My eldest son, Cleveland, knocked out his two front teeth doing gymnastics last week. It was scary; lots of blood and hard to tell what was going on in his mouth. A friend was there so she took my younger son to my mom's and Cleveland and I headed to the emergency room. He was in shock at first and I had to carry him into the hospital. Luckily, there was a TV in the waiting room and that immediately revived him. The doctor told us that he couldn't do anything for us and that we should head to the dentist in the morning, so we headed home. On the way back, Cleveland asked if I had noticed one of the TV commercials where there were 2 skateboarders - one with lace up shoes and the other with velcro. I hadn't, but apparently the velcro guy sailed gracefully, with his skateboard, over the dumpy guy with laces while he was bending over to tie his (stupid) shoes. Another reason that my son does not feel the need to master tying his shoes. This makes me wonder more about the skills we'll lose along the way due to technology. Shoe tying, handwriting. Is it ok? What's lost here and what do we gain in its place?
Then he went on and on about how there were a lot of good things about knocking out his front teeth: an early visit from the tooth fairy (x2), milkshake for dinner, etc. I felt proud of him for being so brave and a little sad that I had not looked at the winning, baby-toothed smile a little more carefully before he walked into gymnastics that day.
We suffered through the time consuming lace sneakers for about a year as Sam figured out how to tie them. Lots of impatient toe tapping (me) as I waited for him to get them on in the morning. So once the skill was mastered, I had no issue with going back to velcro! I am not sure if he can skateboard better with them, but both of us are out the door that much quicker in the morning, which counts for something. It is amazing to consider the things that will be lost, and even more amazing what is gained. I am glad that Cleveland survived his ordeal! He is still a charmer.
ReplyDeleteNo laces and, if I remember correctly, no crawling either. Those whatevertheyarecalled specialists will have to study this. When you were young crawling was considered important to reading. And C reads. So what do we/they really know?
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