Tue 26 Feb 2008
Exhibit A
Husband went away on a week-long business trip this week. To distract the kids from his departure, I took them sledding. So, basically, the kids were under my sole care for less than an hour when Aitch sustained a serious injury.
After an hour on the hill, Aitch and his two friends were dumped off their sled by a bump. I saw the other two roll free of the sled at the bottom of the hill, but Aitch stayed prone for a sickening moment while I ran down to survey the damage. “I have a bloody nose!” he wailed, and I thought with relief, “Oh, that’s all.” It was his third bloody nose of the day, the other two brought on by nothing more strenuous than breakfast and lunch. He was indeed covered with blood and tears, but nothing appeared to be cut or damaged.
When I got him home and cleaned him up, though, I could see that the blood had been hiding 1. A fat lip 2. A massive abrasion on and underneath his chin 3. Another series of nicks on his cheek, which was puffed up. He looked like someone beat the crap out of him. My poor, poor guy.
He was not wearing a helmet. I must confess that I pretty much follow the herd on the helmet/no helmet thing and, as the rather ominously-lighted photo above demonstrates, the majority of the kids were not sporting them. (Query: If the other mothers were letting their four-year-olds bungee jump off the bridge at low tide, would you do it, too? Answer: Apparently, yes.) As I stood at the top of the hill I did think for a brief moment, “Gee, it’s pretty amazing that every parent on this hill makes their kids wear helmets to ride state-of-the art tricycles with push sticks and safety belts down a deserted sidewalk, but we’re letting them hurtle down icy slopes on cheap plastic unsteerable sleds without any protection at all.” That kind of thought is what we over here in lit crit call FORESHADOWING.
Everybody play along! In the comments, please, leave the letter that best completes this sentence. “In my community….”
A. Even the harridans whose children are on the verge of being removed by DSS insist that their kids wear helmets and other protective gear to go sledding.
B. Helmets are optional but are becoming more prevalent.
C. Kids sled naked, perched on metal cafeteria trays doused liberally in Pam (on both sides), down ice cliffs.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I have never seen any child wearing a helmet for sledding. I live in Vermont. Ergo, Vermonters are rotten parents who care not for the integrity of the cranium of their offspring.
…Sure, I can live with that.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Here in Michigan I’ve never seen kids wear helmets to sled. To tobaggan yes,, but not sledding.
I don’t know if it will make you feel any better but when my daughter was 2 my husband took her sledding and she had a major wipeout (on a sled w/older sister) - and she still has a bit of a scar on her cheek 13 years later. Amazing shiner at the time.
My 13 year old came home from sledding yesterday also complaining about shoulder pain after hitting the snow fence in the course of dodging someone else’s wipeout.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:03 am
My answer would be C, except I live in an urban neighborhood, so instead of “ice cliffs” it should read “down steep alleys into the street WHERE CARS ARE DRIVING.”
No, I’m not joking. And no, it wasn’t my kid. The last time we had snow enough for sledding, I took him to a nearby churchyard, where he ran the risk of ramming his unhelmeted head into the brick wall of the church, but at least he wouldn’t get run over.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
C. I almost always just lurk here. But it took me a whole read to conclude that helmets even exist for sledding. I kept thinking “Bike helmets? Football helmets?” I have certainly NEVER seen them being used (in this mountainous part of Virginia where bike helmets are omnipresent and we get few enough sled-worthy snows that we will sled on any surface however dangerous)
February 27th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
No helmets around here because no snow. But no helmets around MN when we were there at Christmas, either…
February 27th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
The answer is “C” although it was a pizza tray at our house.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Okay, I am feeling like I’m not such a crappy mom now. Or, maybe just as crappy, but with lots of company! Go “C’s”!
Julie, there seems to be another kind of helmet which is neither bike nor football, but is used for winter sports like skiing and hockey. When I bought Aitch a hockey stick, I figured a helmet might be a good idea, but the guy at the sports store said that they were expensive and that a bike helmet would do just as well.