Bumps and Bruises

Little Man is officially to be renamed Imp in this blog. He is getting more and more mobile every day -- crawling, pulling to standing, cruising, and is discovering more and more things to get into. Imp gets this look in his eyes -- smiling, bright, and blue -- that makes you know he is going to get into something. At seven months old, he still has much to figure out, but he is learning so much every day. One of the main things he is learning is how to deal with bumps and bruises.

One of my friends (I can't remember who) said that they trained themselves not to gasp and rush to their child when they fell, but rather to shout "SCORE!" and wait to see if the child was actually hurt before rushing to their aid. This way, the child is more likely to smile at your silliness after a fall rather than immediately look at you and start crying. I thought it was a great idea -- kids learn fast how to manipulate their parents. So my husband and I have been trying this with Imp -- and considering how many times he seems to fall in a day, he is picking it up fast. At least 95% of the time, he falls, we shout "SCORE!" and he smiles and gets back to whatever he was doing. It's amazing to me just how durable the child's skull is. We keep him mostly in our living room, which has carpet on most of the floor, and have blankets on top of that, so most of the time he's falling onto something with some cushion, but still -- it's impressive how quickly he can recover when you don't make a big deal out of it.

I like to think we're teaching him a useful life lesson by not making such a big deal out of his falls. It's important for kids to know their parents are there for them, but also important to know that fussing over every little thing is in fact an impediment to getting stuff done (in Imp's case, these are things like chasing the cat or pulling all of his toys off of the shelf). And he is learning how to fall better every day. When he first started pulling himself to standing he would fall straight backwards and inevitably break into tears. Now, he tends to sit down when he's feeling unstable, and I've even seen him work on figuring out how to pick up something he's dropped by going to one knee and then pulling up again. He still sometimes overestimates his skill at holding on with just one hand, but again, he's getting better every day. 

Every bump and bruise is therefore a lesson, not a tragedy. It actually serves as a good reminder to me as I struggle with day to day issues to watch how quickly Imp recovers from each fall. If I dealt with every injury - mental and physical - with as much alacrity as my son, and got so quickly back on task, I could be a lot more productive. It's easy sometimes to dwell on our injuries and forget the lessons we can learn from them. One more thing watching Imp is teaching me. Next time I fall, maybe I'll just shout "SCORE!", dust myself off, and keep on moving. Okay, maybe I'll do that quietly in my head rather than out loud. But it's the concept that counts. :)