“I think you should have his knee x-rayed,” a fellow parent who happens to be an orthopedist suggested.
Oh, he’s fine, I thought. He’s not even complaining, limping a lot sure, but my son is a tough cookie. We’ll just send him off to school with an ace bandage wrapped around his knee for support.
Still limping a week later, and to his credit, still not complaining, I relented and took my fifth grade son to get x-rays. Sure enough, an evulsion fracture of the knee. Treatment? Full leg knee brace for eight weeks.
You would think I had learned my lesson. A few months earlier my daughter jammed her finger in a volleyball game. It was swollen and tender but by golly, she wanted to finish her game.
It’s fine. Nothing a little Advil and time off wouldn’t heal. Unbeknownst to me at the time, my daughter called my husband from school a few days later and asked to get her finger x-rayed. Yup, you guessed it. Broken.
Jill's broken finger
I’m really not a bad parent. I do get my kids treated medically, really I do. I just am not one to jump the gun. I take the “let’s see if something resolves itself on its own” approach.
After all, there were no protruding bones or lacerations in either situation. And both my kids can be pretty stoic. Surely they’d be complaining more if they had a broken bone, right?
Although I certainly did not win Parent of the Year Award that year, like most parents, I do the best I can under the circumstances. I am not perfect but I do love my kids and really do want them to be healthy and happy.
As parents, we plan the best we can for our children’s future.
One way we do this is through solid Family Succession Planning so our loved ones will avoid unnecessary government interference, exorbitant legal fees and lengthy time delays in the transition of our money and assets to them when we’re gone. The passing of the baton so to speak.
Although I won’t win Sympathetic Nurse of the Year in my household, at least my Family Succession Planning is in order.
So although my kids are apparently left to fend for themselves when it comes to orthopedic accidents, they can at least take solace in the fact that I won’t be leaving them a mess when I’m gone.
You can do the same by scheduling a Family Succession Planning session with me here.
My kids still tease me that if they hurt themselves, they are calling their dad and not me.
Just put a bandage on it and take some aspirin. You’ll be fine.
Kristen “No Mother of the Year” Marks
