What I DON'T Like About Mothering

It happens. I KNOW it's going to happen - it's supposed to, especially in a house with three boys. All the same, when I hear a bloodcurdling scream that indicates we'll be going to the ER soon, I never can quite take it in stride, and I don't think I'll ever get used to it, even though I know it's going to come again and again. The kids will be the better for it, of course, and the boys will wear their scars like badges of honor, as all boys do, but oh, that surge of fear that takes seconds off my life!

Okay, okay, a little dramatic! Still, I do hate it when the kids are hurt, as Drew was yesterday afternoon. Climbing up onto the trampoline, he slipped a little and when came down he was screaming in terror. It sounded much more like panic than actual pain (he has a pretty high pain tolerance but is terrified of blood), so I thought he had just scratched himself. When I went to him and saw it, however, the wound on his leg looked...well, just like that - a wound, rather than just a scratch or cut. Surveying the scene, I saw he must have caught it on a screw on the outside frame of the trampoline - I couldn't believe we hadn't noticed how dangerous it was before. At any rate, I brought him inside and looked at his leg more closely. It wasn't bleeding much, and I thought perhaps the skin had just been badly torn and that I had overestimated the seriousness of the injury. Dave, upon arriving home, thought the same thing, but we both knew we needed to take him in to have it properly cleaned and dressed. Naturally, it was just after the pediatrician's office had closed, so Dave took him to the urgent care center nearby, where they waited for waited for several hours altogether, finally emerging with seven stitches in Drew's left leg ( just above the knee) and strict instructions about how to let the wound heal (I'll omit the gory details, but it was in fact as serious an injury as it had looked at first glance). So today began the first of 3-5 days of trying to keep him from running, climbing, or jumping - a herculean task! Today I wasn't too creative, letting him simply watch movies to his heart's content, but tomorrow as the soreness subsides, I'm sure we'll have to come up with other ways to keep him busy.
And I' ll try not to think about the next time!