It was a beautiful afternoon, and the kids were restless. I had been promising them for days that we would head to the park so they could ride their bikes and scooters. Living in an apartment has its disadvantages, including lack of safe free space for such activities. Brandon needed to run an obstacle course for Cub Scouts, and the school playground provided the perfect backdrop—parallel bars, monkey bars, slides, and tunnels.
We went to the school playground, parking close to the basketball court and play structures. I timed Brandon for his “obstacle course” and then allowed the kids free time to do whatever they wanted, making as much noise as they wanted. Course, it wasn’t long before they decided to chase each other around, including up the twisting slide. I warned them a few times not to climb up when the other was going down—like they would listen!
As I watched in amusement, Mariah climbed up the twisty slide, knowing full well that her brother was waiting for her at the top, for just the right moment in which to launch himself down the slide. The moment came; Brandon started down the slide, and crashed right into his sister. She turned sideways, cracking the side of her head on the curved edge of the slide before rolling down to the bottom. The two paused briefly at the bottom of the slide, before Mariah let out a piercing scream. She ran to me, shrieking the whole ten yards. Hugging her close, I tried to calm her. Not seeing any obvious injuries, I was confident she’d just been scared. Then I noticed the blood dripping around my hand, which was cupping the side of her head in a hug. Pulling her hair back, I noticed a large split in the skin where her ear met her head. It was bleeding dramatically, but after a minute, I realized it was superficial.
I sent Brandon to the car, for my ever-present first aid kit (it pays to have kids in sports, I tell ya!) He came running back, unable to find the kit. I sent him back to the car for anything remotely tissue like, to stop the blood until we could drive the two blocks home for a proper cleaning. He came back, with a strangely familiar yellow package in hand. “Mom, this is tissue, right?” Yes sweetie, yes my spare maxi pad is tissue, at least for now! Not having anything else handy that was absorbent enough to do the job, I unwrapped the pad—which had wings!—and stuck that puppy right to my daughter’s head. We drove home, with me thankful that no other parents were on the playground that day to laugh at my poor little winged-pad covered girl.
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