I came home from work today and Justin said, "Guess what? Nate went on the regular swings today." And I was like "WHAT? BY HIMSELF?!" Then I ranged into a rant about how it's not safe for him to do that yet and he's not old enough and if he falls and cracks his head open how Justin'd be sorry to have to haul a screaming bleeding and hurt child into the emergency room and how now Nate will expect to go on the big swings from now on and it's not pretty you know when the bleeding and stuff and x-rays blah blah blah. I still feel like I was right and it is far too soon for Nate to be on the big kid swings for all of those reasons. HOWEVER, I can't help but think of my mom when we visit Halifax, 'be careful of this,' or 'don't let him bump his head,' or 'watch out for that.' I have oh so smart and tough answers about how he isn't made of glass you know and he has to learn some things on his own and how we can't protect him from everything. RIIIIIIGGHHT
So.
I have to get it into my brain that he will eventually get pretty banged up. I mean I had to get stitches more imes before I was 10 than I had dolls to play with. And getting hurt never stopped me. Now Nate has the potential to be at least that determined, destructive and stubborn. Still, part of me wants that to never happen, to never see him in pain, to wrap him up so he doesn't get hurt. I came upstairs to check my email and the picture above was on the computer screen, taking up the whole thing. I was so proud for him and happy for him and sad that I missed it I could have cried my eyes out on the spot.
Fuck this shit is hard.
Did I mention I still think I'm right about the swings?
3 comments:
yay for so much new posts!! i use such good english special for you. you are not right about the swings i'm sorry-la. just make sure you don't laugh when he does the face plant in the gravel showing you how to jump off the big swings--you will scar him for life....heh, kidding, jokes all around, heh, that won't happen, nope. Don't ask me about it.
-jack
Hey - I'm conflicted about the swings. I think you are both right and both wrong. I think that yes, Nate might fall and hurt himself but that yes, he can do it with careful parental supervision (and I'm pretty certain JJJustinsen wasn't enjoying his latte looking the other way). But when your kid is adventurous and growing up, its fun to see what (s)he can do, all by themselves, right?
Take a deep breath and figure that if and when Nate needs stitches, Justin can take him to the ER and you can stay home and fret.
Glad your back too, if only for the next week!
ahh, I can't believe I made such a common grammatical error.
Glad you're back...duh
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