Life with Kids
I’ve written before about Adventures in Parenting, and how we as moms pretty much have to roll with it when Life Happens and plans change. Life with kids is never dull…and as much as some days I’d like to go a few days with no extra surprises or adventures, most of the time I just move on to what comes next.
Isn’t that what we all do?
What do you think about when I say “life with kids?” The end to sleeping in? Toys invading every space in your house? Morning snuggles…big hugs, milestones, love. We do give up some independence when we become parents, but our kids give us back so much more.
Last week, my husband was traveling for a few days, and we had a mix of mom’s taxi to various kid activities – the middle has added baseball and golf practices, in addition to Tae Kwon Do; the little missed a dance day to go to high school volleyball games out of town; plus we had hair cuts and dog grooming appointments – on top of the additions of helping plan and execute the high school prom, helping my brother pack and start moving to a new place, and the day to day things of life.
In the middle of all of that? The teenager fell wrong on her knee during volleyball practice and we had an extra trip to do some physical therapy with the trainer…oh, and I drove through a nasty spring storm to get home one night.
Life doesn’t always happen the way we plan it. Accidents are part of life, and sports injuries are part of doing things and being active.
Did you play sports when you were younger? Do you still? Have you been injured along the way?
When I was little, I was in gymnastics for several years. I loved it. Also, I was tall and gangly, and did not really have the body type for it…but I was flexible! My gymnastics career ended when I dislocated my elbow at age 7. My coaches had been pushing for me to choose between gymnastics and swimming at the time, and after the injury, I went with swimming.
I played some team sports in middle school, but I’m not the most coordinated person around. I love to play and have fun, not hard core about it. In high school, I ran cross country, and I was a competitive swimmer for a very long time. Like age 7 into college.
My biggest injuries growing up though? Happened when I wasn’t paying attention or was messing around. I broke my arm at age 4, jumping off of a chair with wheels onto a concrete floor. I tripped down the stairs around age 12 and sprained my ankle really, really bad.
How we handle life’s challenges shows our kids how to handle things. We are the Examples our kids follow. Even when we don’t recognize it, we are always teaching our kids something.
Life with kids means that things happen. Our oldest has actually been fairly clear on the major accident scale – she hasn’t broken anything and hasn’t had stitches. But, she’s scraped up her knees so many times, managed to fall on her face and survived the experience (I highly recommend Derma-e products to prevent scarring, by the way – our local store owned by my good friend Lindsey carries it, but you can also find it on Amazon [affiliate link included]). She has also torn her rotator cuff and hyperextended her knee a couple times.
So, this latest injury on the same leg means we have a trip to the orthopedic surgeon on tap this week to check out what may have torn or pinched in her knee. We don’t know yet if she will need surgery, but for now, the swelling isn’t massive and we’re hoping that bodes well.
Our middle has had stitches (tripping into a desk at dad’s office – not even in sports!), and has of course scraped up knees and elbows quite a bit.
The youngest has had the most excitement. She has a chronic lymph node malformation that has had to be treated by sclerotherapy (including a couple MRI exams and going under anesthesia when she was 12 months old). She tripped down the concrete stairs a the high school gym a couple years ago at sister’s game and had to get stitches in her lip when her tooth went through. And she’s only 6…I expect her to have more to come.
Our oldest is a tough kid. She has a very high tolerance for pain and doesn’t always tell us when things hurt. When she was 9 or 10, she had a series of ear infections that wouldn’t go away, and her ear drum burst on an airplane. After? She said it felt better, and it healed up on its own. She hasn’t had an ear infection since. I’m not advocating for putting your kids through that experience by any means – but sometimes our bodies find ways to heal on their own.
So, back to prom.
We have a fantastic athletic trainer who comes to our little town once a week to work with kids and check in on the programs. She happened to be there Thursday (not her usual day) when the teenager hurt her knee, and thankfully was Johnny on the Spot to help treat the injury right away. Her office is an hour away from us, and we made the drive the next day to evaluate further and figure out next steps. Which means that we had a good game plan to get through our weekend and the big event Saturday night.
Also, did I mention we had a snow storm? My kids had a snow day on Friday, and the littles and dad built a huge snowman. We found time for fun in the middle of all the crazy.
Our high school cancelled everything last spring, just like most schools all across the country. We did not have a junior/senior prom last year, and this year’s seniors lost out on a lot of things during the year. Our daughter is a junior, and stepped up to help plan a fun night for both classes. We as parents chose to do prom completely separate from the school, and I spent a bit of time over the last couple weeks trying to make it the best we could, considering short notice and some restrictions still in place.
All that being said, our daughter did not want to miss the junior prom that she helped plan. Our trainer found a way to give that to her, by setting her up with a straight leg brace and keeping the knee iced down for several days.
The kids had a great night, the parents were exhausted after decorating, supervising and then taking down all the stuff and cleaning up after. And our tough kid spent most of Sunday with her leg up and having down time with movies on the couch. Life with kids can be a challenge. But our job is to make the best of all the things, and as we take one thing (hopefully) at a time, to just keep going and showing our kids how we deal with the challenges. Because they do pay attention, and they are watching and learning. Even when we don’t recognize it, we are always teaching our kids something.
Jamie, you have a great life. Very normal!! Love to read all your happenings. Judy
Thanks Judy! Hope you’re enjoying Springtime…