I’ve recently had safety on the brain. Why? Because a month ago my daughter had a severely broken arm just dropping from the monkey bars while my son does BMX racing (terrifying!) at age 4 and has come away from 4 trips to the track with just a few scrapes and bruises. My son has made me much more immune to the fear of potential dangers in the world. I can’t save him from himself, so I’ve mostly given up.
But I do have a list of things that ARE always worrisome for me. And I’m discovering that we all have lists. So, if you see another mother being really “laid back” about something that completely freaks you out, it’s just not on her list. BUT, there might be something on her list that’s not on yours. It goes back to our own experiences, what happened to us as kids, or to our siblings or friends, or someone else’s kids, maybe it’s an article you read or a news program you watched. Whatever the reasons for your fears, they are yours.
Here are a few of my fears…..
Stairs
Crossing the street
Junk food
TV
Mean kids on the playground
The certified sex offender living in my neighborhood
You might have a very different list. Maybe drowning tops your list, or big crowds, or bad drivers, or skateboards, poisonous plants, other people’s dogs, sun exposure, etc., etc., etc.
I think we shouldn’t judge ourselves or others for our fears. I think that writing about them and sharing them can be really helpful. My goal when I started writing this post was to come up with a list of top safety tips for people with small children. But I don’t think that could ever be a small enough list to include in a blog post if I cover everyone’s fears.
While I think that having some fears is healthy and good, I also realize that too many small fears, or any number of intense fears can cause us to become less effective parents. We all want to find joy in parenting, and too much fear can block the joy from arriving. Sometimes, we just have to close our eyes and ears and let them leap. Then we can rejoice with them when they triumph, or comfort them when they don’t. Both of these sides of parenting are beautiful and help us to grow as people.
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