As a parent, being anxious about your kid’s safety is just natural. But as one mother shares, she’ll always feel guilty because she felt that her neglect caused her son’s accident.
“I’m a mom. This is just how my face looks”
Megan Zander shares that she has always been a worrywart. She always keeps an eye on her kids, and she made sure to babyproof their home so that her kids are always safe. She read a lot of literature about the dangers that can happen to a child, and she prides herself in being cautious.
She then told a story of when she and her family checked into a hotel for some much needed relaxation. She was watching her twins swim, when a lifeguard told her that she looked worried. She responded with “I’m a mom. This is just how my face looks.”
I wasn’t giving them my full attention
After swimming, she asked her twins to go to the bathroom to pee while she was changing out of her wet clothes nearby.
She said “I wasn’t giving them my full attention and somehow they tried to close the door while one son’s hand was still partially between the door and the jamb.”
She then heard a scream and was expecting to see one of her kids with a bruised or a pinched finger. What she saw however was that one of her son’s fingers were partially severed, with the nail cut clean through.
She immediately asked her husband to call 911 for help. Her son’s finger was x-rayed and it was found that not only was it almost chopped off, the finger was also broken, and that would require both a surgery and a transfer to another hospital.
Thankfully, she shared that they were still lucky since the doctors were able to fix her son’s finger and they avoided any complications. However, she adds that she’s still suffering from anxiety over what happened since she feels that it was her fault.
A healthy fear is important
While being overly paranoid as a parent is not a good thing, being too complacent is just as bad. A healthy fear is very important since it keeps you on your toes.
However, if you still feel some anxiety as a parent, here are some tips to help you calm down, relax, and have peace of mind:
- Learn what’s sensible and what’s not. Some parents can sometimes get too paranoid about unrealistic fear. An example would be being afraid of shark attacks when your kids are at the beach. While shark attacks do happen, they’re extremely rare, and the chances of it happening to your kids are negligible.
- Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness means being conscious or aware of your surroundings. A couple of minutes of mindfulness can really do wonders whenever you’re feeling anxious or stressed out.
- Know how to prioritize risks. Not everything has to be childproofed. Make sure to focus on the more apparent dangers before trying to make sure that every nook and cranny of your house is safe. It’ll save you a lot of time and stress in the long run.
- Write down the positives and negatives. Yup, you should look at your behavior more objectively. By writing down the positives and the negatives, you’re going to see the bigger picture and eventually figure out that there’s really nothing to be worried about.
READ: Theme park accident : “They saw their mothers get crushed to death”
Sources: sheknows.com, pyschologytoday.com
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