Tag Archives: food

What is it about Kids and Blood?

The boy was asked to go to a friends house to play!! Seriously!! This is big for us…. like really really big!!  Typically playing legos in his room, or even playing with his sister, trumps the  unknown of someone else’s house.   So, 30 minutes into the “play-date” I get a call from the mom…

 “The boys were playing ball, the boy got tackled and hit his head.  I’m a nurse, I cleaned him all up, he’s fine and they are playing board games, so don’t come get him, just wanted you to know.”
 Me: “I grew up with 4 brothers, you could say I think he broke an arm, and I’d say… “no problem, I’ll be right there.”  I’m not one to panic about stuff like that.
So we show up at the appropriate time to pick up the brother, who promptly launches himself out of the house and into the car without a “bye, thanks, see later …”  After a good eye roll from me and an apology to the mom, the big girl and I head to the car.

As the big girl is climbing in I hear… “Oh no!!  Brother, don’t turn your head!”

B:  “I can’t if I want to sissy, it hurts!!”

BG: “well it’s hurting my stomach to see it!!”

B: (taunting his sister)  “It’s my head sis, just look…”

BG: starts dry heaving…

Me: “Whatever you do do not throw up in this car!!  We are almost home!”

BG:  “but I can smell his blood and it makes me sick!”

B:  “You can’t smell blood you are not a vampire!”

BG:  “I can so smell blood and yours smells like alligators!!”

       *cough cough heave heave*

 Me: “We are home, everyone out, now!!”  (I am so proud that we made it the 3 blocks home without a vomit issue)

BG: *cough cough…. puke.  on the steps… awesome

B:  “sissy did you just puke?”

BG: “yes it’s your alligator blood!!”

B:  *cough cough….

Me: Please don’t….

 B: Puke.

Me: Seriously….

For the rest of the evening this Mommy cleaned up vomit that we should attribute to “alligator blood” issues… and kept the boy out of Big Girl’s line of sight.  If she saw him, any part of him, she burst into tears and gagged.    My husband and I spent the evening in between hysterical laughter and complete exasperation.   Needless to say… I’m guessing Big Girl will not be a nurse/doctor and it will be a VERY long time before Boy leaves his cave again.

Remember as a kid, as long as it didn’t look bad it didn’t really hurt?  Then, you see it… the scrape, the cut,the blood… and it suddenly hurt SO bad.  So bad that you limped, and cried, and needed a bandaid, and chocolate milk, and maybe a milkshake, and to stay up late just in case it’s really really bad, and a pillow under the leg/arm/elbow/hip, and how about dinner on the couch just this once because it hurts SO much to move!

God probably laughs as us in these moments as much as we laugh at our kids.  We know the hurt will heal, the scar will fade, the memory will become a big story, or will be forgotten by the time the bandaid falls off.  Either way, it makes us a little stronger, reminds us that we are human and not as indestructible as we seem to think we are.

As most parents do, I pray for my children with fervor.  I pray that they will be hurt, in little ways, so they learn that they are not in fact indestructible.  I pray that they have good friends, who warn them when the hurt is getting ready to happen.  I pray that they keep running to safety when the hurt inevitably happens, and that it’s minor enough we can still get a good laugh at it later.