Scared? Helpless?
anonymous
September 22 2005, 13:06:10 UTC
Now for some more perspective:
Did you have accidents when you were a child? Did you bleed? Ever knock a tooth loose? Need stitches? Sprain an ankle? Break a bone? Scrape yourself up over a section of skin larger than a hand? Get a black eye?
Did you have fun?
Did you survive? Are you alive, well, healthy and all grown up?
Even more perspective: My daughter has never hurt herself more than pulling a muscle and breaking two toes. However, if someone four blocks over gets sick, she gets sick. My son is forever bumped and bruised, with the occasional blood and oh my god!, but he has been sick maybe six times in eleven years, and yes, I'm counting since birth.
Boys play hard, harder than girls. You know this to be a fact. They are more fearless than girls, you know this too. They are forever testing their strength, their stamina, and their imaginations. Sometimes their little experiments with what they think they can do make them fall down and go boom.
That is why we hover, we protect, and we worry. We try to catch them before they fall, then scoop them up and put band-aids on the owie if they're too quick for us.
Would you really want me to lie to you? I can do that, if you prefer. I can spoonfeed you tripe about how this was a one-time thing, and you'll never see the blood of your child again, forever and ever amen.
Thing is though, the sooner you wrap your mind around the idea that he is a BOY, and he is going to act fearless like a BOY, which means he is going to get hurt like a BOY, the sooner your mind can accept it. It is that acceptance of the facts of life which makes it easier to deal with it all. The only thing denial is going to do is make every single time like the very first time he gets hurt, all over again. And again.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to horrify you. Boys being scary creatures to raise is not my rule - I didn't make it up, I was only reporting it.
Did you have accidents when you were a child?
Did you bleed?
Ever knock a tooth loose?
Need stitches?
Sprain an ankle?
Break a bone?
Scrape yourself up over a section of skin larger than a hand?
Get a black eye?
Did you have fun?
Did you survive? Are you alive, well, healthy and all grown up?
Even more perspective:
My daughter has never hurt herself more than pulling a muscle and breaking two toes. However, if someone four blocks over gets sick, she gets sick. My son is forever bumped and bruised, with the occasional blood and oh my god!, but he has been sick maybe six times in eleven years, and yes, I'm counting since birth.
Boys play hard, harder than girls. You know this to be a fact. They are more fearless than girls, you know this too. They are forever testing their strength, their stamina, and their imaginations. Sometimes their little experiments with what they think they can do make them fall down and go boom.
That is why we hover, we protect, and we worry. We try to catch them before they fall, then scoop them up and put band-aids on the owie if they're too quick for us.
Would you really want me to lie to you? I can do that, if you prefer. I can spoonfeed you tripe about how this was a one-time thing, and you'll never see the blood of your child again, forever and ever amen.
Thing is though, the sooner you wrap your mind around the idea that he is a BOY, and he is going to act fearless like a BOY, which means he is going to get hurt like a BOY, the sooner your mind can accept it. It is that acceptance of the facts of life which makes it easier to deal with it all. The only thing denial is going to do is make every single time like the very first time he gets hurt, all over again. And again.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to horrify you. Boys being scary creatures to raise is not my rule - I didn't make it up, I was only reporting it.
Sorry. :(
Gypsy
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