I carried my giant little teddy bear Lu back to the blanket spread out in the shade preparing to cuddle and comfort her for about a minute until my little bruiser returned to play, a little tougher, a little smarter, a little more agile around the sandbox. But I suddenly felt blood and realized the back of her little head was split open and her pretty hair was damp with blood. We quickly decided to take her to the ER and packed up to the shameful stare of this helicopter 30 yards away.
We got to the hospital with a toddler who was over this injury thing and ready to play. Two hours later, they ended up putting a staple in to close the wound and sent us on our way.
But then it all started again; the "I should have been right there" feelings and guilt. Because of a stranger at a park.
Here's the thing: kids are like magnets for getting hurt and they really really suck at listening. Like, seriously, they're worse than husbands at listening. Can we all just take this in for a minute? Kids fall. Kids don't listen.
Are there perfect children with perfect parents out there avoiding injury at all cost and obeying with delight when told not to climb higher than the first ladder rung? Maybe. Kudos to them. But maybe instead of judging the world full of parents and children, we can all offer up a truce. Focus this energy elsewhere...like teaching our kids to be adventurous, kind and understanding. Perhaps we can focus more on giving that mom at the grocery store with three screaming children an air high five and less on making comments as to how loud her children are. Or help that sweet mom whose son just knocked over a display of wheat thins while joyfully entertaining his baby sister in the cart instead of muttering "Ugh! Now all the boxes are dented." Or tell that mom wearing her twin babies at the zoo while wrangling the niece she watches three times a week while her sister in law works that she's AWESOME.
I think there's so much more we can do to build up the women and people raising the next generation of presidents, doctors, artists and visionaries that there just really isn't time for this blame-gaming mom-shaming nonsense that the media is all too happy to exploit.
Let's take today and tomorrow and probably the rest of the days too, to reach out and compliment a mom you see doing good things. No, seriously, think of someone. Text, call, write on their Facebook wall. Like right now.
Let's get our mom game "on fleek" because I think we deserve it. And because the world needs some problem solvers.