watch their kids during staff meetings. They watch my kid in return.
During staff meetings, I typically watch five to six kids. Basically, I spend the entire time scanning the playground for each kid. They tend to move around a lot and don't always play together. When I locate one I move on to the next kid and work through the group. Then I continually repeat the process until their parents arrive.
It was all going well, until the other day. One of the kids fell and hit his head. Unfortunately, it wasn't either of my kids. I would have preferred that.
I was right there when it happened. I don't really know what I could have done to prevent the accident. When it happened, I was on the ground, and he was up on a play structure. A play structure that I felt uncomfortable with before this event. And one I'm sure to have nightmares over now.
When I got to him, there was blood. Lots of blood. So much blood, that when I saw his head I had a very sick feeling in my stomach. I told him, "it's ok head wounds bleed a lot." Although I wasn't sure I believed myself, I tried to sound convincing for his sake. He was crying hysterically, and I was hoping it was the sight of large amounts of blood, rather than pain, that was freaking him out.
In fact, I wanted to cry with him. But I let that go for later, and instead focused on applying pressure to the wound and calming him down. One parent brought me an ice pack and offered to take over. I declined the offer preferring to take responsibility for my charge. No way was I abandoning him in his time of need.
Another parent went to get his Dad out of the meeting.
After his Dad came and whisked him away to the doctor for five stitches to his forehead, I got to feel my feelings. They weren't fun, but they were mine. Maybe there are worse things that could have happened, but I couldn't think of any. I felt terrible. I started thinking things like, "wow, life would be so much easier if I just lived in a cave by myself." But then I remembered we're all in this together, for better and worse.
It is awful to watch someone suffer in pain, especially a child. When I went to bed that night, I kept seeing his bloody head flash in my mind. Followed by my neighbor's blue face. Apparently, all trauma gets filed and piled together in my brain.
I started thinking of all the times I had heard about kids getting hurt and thinking whoever was watching them, wasn't watching very closely. Now I was one of those people. It is interesting how judgment always seems to come full circle, especially in parenting.
Anyways, I am signing up for a knitting class so next time I'm in charge everyone will sit in a nice, neat, little, knitting circle. Wait, knitting needles have sharp ends. Those could be dangerous in the hands of boys, especially mine.
Wrestlmania!
11 comments:
Even knitting needles are sharp.
Welcome to parenting!
Raising 3 boys I have had my share of "accidents" and the guilt that is associated with those accidents. What I learned was this, kids get hurt and no matter how careful you are, they mamage to still get hurt. That's part of their learning process. Did you ever meet the kid that ALWAY's had to put his hand on the stove even after being told of the danger and pain? Hopefully the boys' parent is savvy enough to know that you were doing what you were supposed to be doing and his kid got hurt. NOT YOUR FAULT. However, 30 yrs from now you might still recall the event and still feel guilty. Like I said, welcome to parenting!
Deb
OK, I got one for you. A one foot deep dirt hole, a magnifying glass, and model airplane fuel. Hmm, what could possibly go wrong? My brothers and I were standing arond this dirt hole. My older brother (mr. not afraid of danger) who was around 12 at the time, already had a cast on his foot from a go-cart accident. He digs my dads old model airplane fuel out of the garage. He decides to pour it in the dirt hole (after me and my younger brother coaxes him) to create an atomic explotion. He had gotten quite good at lighting ants on fire with his magnifying glass. My younger bro and I stand back about 10 feet as he focuses the glass on the hole, saturated with airplain fuel. It didn't even smoke or spark...it instantly combusted, and yah, it was like an 5 ft atomic explosion, with a stinky smokey aftermath. The unexpected thing that happened was his cast caught fire and STAYED on fire. Me and my little bro didn't know what was happening, but my older bro ran in the house straight into the bathroom and stuck is foot in the toilet. He got 3rd degree burns on all his toes and lost all his toe nails and had to have a skin graph. My mom was inside, usually watched us pretty good, but no one could possibly predict this could happen in 10 minutes of being unsupervised. I think he's still missing a few toe nails.
I didn't know gio knew jujitsu.
Yikes! Good thing you were right there to stop the bleeding.
Hey Pikaki,
Um, are you confusing your childhood with a movie you saw a long time ago. Memories can sometimes get mixed together. If that is a real story I will go directly to trauma therapy.
C'mon!!! Like who could even imagine UP a story like that LOL! It's true I tell you.. true!!! In the same area where the atomic hole was, my brother threw a basketball over the garage and it landed on a lizard and its guts came out of its mouth.
by the time i was 10, the local ER knew my little brother, little sister and myself by name.
numerous stitches, butterfly bandaid things, etc...
we all have little blemishes on our faces that are left over from scars, or in my case surgeries.
i am amazed out how well parents take care of their kids safety these days. it's a different world from when i grew up.
amazed at not amazed out.
my bad
I'll trade you knitting lessons for surfing lessons (for Tom that is).
Seriously - if you learn to knit we need to hang out all the time.
I'm not sure I can knit that much, but maybe if we knit and surf at the same time I can pull it off.
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