We’ve had the play gym out back since the boy turned 2, if memory serves. Each year, the two of them get better use out of it. The first year, they (well, he- the lass was still too wee) used the slide and the “treehouse” portion. The second year, the boy mastered the swing. Last year, the boy figured out how to cross the monkey bars. This year, the lass has mastered the swing and they’re both learning the rings.
I’ve been showing them all the basic ‘ring’ things they can do- hanging basket, hanging pike, hanging straight up and down. The boy can almost to a plank, where you position the entire body parallel to the ground, stomach down. They’ve also learned how to transfer from the rings to the trapeze portion of the apparatus. So they can hang from the ring, hook their knees onto the bar and pull themselves up to a seated position.
For the most part, the Wife and I sit there and bite our tongues. We both know what can happen. Visions of rushed trips to the ER to fix broken shoulders or arms flash through both our minds. Especially for the lass. She refuses to be left behind. And to watch her work her way into a seated position on the trapeze is to watch a child do something without the slightest hint that something could go wrong.
Today, it went wrong for the boy.
Luckily, he was hanging from the rings so when he fell, he was only a foot or so off the ground. Further into the lucky column, the mulch that we have lining the area under the play gym is soft, if a bit rough on the skin.
A classic case of looking worse than it was. He landed on his shoulder and head. After he landed, he looked up at me and laid there. Then he started to whimper. When I got down to him I had pick him up because he didn’t want to move. He was fine. Other than a little scraped up on the shoulder and the side of his face, that is. But he continued to whimper.
My read of the situation was his pride was hurt more than anything. So, being a veteran of taking lumps and soldiering on, I tried to explain it was no big deal that he fell. All he had to do was settle down and think about what went wrong and try not to let that happen next time.
Of course, this isn’t a movie or TV show. He didn’t stop crying and go right back to the rings and try again and triumph over adversity. Instead he declared “I’m never going on the rings again.” Somebody call Spielberg- we’ve got ourselves a tear-jerker in the making here.
For what it’s worth, he didn’t go back on the rings again today. But he did stop whimpering a couple minutes later. He was laughing and smiling through dinner.
It won’t be long before he gets back on that horse.