I keep picturing him falling and hitting his head. Why didn't I take better care of him? How could I have let it happen? I am mad at myself. It frightened me to see him fall so far and hit his sweet head. I've apologized many times since it happened, and I find myself holding him and hugging him with extra tenderness and gratefulness.
Through the years since I became a parent, it's been impressed on me over and over that our children's lives and well-being are fragile, though sometimes it's easy to think that bad things only happen to other people. There is certainly no shortage of horrible things that can happen, and I hear heart-breaking stories often. One instance that I'll never forget occurred last year when the loving father of a family we knew accidentally backed up and ran over and killed his three year old, and I recently read the story of a child who got strangled in his crib sheet.
Children can choke on balloons. They can drown in the bathtub. They can be poisoned by eating medication that was left out or by drinking bleach or other household cleaners. I'm not trying to be morbid, but, wow, we parents have got a huge responsibility. We need to be careful and research and find the latest information on what is dangerous and what is safe for our children.
It can be hard because many things that our parents were told were safe for us when we were little children are considered to be unsafe today. Even things that were considered safe last year are no longer considered safe.
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