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Accidents happen, but preferably with mom
The most phenomenal invention mankind ever bestowed upon my childhood was a Slip N' Slide. For those of you who don't know, this simple-yet-elegant masterpiece of modern design involved attaching a hose to a long strip of plastic, which -- when doused in water -- became very fun to slip and/or slide on.
Not only did this totally kick ass, but -- at least for me -- it was synonymous with the long, carefree days of summer.
So now that it's 90 degrees in Austin, I figured it was about time to introduce my offspring to the joy that is careening down a wet piece of plastic. Edan loves the water, and she's a little daredevil, so I figured it'd be right up her street. Never mind that the box says "for 5 and up" -- whoever decided that clearly doesn't know my child.
Well, apparently they do a little bit. As it turns out, 3-year-olds aren't quite coordinated enough to run, jump and slide on their own. Whatever.
Undaunted, I decided to help. If she couldn't do it herself, I figured I could just toss Edan down the slide to achieve the same effect. I'm a pretty big guy, she's a fairly small child, this shouldn't be a problem.
However, I failed to take into consideration that little kids in bathing suits are also slippery when wet. This led to a minor mishap that may or may not have left a large, red grass burn on her shoulder (that, at first, looked alarmingly like a battle wound).
In all honesty, I think it's kinda cool with kids get small scrapes, scratches and bruises from running around the playground, or roughhousing, or anything that seems like good clean fun. But I hate, hate when it happens while I'm the presiding responsible adult. Not so much because I think there's anything wrong with it -- accidents happen, blah blah -- but more because I never know quite how to explain it to the other parent(s) I report to.
I always feel like "she's done [something precarious] before, and nothing happened, so I figured it'd be cool" isn't a good enough excuse, but I also feel uncomfortable making something up. Dog attack, exploding tricycle, runaway kite, disturbingly aggressive 5-year-old -- it's hard to strike to the balance between injury-inducing and flat-out absurd.
It seems like in normal households, each parent gets a handful of "get out of jail free cards." So when you're having an off day, or the kid's completely insane, you're not really accountable when they stick their hand in a cactus (which has never happened at our house). Is this true? Because I feel ultra-accountable. Not that Edan's mom reports me to Child Protective Services every time I drop her off covered in band-aids -- she almost always responds simply with "Oh."
But there's judgment in that "oh" -- I can feel it.
Therefore -- and please don't hate me for saying this -- I'm always slightly relieved when Edan comes over with a minor injury. Not that I would ever wish any pain upon my child, but truth be told, at least it didn't happen on my watch. Plus, the added benefit is that I look like a better parent in comparison -- because if it can happen with mom it must mean it's OK. Or at least it means there's no passing judgment if the same thing happens with me.
However, as much I worry, I can't bring myself to hover over Edan's every move, or restrict our activities to padded rooms. I don't want her to miss out on anything -- ever, at all. And certainly not because I'm worried about what someone else thinks of my parenting -- even when that someone else is her mom.
Because -- bruises and all -- it just wouldn't be summer without a Slip N' Slide.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ginny 5-15-2007 @ 10:35AM
I know what you mean. I feel a little of what you feel when I drop my kids off at school every Monday with band aids. We play hard tho, and you get a little beat up. This past weekend we went to a water park and my 6 year old son got knocked over by a little girl (hee hee) and scraped up his whole torso...then later, while running up a hill to get to another slide, he fell again...ON HIS FACE, so he has a scrape on his face. He also scraped his knee in the Rambling Bayou. He didn't feel a "thang" tho and was happy as could be. Don't worry about Eden's scrape...it shows she's outside having some good ole summer fun!
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Ginny 5-15-2007 @ 10:37AM
P.S. we just bought them a slip-and-slide too. :)
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Mammacheryl 5-15-2007 @ 10:48AM
I felt kind of bad when I realized that my 16-month-old son gets more bruises and scrapes on the weekends with us than when he's at daycare. You can imagine my horror when the little guy gave himself a black eye a couple weekends ago. When his teacher at daycare took a picture of him to put on a mother's day present, his shiner was gleaming with all its might. Such a keepsake to remember this Mother's Day... a picture of my son's face with a black eye in the middle of a construction paper flower. I consider them battle wounds from toddlerhood, and I actually did a little happy dance when he scraped his knees open at the park. It felt like he was no longer my baby, but a little boy at last.
Some of my other friends who are first-time moms were horrified at how banged up my son gets, but I just laugh it off. Kids are going to get bruised and scraped. I'll do my best to make sure nothing catastrophic happens, but beyond that, the world is his oyster.
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Jessica 5-15-2007 @ 11:23AM
I sure would not be summer without a slip-n-slide.
Oh, the "disturbingly aggressive 5-year-old" had me rolling!
UGH. Every time my daughter comes home from my MIL's house, she has a bump or bruise....on her head. EVERY. TIME. I am in no way hyperbolizing, here. And why always on her head? She doesn't fall on anything else while she is over there I guess.
The last one was so bad that the swim instructor asked me about it, quickly glancing over the rest of her to see if there were others.
My husband gets mad at me, but I seriously wonder if anyone watches anything she does while she is over there. I'm all for accidents and certainly want her to experiement, but the frequency at which it occurrs over there is disturbing.
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James 5-15-2007 @ 11:52AM
Yeah, slip and slides are awesome! I bought my six year old one for his birthday a couple weeks ago, and he loves it.
Dude, get over all the crap about comparing yourself to her mom already. You are two different people, and you aren't together so there is no way to know what she is thinking. Maybe she doesn't care, maybe she does...there is no way to know and getting all self righteous about it isn't going to help. Just make sure nothing REALLY bad happens to her and you'll be fine.
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barb 5-15-2007 @ 12:36PM
well johnathon good news you havent done anything the rest of us havent. but yeah in the same quite tramatic. more so for us. my children have the new sprinmkler thingy.....you know with all the hoses sticking out of it that wiggle......havent quite got them a slip and slid yet of course we are talking about 2 boys and 3 girls fightint like mad dogs trying to kill each other over who is going first and who is next. but yes at various times they have played on them. at keast the 4 older ones
but not together. if you or anyone has any ideas how to make a slip and slide work with my brutal crew please let me know would love to interduce all of them to it together. with out having a death threat......hey i still like running and careening down a slipery piece of plastic
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daisy 5-15-2007 @ 1:25PM
My 2 year old son can climb almost all the way to the top of our chain link fence that's five feet high. He can also climb back down, but yesterday, we saw him trying to throw his leg over. There's an amublance trip waiting to happen!
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rebecca Biernesser 5-15-2007 @ 1:13PM
hey there is a new thing that's out that is a slide and you slide into a pool of water, pretty cool for little ones. I saw it was Toys r us for like 30 bucks. Slip and slides are classics so I hope she gets the hang of it.
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Amy 5-15-2007 @ 2:18PM
The only thing worse than when my son gets a bruise on my watch, is when I'm the one who actually GIVES it to him , thinking I'm being all cool and playful!
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barb 5-15-2007 @ 5:45PM
how about taking the boy for stitches because you chased him through the yard and he gashed his foot open on the water meter cover
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