I know I already have earned "meanest mom." A couple weeks ago Spencer and I earned "Parents of the Year" hands down. We accomplished this feat by allowing our 4-year-old son to ride on a friend's zipline, without his foot in the rope for added security and without a helmet. Why would we do such a stupid thing? Well, Madeleine and our friends' kids were all riding it this way like a bunch of old pros and we obviously didn't think through the situation very well. So, here's what happened:
He climbed the ladder up to the start of the line (which truthfully was a red flag in and of itself) and started his ride down the zipline. Spencer and I and the dad of the other family were all standing there watching and cheering him on. Then he hit the end and the momentum he gathered along the way sent him flying. His feet went up in the air and his back hit a tree about 10 feet away, then he went down and hit his head on the ground/brush at the foot of the tree. Thankfully, he sprang right up, but he had cut his head pretty good and the blood was gushing. Needless to say we were freaked out. Considering how awful the whole thing looked and how bad it could have been, we are really lucky. We didn't feel lucky to sit for 5.5 hours in the ER, but it's a blessing that we have access at all the necessary medical care, right? Anyway, that gave us plenty of time to think of all the things we could/should have done differently so we could have saved our boy the pain he had to endure. He ended up with 4 blue stitches. They came out last week and the doctor let him keep them. He's hoping to bring them to school for show-and-tell soon.
I have pictures of the wound pre-stitches, but I thought it would be a little too gruesome for some. Honestly I don't even like to see it.
His glasses went flying too went it happend and they seemed to have vanished into thin air. I looked around for a few minutes before we went to the ER and then throughout the week our friends continued to look for them, all to no avail. We couldn't imagine where they could have gone, but they definitely weren't in the yard by the zipline. Until Saturday of that week (this happened on Monday) when they finally appeared in the grass. Very strange. Good thing he had his old, taped up pair to wear in the meantime.
Without a doubt, Parents of the Year, right?