When Your Child Is Accident-Prone, Each Day Holds The Potential For Disaster

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“MOMMY! There’s blood everywhere! It’s all over me, it’s coming from my mouth!” That was my daughter’s panicked cry a few Saturdays ago as she came flying through the back door with blood pouring from her nose and mouth. As it turned out, she had decided to attempt skate-boarding without a helmet and it flew out from under her. She crashed into the pavement and got her mouth, nose and cheeks bloodied and scraped. Sounds dramatic but it’s just another day in the life of my accident-prone child, who despite enviable athletic ability, manages to get hurt pretty often.

Don’t get me wrong — I am not writing this to insult or belittle my kid. She is very graceful and as mentioned, extremely athletic. Watching her running like a gazelle on a sports field, you’d never know that we’ve received accident reports from her summer camp that literally read “Mini Williams walked into a pole and hit her head”. She is not klutzy or clumsy, just easily distracted. And as a result, very accident-prone. I could go on forever about the myriad ways she’s managed to hurt herself over the years but this post can only be so long. We had an especially hard summer last year when she broke an arm over Memorial Day weekend and the day before getting rid of that cast, she fractured her ankle at summer camp. I only wish I were kidding.

You see, she is probably the world’s happiest child. She’s very intelligent but definitely lives on her own little planet at times. She is constantly humming or singing to herself and just sort of floating through life without noticing her surroundings. This behavior coupled with her height (she’s incredibly tall) seems to be a recipe for disaster. Being so tall means she falls from a further distance than a typical child her age. Her legs are covered in bruises most of the time and she always has a scab somewhere.

We have told the pediatrician over the years about her “condition”. She’s very healthy, has excellent eye-sight and there is nothing to indicate any sort of physical issue. She is simply a little spacey, completely to her own detriment. We have had many talks with her recently about the importance of guarding herself and being aware of everything around her. We have explained that she only gets one body and that some injuries could cause long-term problems that would affect her future in sports. That factor does seem to make her think, since she loves playing soccer and baseball. We know the lessons sink in but it’s like they fade from her mind after a certain amount of time and she’s back to her old ways. Tripping down the hallway while singing Britney Spears songs and cracking her head on the molding. Sigh.

I don’t want to change my daughter’s core. I love her to pieces, spaciness and all. This is who she is. She’s happy, sweet and bubbly. This all comes from a place of concern for her safety. We just want to help her be more careful and mindful without losing what makes her who she is. It’s a work in progress, so just send out some intentions that we can avoid a summer of casts and visits to the orthopedist this year. I’m crossing all the things.

(Image: GettyImages)

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