Monday, June 9, 2008

The Girl Who Fell Down

My husband sometimes does stupid things. Let's face it, everyone does stupid things, but the fact is my husband does stupid things that often have a bad result. For instance, his car hood stays up on its own. My car hood has a prop bar. Once when he was looking under the hood, he forgot that 5 minutes before he put up a prop bar and when he couldn't close the hood he slammed it down so hard that he snapped the metal prop bar in half, now I have to prop open my hood with a snow-brush. He did something similar to my ice maker and a million other things.
By far the dumbest thing he has ever done was to drop my daughter on her face in a bunch of gravel. He has terrible night-vision, but he was letting her ride on his shoulders in the dark because she was tired (good dad), he thought he'd take a shortcut (that wasn't actually a shortcut) through a campsite and tripped on a faucet and they both went down. He landed on his knees, she landed on her face. So, does this accident make him a bad dad?
I was walking three feet behind them talking to my son when it happened, does that make me a bad mom?
From the looks we've been getting lately, the answer is yes.
It's funny how kids have no qualms about asking us about her face, but the parents, who are supposedly being tactful, look at her then us and you can see the judgement in their faces even if they don't say a word. They think that we beat our kid, or are at least neglectful.
As we walked through the zoo today, we got those looks a lot. Never mind that our daughter was sitting nicely in the wagon and their kids were running around throwing fits and not listening. They looked at her than us, and thought in their head, "Look at her face, they must be bad parents."
So why should I care that some zoo parents in a city 1,000 miles away from my home think I am a bad parent? Because every mom at some point wonders if they are a crap parent.
Don't get me wrong, I know I am not a crap parent, my kids are happy and brilliant (and that's not just my own opinion) but if I were a great parent, would I, after what happened last Friday, let this happen:

4 comments:

La Sirena said...

Oh, poor pumpkin! Her face looks so sore. People are judgey because it makes them feel smug and secure -- like they aren't crappy parents even though their kids are little jerks.

LizB said...

Poor baby face! Don't let the a-holes get you down. Sometimes bad things happen even when you're doing your best parenting.

Jane said...

Put Vitamin E on her face so it will not leave marks. Don't be so hard on Mason, I am sure he feels awfully bad. We know you are a great parent because your kids are great. Love your parent

Woodlandmama said...

Thanks guys!