Mama's don't let your babies......

I saw another Mom's post today about how she never thought she'd be a nervous mother, but come to find out she is a bit. LOL I always thought I'd be a hyper-attentive mom, but come to find out I'm more worried about the mundane than the extreme.

Maybe it's just how active the DD has always been, but it doesn't make me all that nervous when she tries some bonehead stunt.

She learned to walk at 8 months old (yes, 8 months when she took her first steps, 9 months and she was walking well, by 1 year she was almost running in a toddlerish way). She was always climbing on things (though she seems to have a sense for what is truly too dangerous, as she's never climbed on bookshelves or dressers or even the kitchen counters). When she was 18 months old, we were visiting my Dad's older brother & sister-in-law & Mom (my Mom-mom) in Dallas, TX. DD would climb all over things: the couch, a little wheeled toddler ride-on toy, and whatever else she could find that appeared safe. Mom-mom would freak out, telling me that I better get her down before she fell and hurt herself. I know part of it was Mom-mom's age prompting her to be more nervous about things than she might have been with her own kids, but I was also made aware that there were things that may have appeared dangerous to some, but with DD I just didn't worry about it. She's always been pretty well able to handle herself.

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Then there was the time when we went out to Tangles Lakes camping, when she was about 6 years old. All weekend we'd been watching these bone-head teenage boys attempting to extreme mountain-bike on the little walking paths around the camp area. Most of them had rather nasty spills. Then DD decided it looked like fun, and asked her dad if she could take her bike up this little hill not far from our camp-site and bike down it. He told her ok. I came out of the camper and asked what was going on, I sat there shaking my head, praying she didn't have a REAL nasty spill (as we were nowhere near any sort of medical facilities) and figuring that no matter what happened, she'd only do it once. Needless to say, she was on a child's bike with the brakes that are tied into the pedals, where one must "back-pedal" to activate them. This little hill had about a 45 deg. incline, but the path was a straight-shot down the side, no curves or winding. So, DD got to the top and turned her bike around (she walked the bike UP), mounted her bike, and waved to us. It was me, the FIL, and DH standing there in our campsite, watching. MIL was sitting in their camper reading, or she would have been hyperventelating, watching her granddaughter attempt a stunt like that, and yelling at the hubby & I for allowing DD to do this crazy thing.

So, DD heads down, and about 1/2 way she loses her footing on her pedals, and by the time she got another 1/4 of the way, she'd gone head-over-handles and was laying out on the bike path, her bike beside her. So, the 3 of us started ambling over (she wasn't screaming, but was conscious, so we knew she wasn't terribly hurt) to check on her. Sure enough, when she went over the handlebars, she'd bruised her sternum a bit, but was otherwise unhurt. And she didn't want to ever try that again. LOL Unfortunately she also popped the tire on her bike, so she wouldn't have been trying it again on this trip anyway. MIL came back as we stood around looking at the bike and asked what had happened. When we told her, she damned near had a heart-attack and started yelling at the 3 of us for allowing DD to do something so stupid. LOL

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When we got back from DD's hockey tournament and I took pictures to work, I had several people ask me if I wasn't terrified to let DD play hockey, much less play goalie. I quite honestly responded that I've NEVER felt nervous about her playing, as they're so heavily padded and helmeted that she's in more danger when she's out riding her bike then she is on the hockey rink. It just doesn't occur to me to be nervous of her playing hockey. And I figure that if there was some part of it that DD felt was truly hazardous to herself, she wouldn't do it.

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Yesterday, my older nephew had his 5th birthday party at a park near his paternal Grandma's house (not the MIL, the dad's parents). DD wore her Healy's (those shoes with the wheels in the heel). She was having fun skating on them on the pavement, since she's not allowed to where them almost anywhere else in town (school, stores, watching hockey games). One of her favorite actions at the smaller kiddie parks (the ones designed for the under 8 crowd) is to stand on the top, center part of the teeter-totter while kids on either side are making it rock. She's got fairly good balance, what can I say.... She never falls off those things. Well, even though she's not grandchild to the nephew's grandma, Grandma N was nervous as heck watching DD perform this feat. LOL And there was no way her grandson was going to be allowed to do the same. I was figuring it's a 1 foot drop, granted that it IS possible to break an arm in that distance, but I didn't figure it's likely.

Then DD decided she was going to skate down the spiral slide. *rolling eyes* Well, again, she'd only do it once if she got hurt! And she did it, and didn't fall, and said it was fun. LOL

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I don't know, things like that don't make me nervous. Instead, she called just a bit ago from her best friend's grandma's house (where they all spent the night last night) asking if she & M. (best friend) could walk over to the park. It's really only about 2 blocks from B&K's House (grandparent's house) to the park, but to get there the girls must cross a minor highway and the railroad tracks. THAT makes me nervous. I know they're both old enough to know how to look both ways and what is safe and what is not. And DD's got her cell-phone in case they've got any problem. (I didn't mention that we got her a cell-phone for just that kind of wandering about town, did I?!?!?! Just got it for her this past weekend. Figured if she was old enough to be wandering about our small town, then she was old enough to have a phone with which to contact the DH & I. But it IS prepaid & no texting capabilities. And after our initial investment, she buys her own minutes. Oh, and it's DH's old cell-phone, he got himself a new one, as did I.) But, I don't like the thought of her crossing the highway and the railroad tracks. THAT makes me nervous.

It just strikes me as rather funny how the things that would normally scare most mom's half-to-death don't scare me. The physical stunts don't scare me. It's the normal every day things that make me nervous.

Oh, and for the record, the ONLY time she's ever had stitches, it was not a physical stunt that resulted in that trip to the ER. She was wearing flip-flops and trotting up the gravel path leading from our next-door-neighbour's backdoor to his drive-way, and tripped over her own feet & gashed open her hand on the gravel. It was about 10:30 on a summer night, when she & DH got done hanging out with J&T and came home for bed. Tossed her into the bath to soak out the dirt from the gash, only to realize how deep it was, so we ended up heading in for the ER by 11 pm. That was a late night. And she's NEVER broken a bone! Even her most recent gashing of her arm was when she was bumped into a mirror at B&K's house that had a chip in the edge, and gashed her arm on that chipped spot. The mundane, every day actions are when she's more likely to get hurt. Not the physical stunts, it seems.

Just had to share some of my reminisces about s ome of DD's stunts, and how I don't seem to share the same concern over stunts that a lot of mom's do. I don't know. Maybe it's because I know that telling DD that she's NOT allowed to do something will only result in her becoming more determined to do exactly that sort of thing. I'd rather tell her ok, and be prepared to take her for assistance if needed, then NOT be there when she attempts it WITHOUT my knowledge. And again, I figure that she knows best what her body can accomplish and that if it's something that either hurts her or scares her, she'll only do it the once! LOL

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In other news, we've had some beautiful weather for most of the past month. March was windy & cold and even somewhat snowy. Then April came and the weather calmed, and the clouds went away, and we got sun, and warmth. And finally about 1 week ago the mosquitos started showing up. But they were the big mosquitos. The ones we refer to as "bombers" because they're big & slow. These are the mosquitos that we try to kill as much as possible, because the more of them killed, the less will be left to lay the eggs that produce the next generations of mosquitos. The subsequent generations of mosquitos are small & fast (so small and fast that often one doesn't even realize they've been bitten till it's too late & one starts itching), and there are loads of them. These mosquitos we call "fighters" (refering to the F16 or whatever fighter jets the military uses these days). Well, wouldn't you know it, we woke on Thursday to snow and cold. And it appears to have killed off what "bombers" were still out there. And it's sunny again, so hopefully the majority of the bombers were killed by the cold before they could lay their eggs. That would greatly reduce the number of fighters this summer. It'd be even better if, once the fighters all take to the skies, we get one more snow & freeze that kills even more of them. I love the thought of a mostly mosquito-free summer. I mean, we'll always have SOME mosquitos, but the fewer the better.

But, it's back to sunny & beautiful for now. And only 1 more day left in the month, then we'll be into May and we should start seeing REALLY warm days coming, and the trees hopefully finally greening out. They've all got buds, but we haven't had much moisture to prompt them to leaf out finally. It's looking like, after a cold winter, we're going to have a beautiful early summer.

Have a Blessed Day!