The Baby Bunch: Rough and Tough

The older my boys get the harder it is to say we all made it through the day without injury. My boys are rough, tough, and just out right reckless... with a touch of creativity and imagination. I admit it, but I used to judge mothers of little boys who were always in the emergency room, doctor's office or calling poison control. I would sit around and judge (yes of course I was childless at the time) and think, "why don't you just watch your children?!" "How hard could it be to keep someone from busting their nose open for one day?!" As it turns out, it is pretty hard! And from what I hear, it only gets harder.

Outside fun that turned into eye injuries shortly after I took this picture!

Trust me, I watch my children very closely and sometimes I don't even know how the injuries happen! I don't let them play or do anything that has a statistically high rate of injury... like climbing on ladders, playing with power tools, playing with matches, running with anything sharp, or a ton of other things that I can't even think of at the moment. BUT I do let them run, climb smaller trees and basically just play. I do this because I can seriously leave them in a room with nothing but a blanket and some pillows for nap time and the next thing I know someone is crying about their arm hurting. They come up with these amazingly creative games but there is always something included that could possibly result in injury. They wrestle, jump, karate, dinosaur fight, bear hunt, and tie on towels as capes and try out their flying skills and that is the activities they come up with just in the morning time before nap! I know I could probably stop them from playing so rough, but then I will end up raising a wimpy little sissy boy who likes to sit around and watch tv and play video games...that type of personality would not survive around here.

They never bully each other or seek out to hurt one another, but in the midst of all their playing someone is going to get hurt and I always pray that it will be minor. You can judge me all you want, but once you have little boys you will realize that boys will be boys. Thankfully we have had minor injuries in the house (busted noses, lips, scrapes) and only one major head bump that we thought was going to result in stitches, but I know the day is coming that someone is going to break something, I can just pray that its not a major bone like a leg. I always find comfort in talking to these Moms who have stories to tell that are funny now, but at the time they thought they were going to get turned in because their boys always had bruises all over their legs and arms. I know I am not a negligent mother who doesn't pay attention to her kids, but it is always nice to have reassurance from amazing mothers who pat me on the shoulder and say, "its ok, these things happen to every mother. If you put them in a padded room and only let them play with approved toys they are not really even living!" Its also very interested to listen to grown men talk about their fun times with their brother and in almost every story one or both brothers comes out with an injury that they think is funny.

Yes my kids have bruises and scrapes and a lot of times one of them will probably be bleeding before the day is over, but we also have a whole lot of fun. When I just had Max I would have freaked out over any type of injury, but now I see it as just one of those things that are going to happen and you can only pray that God will protect you children from big injuries.