Yesterday is what got me thinking about it. We were climbing at Enchanted Rock. Tiernan face-planted on the granite. I had warned him to be careful, but should I have stopped him from running around? He was fine, but what if it had knocked his teeth out? Then later, he was stung by a scorpion. (Having only heard about the deadly scorpions of the Middle East and Africa, I spent a few terrifying moments thinking that he was going to die an excruciatingly painful death within the next hour. Thankfully, our climbing partners were able to inform me that the scorpions in Texas were not venomous and it was more like getting a bee sting. In comparison, that was something I could cope with.) I have to say, I'm proud of Tiernan. He cried for a few minutes, then sucked it up and went on with life. We frequently checked back with him and asked him how his hand felt. He just shrugged and said, "It still hurts."
Am I being a negligent mother to let these things happen? On one hand, I think it's great, even important, for my kids to spend time outside discovering things. I intentionally do not bring toys for Tiernan on these trips so that he will learn to explore and entertain himself using only the sticks, rocks, puddles, and trees available. But it was in this innocent playing with rocks that Tiernan uncovered the scorpion. At the time, we were a good hour hike from our car, and medical help was goodness knows how much further away. What if next time he finds a rattlesnake?
What mistakes is okay to let them make? Is it my job to prevent catastrophes? How much should potential danger limit our activities?
Christopher is not nearly as adventurous, though I wish he was sometimes, so I've really experienced this before but there have been things that happened that were completely out of my control. At four months Natalia threw up chunks of bread. It was one of my scariest moments as a mother. SOMEHOW Christopher had gotten a hold of bread and fed it to her and through God's grace she did not choke. To this day I have no idea when he could have done it. I do not leave them unattended. I turn around for a few seconds and I go to the kitchen (this was in our old house). Kid's are really great for taking what little time they have to do some pretty disastrous things. It's out of our control not that we be negligent (and no I would not say letting Teirnan explore is negligent!). The bread thing was really really scary and I thanked God that he made up for my weakness at that point. To answer your question though, yes we need to let them explore, yes, we need to be there to protect them on some level. No, we can not protect them from everything. And that is a very scary thing to realize. :(
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