Worst Mother Ever
Do your kids ever remind you of something that happened to them in their childhood, that makes you feel like you have been the worst mother ever? Or days that we compare ourselves to others and we feel like we don’t measure up. Worse yet are the days that we feel like we will never get the “mother of the year award”, because we have really messed up! Our children love telling their friends and significant others stories about their childhood. Unfortunately some, I would rather they didn’t tell! Like the story that starts out “I broke my foot and you know how long I had to walk on it before,” and then pointing at me with a glare, “before she took me to the doctor”. Then the sibling, steps in to twist the knife that was stabbed in my heart and retorts. “Well I had to (run, walk or hop) on (leg, foot, ankle, knee or something else) that was broken, fractured or dislocated for 40 days and nights!
With six children, someone was always sick or injured. Or let me rephrase that. Someone always THOUGHT. they were sick or injured. Anything to punish your sibling: “Mooooommm he put me in a headlock and now my neck is broken. I know I am paralyzed so somebody needs to bring me a soda!” Or punish me. “Mom I know I have a high fever and need to stay home today and maybe for the next quarter. I am sure it is mono”! Well you get the picture. We have had some true medical emergencies at our house though. Like someone accidentally eating a whole bottle of baby aspirin. That same person years later had an appendicitis. But I truly didn’t catch some in a timely matter too.
Our first son that I gave birth to, had his birthday yesterday and I wouldn’t be half way “normal” if I hadn’t been reminiscing. The winter he was 12, we had had a very long cold spell. So cold that the kids were truly getting “cabin fever”. When I thought I couldn’t stand to hear “moooomm, make him stop”, or it’s cousin “I’m bored”! The sun came out and we had a mild day. The boys came in from school and son #3 asked if he could go outside. Yes, please!
We had an uneventful dinner. Bath time was chaotic and I was glad when the younger kids were in bed. I finally had a moment to breathe. Until son #3 came downstairs and told me his hip hurt. Of course my question to him was “what did you do to it?” He kind of shrugged and said “well you know the farmer’s field that is frozen over. I was over there ice skating and I fell.” Not remembering buying him ice skates, I inquired as to what he was skating with. His response? “Oh, just my shoes, it was pretty fun!” I asked him if he had a bruise on his hip. Obviously, a 12 year old boy isn’t going to show his mother his hip. Or at least that night, he wasn’t going to. He told me it was fine and limped off. He came back later and told me again, “that it really hurt!” I gave him some Tylenol and the heating pad and sent him to bed.
The next morning the pain in his hip seemed to be forgotten. As mothers seem to, so did I! About a week later though I noticed he was limping on that leg again. But each time he caught me watching him, he walked normally. I decided to just keep an eye on him. I am sure at least another week went by before I saw that he was still favoring that leg. Even though he continued to deny that anything was wrong, I then decided a doctor’s visit was warranted.
After several x-rays and being sent that day to the orthopedic surgeon’s office, it meant that he not only had something seriously wrong with him. But he was immediately admitted to the hospital! He had dislocated his hip and he had to have a pin put in it. A good thing this son and I had a good relationship because he spent the next 6 weeks at home.
I guess it was my punishment. Did I learn from it? I swear I have had 12 arms, legs and feet x-rayed so many times that it would take a semi to carry around all their x-rays. In those films there might be a couple that are actually broken bones. Could I help it if those were the bones belonging to children that I thought were calling “wolf” for at least a couple days? None of their limbs are deformed and they all function today. I am the one with only a leg to stand on!
