I don’t think anything is more heart wrenching that witnessing your child in pain, injured or ill. As mothers, it is a feeling that cannot be described.
I remember as a young woman, experiencing my own heart being broken and my world falling apart during the demise of a relationship, sitting with my own mother and her cradling me in her arms, crying with me and telling me “If i could have your pain instead of you going through this I would take it in an instant”.
At the time, not being a mother myself, I didn’t really understand. Now i am a Mother and this memory flooded back to me yesterday when after having a lovely day with our friends picking mulberries. My little girl fell from a tree.
They had been having so much fun climbing all the trees and exploring. It was the end of the day and we were ready to leave. I called for Meg and she replied “Come and find me”. I knew they were climbing and hiding in the trees. It was all good fun, so i joined in on the game.
I wandered over following the sound of their voices and i spied them high up in one of the trees. I was watching Meg as she appeared to be positioning herself to “scare me” and Taliah and Adanni were on branches a bit lower. As i averted my eyes to smile at the girls, Meg began to move and then suddenly scream, she was falling. She fell from the tree and landed very heavily on the ground along her right hand side.
I screamed for Steve (my hubby) as i rushed to her side. It was awful. Now looking back i realise she had badly winded herself. But at the time all i could see was that she was having difficulty breathing, with a look of terror and confusion in her eyes. I told her to lie still and to look at my eyes, encouraging her to focus on me and to try and breath. But in my heart and mind I was screaming. I felt helpless, in-adequate and just plain frightened. My little girl was hurt and I didn’t want her to be.
Slowly, she regained her breath and then began to cry, which was a good sign. We let her lie as long as she needed before we made any attempt to encourage her to move. Icepacks and water were brought and Karen was there helping and more importantly keeping me calm.
Thankfully, there were no serious injuries, but she is very sore and lots of scratches and grazes on her face where she hit the ground. Her left wrist is still giving her a bit of pain, but she has plenty of movement in it and no swelling so i think it is just badly bruised or sprained.
This would probably be the first serious accident Meg has had, which i guess isn’t bad for nearly 11yrs old, but it is a reminder that life is just so precious and we shouldn’t take anything for granted. At the same time, you don’t want your children (or yourself as a parent for that matter) to become fearful of adventure, of climbing, of trying things out. All activities have an element of risk, we just need to take as much care as we can when doing them.
And as a Mum, we just have to be prepared; to be the shoulder to cry on, to help mend the broken limbs, scratches, grazes and even those emotional wounds that are a part of life and growing. To give them love, tenderness, attention and care not just when hurt or injured, but all the time. No matter how old they get, they are still our ‘babies’.
It isn’t always easy, but i believe being a Mother is the greatest gift of all.
Filed under: Ramblings from the Edge, Swaps & Fun on January 4th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
