Esher’s Big Crash

2 seconds after this picture my boy went face first into the pavement over his handlebars. I’m so glad he had his helmet on because he only scraped up his chin without it, it would have been so much worse!!!

When he first came to ask me if he could jump over the ramp (I love that he asks permission for things like this) I was busy painting my nails with Tristan. Okay, I never paint my nails, but I felt like such a bad mom telling him I didn’t have time to watch him. He is my number one job and that is why my sweet love works 60-80 hour weeks. I knew I had to be there to watch him because he was going to get hurt. I was hoping he would just forget about it and never try it. I said no maybe another day. Disappointedly, he asked if he could just  watch the other boys jump it.

As I finished up my nails I thought of a talk I heard during Women’s Conference. She spoke about how we all want kids with character who are, respectful, responsible,caring, loving etc. She reminded us that in order to build these things within them we must allow them to fail and have an opportunity to make it better the next time. If we don’t punish them for breaking house rules or not having jobs around the house how will they become responsible adults, if we allow them to disrespect us without consequences how will they become respectful towards others, if we don’t allow them to grow in their good desires because of a possibility of failure then how will they every learn and explore the many wonderful things about life. Esher is very adventures and loves so many things about life how can I deny him this opportunity to do something so fun because of my fear that he would get hurt. I would be stopping his growth from the beautiful spirit that he is. I had to give him this chance to fail and learn. Daph told me a great story related to this. A mom decided to gave her kids a certain amount of money for school clothes. Her son came back with a very expensive pair of shoes and nothing else. He thought she would see this and run out and buy him new clothes for school instead of sending him with raggedy old ones, but he was wrong. She mended the old ones and sent him off. He was so embarrassed about his clothes that school year that when the next year’s school money came around he bought tons of new clothes and most of them on sale. He became a great barging shopper. What if she had just bought him clothes when he irresponsibly spend all his money on a pair of shoes? She would have robbed him of the opportunity to become a conscious shopper and budgeter.  She would have taken away a wonderful characteristic that will help him be a better adult. How many times have I changed my children's bad decisions because I know they will not like the outcome. I must step back and let them fail so they can learn and do better next time- I must always remember this!!!

After Tristan and I finished our nails we started to walk over there. I happen to look out the window when I saw him looking both ways to cross the street. I knew he really wanted to do it and we had about 30 minutes before we had to leave for Paris’ performance so I ran outside to meet him and told him I had time now. His eye lit up like they always do and he ran to get his bike. I was so super nervous but I told him he could do it. I just couldn’t believe that he wasn’t afraid at all. So he takes off and lands with his front tire turned and goes right over the handlebars face first. I tried hard not to sound panicked and walked over as quickly as I could without making a big deal out of it. I told him what a wonderful jump he made and to see how far he had landed… yes on his face,but I wasn’t pointing that out. His chin was really bleeding and he wanted to go home. I told him he should try it again. He was so close to landing it. I told him I would help him get over it this time. My brave boy got on his bike and tried it again and again until he didn’t even need my help. I was so proud of him. The last time he went over I barely touched his sleeve and he yelled back “I did it mom, I’ll meet you at home!” Wow, what a wonderful lesson this was for me!!!!