I guess I am not “mother enough” today…
Ever since Phoenyx learned to crawl, the entire house is a damn hazard. I can seriously scan my house and not see one thing on the floor and he finds that tiny miniscule piece of paper that was stuck to the bottom of Charlotte’s shoe like 9 weeks ago and kicked under the rug. He has thus far eaten sand, paper, dog food, cat food, an UNO card, and I caught him with the toilet bowl cleaner a few weeks ago.
At this rate, I cannot believe I have a fully functioning and alive 7 year old. I should be banned from parenting. I think my mind blacked out the first 4 years of Charlotte’s life.
Or maybe it was because Charlotte just sat. She was 100% completely content to sit on her butt, surrounded by whatever you would let her have, and enjoy it. She would watch Baby Einstein. She would tear up books. She would jump in the jumperoo. She would just sit there.
But nooooooooooooo.
Not Little P. He is an overachiever that whines to the umpteenth degree if you restrain him. That boy wants to move, move, move.
So back to my story.
Today I am standing in my living room, I had just walked in there from the kitchen. I dont know what I was doing. Breathing or something. P was doing his usually NASCAR baby circle that goes between my dining room, kitchen, and back to the living room. I had scanned to make sure the cat bowls, vacuum, food, basically everything that could possibly distract him on his journey, was out of the way.
I am standing there, staring in space, and I hear a blood curdling scream. I step into the kitchen. No Phoenyx. No Phoenyx behind the dining table. I go back to the living room. Nope.
Good grief.
I found him on the other side of the kitchen. He had just not come through the path to the living area. I picked him up and scanned him over. I didn’t see ANYTHING wrong. But he was crying the cry of pain. I turned him over, start running my hands down his legs, hands, wondering if he got a piece of glass or splinter. Nothing.
I finally calmed him down and brought him into the kitchen for a snack. As I put him in his high chair, I notice that his nose is bleeding.
All I can think is that he was trying to stand up (his new favorite past time) and fell and smacked his face right on the hardwood floor.
The other option is that around the hallway we have an alarm box that sits in the wall. It’s possible he tried to pull himself up on the box and then lost his balance and hit it on the way down.
Either way, I felt terrible.
TERRIBLE.
I can’t watch him every second. Right?
Can I? Should I?
Do you?
Coming soon…me on the front page of Time with a big fat #FAIL on my forehead.
~trisha
After having four boys and four girls, my boys beat our girls out every time for being the most active. No it is impossible to watch them 24/7 365 days a year. We’d have to have them attached to our hip and it sounds like P is not going for that idea if he wants to motor around his new little world. I attachment parent, using a sling and Ergo, but all of mine at 12-18 months, if not sooner were no longer happy being in a carrier. I couldn’t force them, they wanted to explore and explore they did – with bumps, bruises, cuts and even bloody noses along the way. We feel bad, they heal and don’t remember owies…at least until they are a lot older.
Nope, we can’t watch them 100% of the time. Learning about their world, sometimes the “hard” way, is important & teaches them their boundaries & limitations!
This is a tough age.. Personally you can’t wrap them in bubble wrap their whole lives. Kids get hurt, kids get bumps and bruises. I have a 2 year old running around as I type. He’s sitting on the floor playing with trains and then suddenly gets up and takes off for the kitchen before he even has his footing! He fails, we have carpet. We watch him and my living room and dining room are ONE room essentially. But accidents happen.
At this age (and beyond) I swear they wake up every morning thinking “Hmmmm how can I try to kill myself today” and we spend all day trying to prevent it. You can’t win ‘em all!
I pulled a TV on top of my head as a baby and still managed to develop an IQ of 139.
That is so true! And it lasts for a while. Mine is 19 months and still trying to kill herself every day! And Trisha, I’ve done so many things to each of my kids. Let them fall off of counters, let them eat pills… so much. It’s a wonder any of them survive.
Awe. This sounds like an innocent accident. –My sister apparently used to run my brother into chairs on purpose (when my parents would turn their backs—they were 6 and 2 at the time respectively) so it’s not like you’re doing this. So it just sounds like you had a human moment here. Scary for sure. But you’re not doing anything wrong.
Cheers
Libs
Yea you’re going to be on Time with a big red circle with a line through it with an arrow to P with a bloody nose and the caption of “Definitely Not Mom Enough”.
I’m kidding! Of course you can’t watching them 100% of the time all the time. But I totally get why you feel bad. Something similar happened to me. I was just sitting there watching my daughter when she was P’s age and I looked out the window and when I looked back at her she was falling off the couch…she wasn’t even on the couch when I looked up at the window.
It happens.
There is just so many times where I have failed as a parent, my worst would be having a 19 month old and a baby. while I was changing the baby’s diaper my 19 month old, decided to stand on her little princess chair and fall off. She smacked her head on the table. BIg gash on her head, Thankfully derma glue took care of it. Small scar on her head now.
I have 3 all a year apart, they have had black eyes, burns, cut each others hair.
My 3yo crashed her big girl bike into the mailbox this week, with me two steps behind and unable to get to her fast enough. She has a horrible scrape and bruise on her face (the mailbox basically clothes lined her) and I felt TERRIBLE. No, you can’t watch them every minute. No, you shouldn’t. Yes, it feels terrible when they get hurt, but what doesn’t kill them makes them stronger, right?
yesterday. My happy mother’s day? Um, right. I was watching one kid play in the sprinkler hoping they wouldn’t get hurt and the other one falls down the (three) steps on the porch. I need eyes in the back of my head.
You know, here’s the thing, these things happen even when you are watching them. Oliver was a walking disaster (and still kind of is.) And Hanna was the same way as Charlotte was. Kind of spoils you, huh?
This was Oliver at 8 months: http://www.southernyankeemix.com/2011/02/on-being-boy-mom-i-may-have-heart.html
And sure enough, on his first birthday, after cake but before presents he fell into a wall corner and we spent part of his birthday party in the ER getting 6 stitches in his tiny bottom lip. It happens. Even when you are standing right there. You just do the best you can and go with the flow.
I was just telling my mom last night that I wondered if my first child was as difficult as this one or if I just blocked it all out?
You cannot watch them all the time. You still have to blink!
Don’t beat yourself up too much. We all do it. Josephine has eaten a Lego sticker, a memory game card, dog food on more than one occasion, dirt, and who knows what else that I didn’t see. And don’t ask me how she got that knot on her forehead last week. I still have no idea!
Don’t feel guilty. When Henry was 2 he fell down the stairs and had a nice carpet burn on his nose and forehead. It was one of those “I thought my husband was watching him and he thought I was watching him” things. I felt horrible but after a couple of minutes, he was his usual self. How he’s 4 now, I don’t know.