The Injured List

Some days I’m not sure if my children will make it to their next birthdays. Granted, children are very resilient but they also do some really dumb stuff. At least three of the accidents I detail below would have meant a trip to the hospital, if not the morgue, had they happened to me. Thankfully, none of the six serious accidents we had this week resulted in any trips anywhere.

1. Sarah (11 months) fell down a flight of stairs, top to bottom, at my brother-in-law’s house. She earned a black eye, but no injuries. We’ve never lived in a house with stairs so we’re unaccustomed to kids falling down them. Apparently it isn’t that out of the ordinary at their house. Each of my nephews has been down them at least twice. We’re not overly protective, but I think we’d at least have a gate.

2. Sarah fell off one of her brothers’ tricycles and smacked her head on the driveway – hard. It was that kind of dull sickening thud. I have no idea how she got on the tricycle, but it isn’t hard to imagine. She’s a climber and her brothers are all too eager to help. She cried and probably had a headache for awhile, but came away with only a scratch on the side of her head.

3. Aaron (2 ½) and Eli (3 ½) were arguing over whose turn it was to use the vacuum cleaner (yes, their mother allows them to vacuum their own room). Eli got mad and tried to run over Aaron with the machine. I’m not sure how it happened, but the vacuum took an amazing amount of flesh off of one of Aaron’s big toes. It’s the kind of wound that makes my hair stand up a little bit to imagine how it feels. He’ll probably wear a bandage on it for a couple weeks, but he should be fine.

4. Aaron has been screwing around after bedtime recently. Apparently he gets up and plays in the dark. A few nights ago we heard screaming and came rushing in the find him lying on the floor. It seems he had climbed up to the top bunk (Eli’s bed) and fallen off. He must have hit the dresser on the way down because he had a scrape and a huge knot on his thigh. Probably could have broken his leg.

5. We are constantly warning the boys about running, jumping, playing, etc. when carrying sharp or stick-like objects. A few nights ago (the same night Aaron fell off the top bunk, actually) Eli was dancing while brushing his teeth. He fell and jabbed the handle end of the toothbrush in his eye. Everybody had a good scare, but he turned out to be fine. He did not poke his eye out or damage it in any way, but I’m pretty sure he learned the lesson.

6. Then just last night, Eli, my oldest and extremely intelligent child, did something that still makes my knees weak. Alone in his room after dinner, he climbed up onto the low sill of the big window in his room, wrapped the cord from his mini-blinds around his neck, and jumped. I have no idea what he was thinking. I’m sure he wasn’t trying to kill himself, but man he could have so easily. If that cord had twisted and snagged on itself instead of running free… The blinds are anchored in the concrete wall; they easily would have held his 35lb. body. As it was, he just got a nasty rope burn.



We’re good parents, really, we are. But we cannot watch our children and protect them every second of their lives. If we tried, they would rebel and do something really stupid, or grow up without the skills to survive in the real world.

These are God’s children. They belong to Him and not us. They have been entrusted to us to care for and train in His ways the best we can. We pray for them daily, but their safety and ultimate fate lies in His hands.