A History of Violence

This week saw the first incident of Boy on Girl violence.  The short version is this: when I turned around to draw The Boy's bath, something he was playing with came into contact with The Girl's head.

Since my back was turned, I don't know if it was deliberate or not, but I think (and fervently hope) not. The Girl wound up with a small scratch, and though I'm supposed to be a calm and savoir faire second time parent, I still contemplated rushing her to the ER (and might have if I didn't have to worry about The Boy).*

The logistics of bathtime are always a challenge, but this was worse: I needed to get The Boy out of the way so I could take care of The Girl, and the most expedient way to do this would have been to put him in front of the TV, but in case he had done this on purpose, I was leery of rewarding him.   Instead, I plopped him in his crib with some books and toys.  He was not a fan of that decision and proceeded to try to climb out of his crib so I wound up sitting on the floor in front of the crib, nursing The Girl while simultaneously inspecting her scalp, flipping through the well-thumbed head injury section of Dr. Spock, and singing "Old MacDonald" to keep The Boy entertained.

Fortunately, at that moment my husband walked in the door. 

I was telling a friend about the whole thing and she said that some evenings, she said a little prayer that everyone was still alive at the end of the day.  Amen, sister.

*This is the section of my parenting book that freaked me out:  "Bleeding under the bones of the scalp can put pressure on the brain, causing symptoms that are not obvious at first but develop over a day or two."  How is this advice even remotely helpful?  Doctors, if you want to know why hysterical parents make unnecessary trips to your ER, it's because of books like this.

Comments

[Jill]

I hate head injuries. Last summer my 7 year old had a mild concussion, so I especially hate when he bonks his head- which he did last week, running into a pole.

It sounds like you did a great job managing.

[cat, galloping]

you can sing and read at the same time?!

[Not on Fire]

You made me laugh! That is sooo how some days go. I had a friend who had a mantra "this is not forever" to get herself through the day.

I may be misreading but I have to point out that a scratch is unlikely to cause bleeding under the bones of the scalp. It would take a very hard hit for that to happen.

[BrooklynGirl]

Not having seen the actual incident, though, I wasn't sure how hard the impact was. Plus I was just the teensiest bit hysterical.

[Toni]

Well, it seems like you handled the situation perfectly. :)

The nice thing about Old MacDonald is that they get to participate. Muffin and Bear love that song...Muffin always chooses an animal that's different (a giraffe, an elephant, a zebra) and Bear always chooses a cow. Fun song. :)

Good luck with the next time.

[Heather]

I think you handled everything great too! Glad I didn't read that part of Dr. Spock. That's the only child care book I have around here.

[liz]

You did great!

[mollyq]

In my experience as a teacher of 2 yr old toddlers, many of whom have new siblings at home: there is a small adjustment in the beginning when the baby arrives, but that usualy settles and the next challenging time sibling-wise is when the yonger one is suddenly a person and not a blob (i.e. sitting, smiling, crawling, grabbing his ttoys, etc.)

Enjoy!