Bandages and Scars – Son Volt

the other morning, dave was making pancakes for ems while allowing me to sleep in, which was a grand, grand treat. i was drifting in and out of consciousness when i was jarred awake by a blood-curdling scream from my child. i am pretty unaccustomed to this sort of screaming, since normally when he’s scraped or bruised, he just wants to get up and keep going. that, or when he’s bleeding, he’s inclined to postulate about what it would be like to be a vampire bat.

at any rate, this was a VERY different scream. so i went bolting into the kitchen. i should add that, prior to reaching the kitchen, i caught my big toe in the hem of my jammie pants and went crashing to the floor myself, giving my hip a gigantic bruise and causing me to expose our unborn son to some language that i’m sure is totally inappropriate for a fetus. don’t worry. popcorn’s fine. he kicks me all freaking day now just to get back at me.

in the kitchen, i found dave holding an inconsolable emerson, whose face is covered in tears. i hate when he cries like that. his lips turn down so dramatically and he’s so pitiful. plus, i’m just not used to the drama. he’s a relatively drama-free kid. apparently, dave was fooling around with him, giving him a pancake the size of my pinky nail and telling him that his breakfast was ready. emerson is still not so up on jokes, and thought dave was serious. he picked up the pancake and threw it back into the pan, burning his arm on the edge of the pan in the process. we did the ice pack and bandaged it with tegaderm to keep it clean. he was fairly cool about the whole thing, and his arm’s all nicely healed now.

as a result, he’ll have a pretty significant scar on his arm for a while, and it got me thinking. he was in a lot of pain for a little while, and they make those stove guard things, and – should we get one?

and then i snapped back into reality. HOLY SHIT, NO. i mean, yes, he wears a helmet when he gets on the tricycle, and yes, we hold his hand when he crosses the street, but the safety crap has gone too far, and i was embarrassed for even thinking about the stove guard. i mean, how’s a kid ever going to learn that stove = hot if he doesn’t figure it out for himself? in my opinion, products like this and this just take the insane safety stuff too far. if a child's noggin gets bumped from time to time, isn't that normal? and shampoo in the eyes? we have to protect our children from this scourge? what about using a freaking WASHCLOTH?

i guess i've never been much bothered by bruises and bandaids. when i see emerson's bruised up legs (and believe me, he's one giant bruise), i smile. that means he's active and exploring and having a good time. he fell at the park tonight, and scraped up one of his knees. and he'll have a fantastic blue shark bandage on it tomorrow, and a story for his friends about running down the hill at top speed when he did it. shouldn't i think that's cute? should i not want him to have any scars or minor injuries? don't get me wrong - i hate to see him hurt, REALLY hurt - but i think bumps and bruises are just a part of being a kid. hell, they're part of being human.