It’s been a little while…life does get in the way. My daughter has always been a bit of a dare devil. Since she was little people would say, “she’s going to be a stunt woman” and they meant it. Fear or common sense doesn’t seem to stop her in her tracks. I love so much of that spirit and spunk, but as a parent all I can see is the danger, the what if’s.
Apparently while at a friend’s house she first jumped off the shed, landed it and did a parkour roll. That was so much fun, but not scary enough, so she asked her friend to drag over the beanbag. This time she wanted to flip onto the beanbag. Unfortunately, part of her body missed. Coming back to those what if’s, what if she broke her neck, hit her head, broke her pelvis, her hip, her femur, was paralyzed. I rushed over there, and she was in pain and couldn’t walk. Of course, my daughter has a high threshold for pain, so I am really worried now. We end up at on ER 9:30 on a Saturday night. We get in, they take x-rays. I wanted to be sure nothing was broken…and thankfully nothing was. Phew…few days rest and she recovered. Literally Tuesday it’s like nothing happened.
Yes, I’m thrilled she fine, but how do you choose when to make that trip to the ER? Two weeks before she feel off her bike, when the front tire popped off and cut her leg. It turns out she could have used some stitches. That too will be fine, but now she’ll have a better scar from this war wound.
Also, I need to think when I was her age would this be something I may do? Ok, so yes, and not might. We used to climb on the beams in the house I grew up and jump down to the couch. That was a bit higher too plus next to a coffee table. I think I broke a finger and maybe my sister separated her elbow. We all make those bad choices and bad things happened.
It’s so easy to live in the fear as a parent and forget the daring fun. Is it ok to find humor in this at all since she’s ok? Or should be live in the fear of what could have happened? I’m not saying I EVER want her to do this again. I’m truly relieved.
After the fact I spoke with her therapist about this and she asked me were there any consequences for her actions? Honestly I didn’t even think to punish her. There were quite a few natural consequences. Pain being a big one. Fear of going back to her friend’s house, having to be stuck in the house and be still for a few days, many many lectures from the adults in her life, volleyball being sidelined, the possibility of her birthday excursion being cancelled. Life in this case did its job.