Tough Licks

My son decided to start his extreme sports career last night by riding my friend’s daughter’s scooter down a steep driveway, only to crash at the bottom and impale the handlebar into his chin. Fortunately the daughter was nearby and did the right thing by walking him out of the road and running to get me. When I heard, I initially thought ok, no big deal, small scraps and tears. However walking around the corner of the house I see my son crying with blood running from his chin, small pool of blood at his feet. This was no normal tumble, this is going to require a trip to the hospital for stitches. I pulled my shirt off, wrapped it around his chin, and walked him up to the house. We put ice into a cold pack, put it on his chin, carefully walked him to the car, and drove off to the hospital. An hour later my son was all stitched back together, and a lot happier. I’m sure he’ll think twice before pulling anymore scooter stunts. We made sure to get him ice cream on the way home. I took some before & after pictures of the wound, for historical sake.

Warning the following pics are a bit gory: Before & After.

However this brings up a parenting issue I’ve been struggling with for a while. How much do you worry over your kids, and when do you just let them injure themselves so they’ll learn. Everyone is so over protective of kids these days. Obviously times have changed, it’s a miracle I survived as a child. When I was little, I didn’t have a car seat with cup holders and video games, I had an upside down 5-gallon bucket in the back of my Dad’s work van, sitting in between 1/2 ton weight machinery that could crush me in a sec if we had to stop too fast. I got to play with power tools, hatchets, dirt bikes, etc when I was definitely not old enough or parentally supervised enough. And today I worry, stress, and over parent if my son climbs a tree. Of course I blame most of my son’s woosiness on his mother, she coddles and spoon feeds him constantly, and there is only so much control I have during the 50% of the time he’s with me. But I’m too blame also, because I haven’t done much to rectify the situation. This has become an issue constantly on my mind, and I have tried to just let go. Let him go be a kid, get hurt, take his licks and learn from them. This recent injury is proof of that, of course right afterwards I went right into over protective mode. Where was I? Who gave him the scooter? Why wasn’t another parent watching? Etc etc etc. I have to admit it’s hard, but it’s important my son become self reliant, and learn from his mistakes. I’m not always going to be around. So hopefully after this event he learned that scooters can be dangerous, and maybe he shouldn’t roll full bore down a steep driveway? Time will tell.