Because Hockey
I'll leave it up to you to figure out which kid is which, but one of the girls can swing from a chandelier while holding a cat by the tail without getting so much as a scratch on her. The other one, however, can stand perfectly still on a flat floor and end up with an injury.
They're both overachievers, each in their own special way.
The thing about the order in which they were born is that I HAVE LEARNED NOTHING. NOTHING AT ALL. You'd think that having a kid who gets attacked by the floor first would mean I would have lots and lots of practice at figuring out when injuries and illnesses warrant extra attention.
But I don't. AT ALL.
I really doubt I'm the only parent who loses sleep trying to figure out if a runny nose, fever, or ache warrants a trip to a doctor. Things have gotten easier with urgent care centers popping up here and there, but I am still clueless. I stress and think and reconsider hour after hour after hour. I second-guess myself and then third-guess myself. "If it still hurts in an hour" or "If the fever doesn't go down two degrees by 4:00" and all sorts of weird mental games go on in my head.
It's a waiting game, is what I'm saying. But it's the sort of waiting game that occupies every cell of my being while I'm waiting. Because STRESS.
Which brings us to my newfound cure for child injury stressing. One of the girls, her name might rhyme with "Aflexis," managed to whack her pinky finger off the side of a wall in a way that left her teary-eyed and filled with drama. That particular kid acts like the world is ending no matter the severity of the injury, so I was left to hand her an ice pack and wait to see what would happen. Was it broken? Sprained? Totally fine and she was just being dramatic?
WHO KNOWS?
What I do know is that said injury occurred at 7:50. The Pens game started at 8:10. That means I had exactly 20 minutes of furiously worrying about my kid and then ... I forgot. I didn't even consider a trip to urgent care because HOCKEY. For once I was firm in my "we'll reevaluate in the morning" stance and didn't consider it even once all night long.
Because hockey.
So basically I figured out how to make myself stop stressing about a kid at the exact same time that I figured out that I should probably wrap the girls in bubble wrap on hockey days. Apparently I forget how to parent when there's hockey involved.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Reader Comments (4)
LET'S GO PENS!
Well, in all fairness, it was PLAYOFF hockey...
I have often said that if CPS showed up to our house during a Steelers game or Pens or Pirates playoff games that they'd end up taking the children and charging me with neglect.
It's a 'Burgh thing! Perfectly normal. Go Pens!!!