KIDS and SPORTS INJURIES

Kids and sports injuries have always fit like a hand in glove. In my neighborhood there is always a child getting hit by a ball, breaking an arm at football practice or spraining an ankle. As the mother of four girls who love to play cheerleader and tumble, the news that school gym injuries are jumping in numbers gives me cause for concern. The reason given for the increase is that schools are pushing kids to get up off their butts and get some exercise in an effort to DECREASE the numbers of obese children. And I’m all for getting kids off the couch and away from too much television not to mention preventing them from wearing out their little hands playing video games but get a load of these numbers and wait for it because there’s a shocker in the numbers.


In a recent study the numbers from a study on kids and sports injuries from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (is that a mouthful?) were the big tip off. For the period that covered eleven years, over four hundred thousand kids were injured during PE (physical education or Phys ed as we used to call it in the dark ages) and taken for treatment at the emergency room. This number increased 150% over the course of the study. The largest number of injuries was associated with six school activities. Not surprisingly, the usual contact sports were culprits. Of course, football and basketball are on the list and I would have been amazed if they were absent. And there were a few of the less physical sports on the list like soccer, gymnastics and volleyball. But then, hold on… RUNNING is on the list.


I ran junior high track and then went on to high school so I paid my dues as did many of my friends and frankly I can’t remember an injury or sprain that couldn’t be iced down on the spot with the athlete sent limping to the sidelines to rest up. My question is this, have kids gotten so out of shape that they can’t even run without having to hit the ER?

Please leave your comments or experiences regarding Parenting Kids and Sports Injuries before my oldest leaves for kindergarten!

PRACTICE FOR LATER

For the moms like myself that don't have much time to watch the early morning shows or search youtube for goodies, here's the Mom's William Tell Overture seems perfect training for when baby gets just a little older. This lady shoots all the directives in the span of a few minutes that moms of school age children parcel out during the course of any given day.

I don't have to deal with Ipods or problems with the little ones texting at the dinner table yet. My little ones are not old enough to know much more than cellphones are the way we call Mawmaw to tell her something wonderful we saw at the park or the zoo. But, the rest of the stuff like eat what's on your plate, don't sit too close, etc. etc. all ring true.

I will have to listen to the video again when I have a little more time to focus to see if there are other lyrics of her Mom's take on the William Tell Overture that apply to me and the average day in the life of the mom of many.

I noticed on the program where the mom was interviewed that her children were in their early to late teens. This gave me pause as I wondered whether I would still be telling the kids to comb their hair and don't be late when they get that age!
I wonder if there are ways to teach and discipline while they are young that will get that out of their system before they get to high school! I certainly hope so, big kids are so much harder to intimidate!

So, what do we do to avoid having to commit ourselves to a constant stream of orders until the kids leave home to go to college? Suggestions?

BROWN TICKS, BABIES and the CIRCUS

What do brown ticks and babies have to do with fashion? Well, not very much but this baby story deserves to be blogged because it was so cute that I wanted to share it with our visitors. Sometimes real life stuff trumps new fall designer clothes for babies.

The children were playing in the front yard yesterday and once when the ball the were playing with bounced into a wooded area, the older of the girls ventured into the brush to fetch it. She was the hero of the afternoon's activities. Even the toddler recognized bravery and her act of self sacrifice was rewarded with cheers and enthusiastic applause. As the adult in charge, I saw the relief on the hero's face that she made it in and out of the underbrush with no injuries, snake bites or other mishaps. At least that's the way it seemed at the time.

That night the order was administered for all to ready for bathtime as per the normal routine. I was finishing up the dishes when our two year old came toddling
into the kitchen lisping that Ninny Bayuh (Lyndy Beth) has a "ticket". I was mildly inquisitive but nothing alarming about a "ticket" right? I remembered there was a pre-school "circus" coming up so I thought teacher had passed some free tickets to the kids. So, on I go putting up plates and cups.

This went on a few more minutes and I saw that the little one was looking at me with that "What kind of mother are you?" look on her face. I gave pause and said, "Wow! Sissy has a ticket! That's so nice!" Now things began to get serious as her little face crumpled and she told me that I was just MEAN!

Confused as I was I followed her down the hall directing her to get ready for her bath! She cut left into the bathroom and I considered cutting a hard right into the nursery to pick up a few clothes while they were entertained in their baths. I don't know why, but my eyes veered to the left behind little one and I saw Lyndy inspecting her tummy while perched on the side of the tub.

I headed over to see what was so fascinating about her belly button and found that she had not come through her heroic moment unscathed. Yes, you guessed it; a nasty engorged blood sucker was fastened to my brave little girl's stomach. ICK!!! She was not nearly as upset as I was at this time, but when I fished the tweezers out of the drawer and told her I'd have to pull it out she wasn't very pleased to say the least.

So, that's the connection between brown deer ticks, babies and a circus. Ok, so now tell me about YOUR day!