Today I had a moment when I felt like a really bad child minder. The little one and I were heading out for a walk in the beautiful sunshine, and he lives in a first floor flat so there are lots of steps to go down. We were doing fine on the first set of steps which are inside the flat, but about halfway down on the second set he suddenly slipped and there was no way I was able to grab him. He sort of rolled down the last few steps and landed at the bottom crying. It was like it happened it slow motion. I jumped down and picked him up and took him inside.
He was really upset, and so was I. It didn't make me cry, but I half thought it might. I think my the calm rational side of my brain took over. I got his coat shoes and muddy trousers off (he landed in a wet patch at the bottom) and then found the first aid kit. He was very brave about it all, despite having grazes on one side of his face and on his hand. I calmed him (and me) down and we went to look at a book for a while. I got damp towel and held it on his face and forehead because there were bumps coming up, but the problem with a 20 month old is that they really don't want to stay still for too long. He would stay with me for a long as a verse of 'twinkle twinkle little star', and then he'd be off again (the singing seemed to calm him down and stop him wriggling, and it was the first song that came to mind!)
A little while later we did go out again, and this time I made sure I was right in front of him and there was no way he was going to slip. By the time his parents got home he was acting just as usual, and only had the lovely bump and grazes to show for it. They were really lovely about it all, and told me not to worry about it. That made me feel a lot better :-)
I came home around 3pm and I'm going back this evening to look after the little one so that his parents can go out to their church small group.
This afternoon I've been tidying up my room and finally found my slipper which seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet. It had somehow got under the end of my bed, which is a place that wouldn't really have seemed possible for it to get to, only I'd checked all the logical places and still not found it! The title of this post refers to finding my slipper, but I've just realised it could just as well refer to the little one slipping down the steps.
3 comments:
I can't tell you the number of times Nick has tumbled down the steps. Usually they are fine. Your little one's parents probably know how impossible it is to catch him ALL the time. All you can do is be there when you can. No worries!
Oh Debs! I feel like a bad mamma to my 2 little ones all the time! I even accidentally gave Jonathan a fat lip once...right before church. I have to remind myself ALL the time that this is life and they have to learn. It's kind of like God. Sometimes we fall, slip, stumble, get bumps and bruises even while we are right there with him. It makes us stronger, it makes us take precautions and sometimes look at situations (the steps) more carefully.
You reacted just like a mom. No worries. Accidents happen- and they really do fall too fast to catch. Sometimes I think they teleport!
I used to have to admonish my husband about it all the time because he would set the baby on the bed, or sit a bigger infant on the kitchen counter and move away, thinking that he was superman enough to catch them if they began to fall. Wrong!
Anyway. You did just fine.
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