The Longest Shortest Time

Watching Other Kids Get Injured

On Saturday there was a listener-organized LST meet-up in my hometown, Montclair, NJ. I was excited to go. But also a little nervous, because it was my first time back to this particular plaground in three years, since Sasha broke her leg going down a slide there. But I figured, this would be a good chance to make new, happy memories at the playground.

Everything was going great! Moms were bonding, feeding their kids blueberries, cleaning up spitup. A couple of dads who were married to French women debated whether or not it was cool to be called “Papa” rather than “Dad.”

montclair-meetup-0914-scaled

And then, as I was telling Sasha it was time to go, this girl—around 8 or 9 years old—was screaming on the ground. She was on her hands and knees and holding her mouth. When she looked up, blood was gushing from her face. She reached out and picked something up. It was her tooth. I ran over to see if she was okay, and then realized that this was making Sasha feel not okay. She was sweating and starting to cry. Luckily, one of our LST mamas is a nurse practitioner, and she came to the rescue, calming the girl down and getting her off to the ER.

Anyway, Sasha remained extremely concerned after we left the park. Asking me over and over where the girl was NOW, and exactly HOW she wound up getting hurt and bleeding so much. No answer seemed to calm her down, and she kept asking about it the next morning. We got a few answers from the nurse practitioner later, telling us the girl had been climbing a ladder and she slipped, her face hitting one of the bars. But I also remembered how therapeutic drawing was, back when we were dealing with the trauma of Sasha’s own injury at that playground. (You can see the book we made in parts one, two, three and four.) At 18 months old, she was not capable of telling a story or writing words, so I did that part for her. This time, she dictated and I told her the letters to write.

The orange lines are the girl's tears ("there were many drops"); the red spot at the bottom is the bloody tooth

The orange lines are the girl’s tears (“there were many drops”); the red spot at the bottom is the bloody tooth

This is an action image of the girl falling off the ladder; the tooth falls out in the time-lapse

This is an action image of the girl falling off the ladder; the tooth falls out in the time-lapse

This is what Sasha said she felt like, watching the girl in pain ("I only want to draw my face, Mommy")

This is what Sasha said she felt like, watching the girl in pain (“I only want to draw my face, Mommy”)

And this is us going out for dinner after ("under beautiful colored lights")

And this is us going out for dinner after (“under beautiful colored lights, with Grammy and Pops, and Auntie Nana is our waitress”)

At first I was a little disturbed that Sasha just wanted to focus on how we went out for dinner the night after seeing something that had scared her so much. As if to say, “That girl got hurt, but we celebrated anyway.” And then I realized it was Sasha’s way of saying, “That happened. And now I’m okay. And surrounded by family.”

How have YOUR kids reacted to seeing other kids get hurt?
Tell us.

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