We had a very close call over the weekend with one of the kids and today I am totally hating on myself for the simple fact that I could have prevented this from happening.
We were having a quiet Sunday afternoon drink with some of our neighbours in our front yard whilst our kids were doing what they typically do on a weekend - racing their bikes around our estate and practising their skateboarding tricks.
When we spied some of our kids ride past without their helmets on (which unfortunately is not uncommon) we commented that we really need to enforce the helmet rule a little more seriously.
Less than 2 minutes later BAM! We hear a scream and my middle son Sammy comes racing up the street, white as a ghost and screaming "Call and Ambulance Mum, Call an Ambulance, Flynn's hurt really bad".
By the time I got across the road to the park where Flynn was, my husband was already with him and he was OK, bleeding from the head, but alert and crying which was a massive relief in itself.
The little bugger had ridden his bike off a ramp in the park and stacked it. It was on grass, but he didn't have a helmet on and when he stacked the bike landed on his head and punctured his forehead above his eyebrow.
As pure dumb luck would have it, he narrowly missed puncturing his eyeball.... I cant even go there, it just makes me want to throw up.
Of course it was off to the hospital where I had to play the part of the completely irresponsible parent and explain that YES my 6 year old child had injured his head riding a bike and NO he wasn't wearing a helmet.
The humiliation of that alone was deserving on my part to say the least.
We are just so damn lucky it wasn't worse than what it was and a bit of glue and lots of love was all he needed to fix things up.
Last night our boys (and the neighbourhood kids too from what I hear), were read the riot act about wearing helmets. Basically from now on, No helmet means no wheels - of any kind. They argued that it isn't considered cool to wear a helmet and our response to that was "Well brain damage or being dead isn't exactly cool either".
They agreed to wear their helmets.
Carl and I agreed we were stupid dumb ass parents for not enforcing it before now.
With school holidays coming up, I just want to remind everyone that if they don't already, tell your kids to put a lid on it. Please. Pretty please - don't be stupid like we were and allow your kids to make the choice.
One wrong decision is all it could take and you have to live with that forever.
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