What is a Tuesday Toot you might be wondering?? In the Mommy Blog world its the one day that you get to "toot your own horn" and have no shame in doing it!
What am I tooting my own horn about? I think I am finally starting to not panic with fear that every time my daughter rides her razor scooter, tries on her roller skates or does a flip off of a swing that the activity is going to end in tons of blood, tears (mine and hers) and a trip to the ER.
Thankfully my child is a physical child - but I don't just mean running and swimming. I mean jumping, flipping, climbing, speeding, etc. All things that give me reason to clench my teeth and dig my nails into my palms every time she says "watch me". And while she isn't a daredevil by any means (she doesn't really like to attempt anything she doesn't think she can do or is scared of), there are enough "adventures" out in our backyard or on our street to cause me enough panic that I am very happy that we aren't a daredevil!
So her new favorite activities are to climb our really big grapefruit tree outside in our backyard (she goes so high up that yesterday her friend who is 2 years older then her came in to get me and said Allie's hair was stick in the branches and she couldn't get down and her friend said she was too scared to climb that high - she ended up shaking her hair loose and coming down - thankfully because I'm pretty confident neither my husband nor I would be able to climb the tree to untangle her hair!) and to swing from the top silver bar that our swings hang down from. Normally these activities cause me to breath heavily and pray each time she says "watch me" that she finishes her "trick" in one piece and usually I'm so fearful that I clench my eyes the entire time that I miss the whole thing anyways!
Well - I accidentally watched her climb the tree yesterday and saw the sheer joy she had in her conquest and realized that I need to tone my fears down because I don't want to quash her sense of adventure or somehow influence her into thinking that she should feel scared.
Can she get hurt? Sure. Do I want her to get hurt? Absolutely not. But she can get hurt doing gymnastics, riding her bike, climbing the monkey bars, or slipping in the shower (as she did this past Christmas!) and sometimes getting hurt is part of being a kid.
So Allie, here is to you for being that kid that I wanted to be but never was - enjoy it, have fun and I promise to watch next time! :-)
5 comments:
I have to agree with you on this one. I have one daughter who is a daredevil and I have not doubt she'll try to climb the tree in our back yard before the summer is over. She makes me so nervous, but at the same time I want her to be a kid and not to be afraid to try new things.
Thanks for this post, it was a good reminder!
I think we all feel that as parents and I believe it is trying to teach us something. A while back I wrote an article on my blog called Early lessons in riding a bike - Persevereance wins everytime.
I guess you could say that it isn't just about approaching the daredevil in our kids, but the daredevil as parents. When to let go, how much is too much, how are we supposed to figure this parenting thing out. I hope you enjoy the read. I would love to hear your thoughts about it.
Warmest Regards,
-Kakie
Visiting through NCLM. Sounds like your daughter has a lot of fun- although I can understand your worries. I, too, wish that I had been more adventurous as a child and lived more freely...
Visiting from NaComLeavMo. Although I don't have children, I am always afraid of getting hurt and other people getting hurt in front of me. Luckily I know how to fix them if they do, that calmed some of my fears.
Glad to see you are not clenching as much :)
I am so excited to hear that there may come a day when I don't freak out watching my kid do something that could be dangerous.
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