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5/19/13

A Belated Mothers Day Tribute to The Resilience of a Child

I always assumed/hoped that I would be one of those cool moms. Not "Cool Mom" like Regina George's Mom in Mean Girls. More like a Super-Active-Non-Mom-Jeans-Wearing kind of cool mom.With my toddler son, Seamus, this has manifested itself as running with him in the BOB, dressing him in a Foo Fighters shirt, keeping his hair long and of course, introducing him to daredevil activities like climbing the stairs and going down the big slide at the playground. Sometimes, I forget that he has limitations.

That limitation was apparent on Mother's Day after a lovely brunch with my parents in Annapolis. Seamus was practicing his jumping, climbing and running skills along the waterfront when we decided to look for a safer place to play. Lucky for us, there was a fantastic playground just a block away. The first thing I noticed was the slides. There were short ones, tall ones, super tall ones, twisty ones and bumpy ones. As Seamus had recently become a huge fan of slides, I thought taking him on the tallest one in the park would be a treat.

As we raced up the ramps, my husband Chris , i.e. the overly cautious parent, suggested a shorter slide would be safer. So, on to the middle-sized yet curvy slide we went. It was half way down that I simultaneously heard a SNAP and Chris yelling something about Seamus' leg.

The next few hours were a blur of getting back to Northern Virginia as quickly as possible and seeing multiple health care professionals at the Inova Fairfax Pediatric ER After having his leg squeezed, bent and as x-rayed, diagnosed with a fractured tibia, also known as a "Toddler's Fracture" and wrapped in a splint. Three days later, an Orthopedist replaced the splint with full leg cast.


As any mother would do, I've spent the past week beating myself up about how stupid it was to take Seamus on such a big slide.I figured I had scarred him for life in terms of slides and maybe even playgrounds in general.What has helped me to feel better is the resilience of this remarkable little boy. He has remained incredibly composed and even happy throughout the whole ordeal. While in the ER, he was fascinated by all of the people and the machines. During his x-ray, he kept checking out the funny camera pointed at his leg and the tie dyed lead vest worn by the technician. Even while the orthopedist was wrapping his leg in a  fluorescent yellow fiberglass cast, he was more intrigued than annoyed.

A week later, Seamus is back to his old self. He is climbing over chairs, up the stairs and very gingerly balancing on his right foot while holding  the left foot in the air.

It's amazing to me that a toddler of all people could teach me about adaptability and moving on. I still want to be a cool mom, but even more I want to be resilient. Just like my son.





1 comment:

  1. Awww, poor guy. I know it's hard not to, but don't beat yourself up. I'm a pediatric intensive care nurse and have seen things I've never dreamed of. Most are accidental and happen to the best parents in the world. And you ARE a good parent, we can't shield our children from everything. Lucky for us they are so resilient!! And lucky he's so young, he won't even remember and I bet as soon as that cast is off, he'll want to go on that slide again. You are a good mom and never let anyone tell you differently!

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