I Remember Damage

Here was how our morning went. I was simultaneously attempting to get downstairs to walk the dog and get the children herded together so my wife could get them dressed and downstairs for breakfast. One of the boys happened to slip out of my sight and I thought I heard him in our bathroom. So, that is where I went looking for him.

When I heard his screams of pain coming out of the other upstairs bathroom I knew I had been wrong. He had attempted to drink the hot tea my wife had brought upstairs and burnt his hand and chest.

As any parent is aware this was no one’s fault. My wife thought the hot tea was far enough back on the counter but he is a climber and a problem solver and is willing to walk through pain to get what he wants. This time he wasn’t fully aware of the consequences and ended up with a couple minor burns. So minor that the cleared up by the time he went to school.

The other children also had moments. The other boy decided that his sister was a monster and he had to get away from her. Like his brother he is willing to take a bit of pain to get what he wants and what he wanted in this situation was to get far away from his sister but he wouldn’t take his eyes off her. So, he ran into a wall.

The final child hurt herself when she decided to climb into a chair sideways tipping it over and smacking her head into a table. This was one of those moments where I was quickly to her and holding her in my arms but this was not a daddy problem to solve. As soon as mommy entered the room she wiggled out of my arms, screaming the entire time, and crawled to mommy.

Having three young children is certainly an adventure. They are all at the toddler stage and are fully capable of inflicted untold damage upon themselves and their siblings. Tonight at bedtime they decided crawling inside the close hamper bag thing was the most fun they could possibly have. By doing so they sent a signal to their siblings that the most fun they could have would be to leap on the now prone child. The child in the bag soon realized this wasn’t fun and kicked out at his siblings. We now had even more fun and damage.

Some people tell me that if your toddler is alive at the end of the day then it was successful. I am starting to think that is true because it is near impossible to stop all the bumps and lumps they’re giving themselves and each other. Being a parent to toddlers is like trying to referee a six man hell in a cell match. It is impossible.

I know we will get though this phase and move onto the child years, but there are times when I just want them to hurry up and grow. I’d like to play video games with them or play catch or go to a basketball court together or a ton of other activities they can’t do yet. They are fun and exciting, but also handfuls, and they can’t stop running into walls or falling down.

The moral of this story is a toddler is going to toddle and a parent is going to worry. I hope I can keep the sanity to make it to the other side.