Few things are as painful as watching your child fall. It's especially true if they are on a scooter doing a good 5-6 mph when they locked wheels in a sidewalk crack and go flying forward landing on their face. Yeah, that's pretty much what Carolina did last week. But I have to admit, she was tougher than me. She got up, whimpered a little and then played for 2 hours at the park as if nothing had happened. Oh, thank God, I got a tough kid.
(*Please note: the tough kid likes to snarl at me in her photos lately. It's kind of her signature face. I told you she was tough.)
And of course, the irony in all of this is that Carolina has been riding her sister's hand-me-down scooter all over the neighborhood for a good 3-4 months without a helmet. And this fall happened on her second outing with a new one. And this is my problem with helmets and all this protective gear--it's just an illusion of safety. It didn't protect her nose or hands from cuts or her precious little forehead from getting one nasty looking goose egg either. She scraped up most of her nose and just below it pretty good. And the following day after I noticed her bottom lip protruding strangely, I realized she also managed to take off a good circle of skin from the inside of her lower lip. OUCH! This kid was eating and drinking like nothing had happened. It was unbelievable. So just a few days later, after the bump on her head receded, we attempted the scooter (and helmet) again. Better to get back in the saddle right away, I thought. And Carolina seemed to agree. She raced all around the park, and on the walk to and from, without any hesitation. Of course, I raced alongside her cautioning her at every little nook and cranny in the sidewalk, but she was fine. Watching her play is truly a delight. She is so confident in her movements and makes up for her age deficit with sheer bravado. She runs with some big kids and it really shows. Just this week with Nacho's help, she's also become quite a pro at the rock climbing wall. Yeah, this girl is pretty fearless. And I love that. I'll just have to buy some more band-aids.
2 comments:
Glad she's okay.
I'm generally very pro helmet. But I think helmets are mostly about cars. (Or I guess collisions with other moving objects, such as people on bikes.) So, yeah, not gonna protect your face, but if you get hit by a car at least your skull remains intact. Actually, I guess I should more broadly say they are also about curbs. B/c even if you're only going 5-6 mph on a bike, if you swerve, fall and hit a curb, you can be in serious trouble. None of this is much of a risk or issue where my kids ride (even when we lived in the city), but I figure it's all about forming habits. I do have this MAJOR pet peeve about seeing families bike riding where the kids have on helmets and the parents don't. It's like, "Oh, you think your giant skull is immune to this risk but the kid's isn't?"
Sorry for rambling about helmets on your blog. I'm tired. : )
Very good points, Kate. And you're absolutely right about forming the habit. I know in NYC, the law says kids under 14 must wear helmets on bikes, and our park has a rule "no helmet, no wheels" which applies to scooters as well. But my lax parenting usually looked the other way--mostly because Elisa refused to wear one after an unfortunate skin-pinching incident with the strap a few years ago. She rarely fell and so we just got lulled into not taking it with us. But now with two kids, I thought, okay, it's time to sort this out! And I'm glad we did.
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