WannaBeGythaOgg

The perils of parenting

This week was going pretty well, up until yesterday. That's when my 13-yr-old son, Steven, crashed his bike into the back of a parked SUV. He split the skin above his upper lip with an interesting jagged-edge cut, broke off half of a front tooth, and loosened another. Naturally this resulted in a trip to the ER, where fortunately he was put through "Express Care" (which really was pretty darn quick). He now has 18 stitches closing the cut on the upper lip, 2 stitches to hold together the INSIDE of his upper lip, and some cement to protect the tooth until I can get him to the dentist.

This isn't his first injury, but it may so far be the worst, at least in his mind. His first worry was the tooth - but I explained that modern dentistry can work far greater miracles than the fix of one broken one. Then he actually apologized... when I asked why, he said "because it's gonna cost money". I immediately hugged him and told him that money was of FAR less importance to me than HE is. Poor kid. Now in addition to worrying about his physical recovery, I'm concerned over why he would think that I'd care about the expense, when he had an accident that could have had far worse consequences.

Frankly, despite my rather healthy salary, we have no real money to speak of, and this is definitely an expense I'm a tad worried about because it's an unknown. But we'll work through it, like we always do. I just hate it when any of my children is hurt. Steven has had more stitches by far than any of the others. Maybe it's just a boy thing...although my older daughter has had one rather nasty head wound that required 8 stitches, the boys seem to be more accident-prone. I can already see my 2-yr-old, Adam, gearing up for his own trips to the ER...he's a climber and regards all household furniture as an opportunity to improve his view. He also has no sense of his own relative frailty.

So, I spent last evening just trying to take care of poor Steven, which mostly meant fetching him very soft foods to eat. He quickly tired of ice cream, and wanted something more substantial...although all of my suggestions met with resistance. At least he was feeling good enough to argue.

I don't think anybody ever considers all the ramifications of becoming a parent...we think about how wonderful a baby would be, and how much fun it'd be to dress up a little girl in adorable outfits, and teaching our sons to play baseball and football so they can hit the big leagues...but do we think about the things that could go wrong? Even in healthy kids, the potential for damage sustained over their lifetime is pretty substantial, and then there's kids who are born behind the eight ball altogether, with some life-altering disease or condition that will require care for most of their lives. This case, in fact, applies to my daughter Catherine, who has cerebral palsy with a seizure disorder. She asked the other day, in tones of disgust, WHY I had to keep her company while she was taking her bath...and I had to explain to her that having a seizure while in a tub full of water would be very dangerous for her. Who's gonna be there to keep her safe when she's older?

I guess it's true...as a parent, you're doomed to worry about your kids for the rest of their lives. You're there to take care of them, and raise them with values and relative health, and you're in for a lot of sleepless nights right from the get-go.

I really wish somebody had told me all that a long time ago.

posted by PratchettFan @ 7:37 AM