I Won't Keep My Kids in a Bubble

Charlie got a trampoline for his seventh birthday.  We gave it to him a week early, since he was going to be out of school that week for Fall Break from school.  He is naturally gifted when it comes to gross motor activities, and he loves doing gymnastics.  This Fall, we enrolled him at the YMCA for a gymnastics class, and he has done so well, we have decided to set up some equipment for Charlie at home to use in order to help him from a sensory integration dysfunction standpoint.  While I know that gymnastics without proper supervision is discouraged, I feel like I am qualified to supervise these activities since I did gymnastics when I was younger, and everything he is doing, or trying to do, I have done and generally, know how to instruct or correct.   Well, everything except that trick he did last night.  None of my flips had a twist to them, and I think that's where he went wrong.  He had done two days of these twisty flips, and then, out of no where, he had done one two many, and probably had lost some sense of balance and did the flip and landed in the middle of the enclosed trampoline in some weird position that I honestly can't even describe since it happened so fast, yet I knew it was bad. 

We know something is bad when Charlie complains since he doesn't generally feel pain as other children due to the sensory integration dysfunction diagnosis.  His pain tolerance is much greater than most, and usually is an enabler to him to try things that might frighten other children to attempt.   While I was older, about ten years old when we got our trampoline, I remember doing all sorts of tricks from flips to handsprings, to front and back falls that would make a chiropractor cringe.  However, I have never had back pain or problems, and I did all that without a safety net enclosure and managed just fine.  However, I felt pain in my shoulder and upper back last night as we were in bed.  I knew it was his pain.  I had given him ibuprofen and had him sleep in our bed last night since I wanted to keep an eye on him.  At 5:30 AM he woke up vomiting. 

I knew it was time to take him to the have him checked out.  Luckily, our local emergency room was empty, and we were seen immediately.  The doctor said he generally doesn't do the work up he ordered on an injury with vomiting as he did, (CT of head, cervical and thoracic spine), however, it was tricky because Charlie isn't great at describing his pain, and I remembered the back pain being his chief complaint after the incident.  All looked fine, and he was given a dose of ibuprofen and an anti-nausea medicine, and he is doing so much better. 

So, here is where I stand on trampolines.  I feel the same way about them as I do about bikes, jump rope, running down a hill too fast with untied shoelaces, hanging upside down off playground bars, etc.  They can all potentially be dangerous.  So can lots of activities.  I remember when I worked the urgent care seeing a wind instrument, marching band student who came in with a pneumothorax, and it was attributed to his instrument playing.  Does that mean we should stop all wind instrument play and form all percussion bands until someone pokes an eye out with a stick and then we switch to wearing protective lenses while playing drums?  

Can I keep my kid in a bubble?  Nope.  And I don't want to.  I want him to wear a helmet if he is on ANY contraption with wheels; like his bike, roller blades, skateboard or his scooter.  I want him to stop and look both ways if he is going to cross a street or parking lot.  I want him to learn what his body is capable of doing, and then try to push it a little further  in order to develop new skills.  Does watching my kid get hurt make me cringe and worry?  Yep.  But he will be okay, because I am here to prevent the worst of it, and allow him to fall down so that he can learn from it.  It's not like I am sending him out to juggle knives while riding a unicycle and tame a wild snake without a helmet... Of course he will be wearing a helmet when doing that sort of stuff.  And maybe some elbow pads.  ;o) 

It's my parenting style.  Apparantly, dangerous. This is a controversial way to raise kids.  What do you think?  While I have to respect the parent that hovers more than I do, I also think we need to loosen the rope just a tad to allow our children to develop the sense needed to be safe while we are not hovering.