Our deck is about 4 feet off the ground. That makes it so anything we do on it is on display to the entire neighborhood, so we’re lowering it. More on that later.
Last night we started ripping the railing off, so it’s just a platform now. The girls were on it, and I asked them to come down, thinking they’d use the stairs. Sophi however, immediately sat down at the edge and started to fling herself off. I quickly stoppd her and said "Were you going to jump?". "Yes", she replied.
I looked at the distance and thought, "Well, it probably wont hurt her, and it’ll help make her confident". So I told her she could jump, and then Molly wanted to jump as well. Away they went, and all was well. They asked if they could do it again, and I said sure. My wife went back to her thing, I went back to tearing railing off, and they had a great time.
Suddenly, a scream rent the calm neighborhood evening. I ran around the end of the deck, and Sophi was huddled on the ground, and Molly was standing on the deck. My wife yelled "Molly, did you push her?!?" Molly said "Yes, she asked me to!"
I ran over to Sophi and asked her where it hurt, and with her right hand she pointed at her left arm, which was craddled in her lap. I tried to help her stand, but her legs wouldn’t stiffen so I picked her up. She kept crying and I tried to get her to tell me where *exactly* it hurt, but she would only say her arm.
I sat her back on the edge of the deck and went through the triage stuff for figuring out if a limb is broken. She could put both hands on her head, though the sore one went slowly. She could also move all her fingers articulately, and didn’t complain of more pain.
It turns out, Sophi did ask Molly to push her. And somewhere in the back of my head, I think I remember her asking her to push her, but they push each other down the slide all the time, so it didn’t set off any alarms.
She got back a lot more mobility without pain in just 5 or 10 minutes, and the crying subsided, so I was pretty sure it wasn’t really damaged. Sure enough, after about 30 minutes she was perfectly back to normal with no left over pain.
It was spooky though.
been there. it’s freaky when you hear your kid scream and then he/she can’t move something.
it’s hard to stay calm if you do have to go to the ER. in my family, i have to stay calm because i have 2 freaked out boys. one child, one husband. (after our trip to treat a broken leg and collarbone, i came home and went into my closet to freak out) 🙂