The Invisible Bubble

Life is not always an easy thing.  You will have good times and bad times, up and downs.  The one thing to remember is you will get through it.

Life can teach you a lot if you are willing to learn from the experiences.  As a parent, it is hard knowing you have to let your child experience life.  They need to find their way and discover who they are by going through everyday life situations.

Right now, I am dealing with a situation with Caleb and his preschool.  Part of me, I want to pull him right out of their and protect him.  I wish I could put him in an invisible bubble and keep him from all sickness and harm.  The thing is I can't.  (Really, an invisible doesn't exist anyway.)  I can't protect him from everything.  He will get hurt.  He will get sick.

First let me define hurt.  I don't want people thinking "Oh my, you will let your child do anything even if it means it can kill him."  No, that is not what I am saying.  What I am defining as hurt is the time your child might fall off a jungle gym and breaks an arm or leg.  Or a time, when playing with another child, he gets hit in a eye with a toy.  Those kind of scenarios.

You can't keep your child from playing with other children.  Now, unless it is a repetitive harmful thing, darn right my child will not play with that other child any more.  But Caleb needs to grow and learn.  He needs to be around other people so he can develop skills that will help him be a better person.

Overall, my point to all this rambling, invisible bubbles don't exist.  Your child will get hurt emotionally and physically in life.  Your child will get sick.  So just suck it up and realize that doctor's appointments and emergency runs to the ER or Urgent Care are all part of life.  That is why they exist in the first place.

Why Is Your Child Wearing That?

I have to admit before I had a child there were times I was judgmental of other parents and their kids.  If I saw a kid out in public wearing a costume, I am thinking why are you letting your child go out in public like that?  It shocked me and I told myself I wouldn't let my child dress like that in public.  Home is fine but not in public.  Or sometimes I wondered why kids wore mismatched clothes or inside out.  Again, I told myself my child would not be dressed like that.

It is true what they say that you don't understand kids until you have your own.  I watched kids all the time and thought I knew everything.  Well guess what you don't.  The thing is a babysitter is not around 24/7 with said child so you don't really know the in's and out's of kids unless you have your own.

The day came that Caleb wanted to get himself dressed one morning for daycare/preschool.  I let him do it.  During the process of putting his shirt on, it was turning inside out (he was only 2 when he did this).  I praised him while he was trying to put it on but asked if I could help him.  I get the, "NO!!! I do it!!!"  I tried to explain gently, because you don't want to hurt their little feelings while they are trying to accomplish something so big, that his shirt was not going on right.  I still got the no I do it bit.  Once he completed his task, he was all smiles and so proud because he put his shirt on.  I praised him and left it alone.  We got to the school that day and I mentioned to the teacher that yes I know his shirt is inside out and explained what happened.  She told me not to worry that every kid there has come in with shirts inside and out.  She advised that they will get it straightened out later and they did.

Just the other day, he wanted to go out with Daddy.  We told him he had to get dressed first.  He said he will go get his clothes.  He runs off comes back with a green shirt.  This green shirt is actually a Christmas shirt but no biggie.  We told him he needed pants and thought for sure he would come back with his jeans.  Nope, he came back  with bright blue pants with a black and white stripe going down the side.  I realized my  judgmental thoughts were coming back to haunt me and kick me in my butt.  I had to let him wear the mismatched clothes because he was so proud that he picked out his own clothes.  I wanted him to realize he can do things on his own so I had to leave that alone.  The one secret that I can share is I usually try to buy him jeans so that way whatever shirt he picks out will match his pants.  He only owns 3 pants that are colored and that day happened to be the day he picked out a colored pair.

In reality, you should never judge other people. Really, I never realized I was being judgmental until I had my own child and understood so many things.  There will be times, I know, that other people will judge me.  I will have to just suck it up and know their day will come and they will understand why my son went out in public with a green Christmas shirt on (in January) and bright blue pants with black and white stripe going down the leg.

The Dangerous Giraffe

One day, I get a call from my son's preschool. They informed me that Caleb was hit and had a cut on the crown of his head. The bleeding wouldn't stop. I told them that I would be there in 20 minutes and ran out the door at work. I get to preschool to see Caleb standing there with a teacher and she is applying a cold compress to his head. My son looks up at me and says, "Hi Mommy. Do I get to go home?" After looking at it, I didn't think he would need stitches but I wanted to make sure of it. Off we go to Urgent Care to have him checked out.

Before we left, I asked the teacher what happened. She told me my son had a toy, a little girl took it, he took it back, and she took it again and whacked him on the head with it. Meanwhile, I am thinking this toy must be a car with sharp edges or a lego block or something long the line of that. I asked her what toy caused the damage and she held up a giraffe. A small plastic giraffe. This thing was no bigger than 4 inches. I couldn't believe it. She responded, "The dangerous giraffe is no longer allowed to be played with." We both cracked up laughing.

We get to Urgent Care and they take us back. The doctor asked me what happened.

Doctor: Did he fall or something?
Me: No. He was beat up by a girl.
Doctor: He was beat up by a girl?!?!?!
Me: Yes. He was beat up by a girl. He had toy, girl took toy, he took it back, and she took it again and Wham on the head with the toy by the girl.

Doctor starts laughing. Looks at my 3 year old and said, "Buddy, that is only the beginning. They are heart breakers and they can really hurt you too." At this point, I wanted to ask the doctor, "Are you well experienced in that area?" But I thought that wouldn't be really appropriate thing to say. In the end, my little boy did not need stitches and it did heal up on it's own quickly. When we left there, it was close to lunch time so we stopped for lunch at McDonald's and headed back to my work. The preschool has this rule that kids can not come to school during the hours of 11:30am and 1:30pm because it is nap time. So it was one of those things that I had to just suck it up and accept the rule and make the best out of the situation. While he hung at work with me, he watched Caillou video's on my computer while I did some other things.