Friday, October 9, 2009

Round 'n' round 'n' round we go...

I have been sort of anti-spinning-around-in-circles for most of my life, and even more so following a particularly unpleasant Tilt-A-Whirl experience at age 11.

But my kids seem to love spinning. I feel like such a worrying, hovering mother when I caution my 2-year-old daughter, who is all decked out in a tutu and ballerina slippers: "Don't spin so fast! Stop now! That's enough! You'll get so dizzy you'll fall and crack your head open!"

In fact you are probably judging me right now. Tell a kid to stop spinning around in circles? Sure, it sounds overprotective. But it so happens that when I was about her age, I was dancing around the living room and I did crack my head open and had to get stitches. So there.

But I try not to overdo it. You have to let kids be kids, right? And my 5-year-old son was really, really excited to sit in the spinning seat at the playground. Now to me, it looks like a cruel torture device, but he insisted on sitting in it, so I helped him up and he spun around until I just couldn't take it anymore. He was fine.

A little bit later, while I was spotting my daughter on her fake-plastic-rock climbing adventure, I glanced over and saw my son climbing into the spinning thing. He slowly began spinning, and looked like he had it under control. I turned around to help my daughter again.

The next time I looked over he was spinning rather quickly. Then his body kind of straightened out and he flew out of the seat and landed on the ground, which luckily was made out of some sort of soft, spongy substance. By the time I got to him he was looking completely dazed. You could almost see the little birdies circling his head.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Yeeeeaaaaahhhh," he answered weakly.

"Do you feel sick?"

"Noooo."

"What happened?"

"I tried to stop it, but it was no use," he said sadly. "Luckily, I got out."

"Yeah, more like you flew out. Are you sure you're okay?"

He assured me he was, and continued playing. But on the ride home he said he felt sick. Then at home he said he wanted to go to bed. Then he threw up. I cleaned him up and tucked him into bed. "Will sleeping help my stomach feel better?" he asked me.

"Yes, I'm sure it will," I told him. He fell asleep almost immediately.

I have a feeling he will think twice before hopping in the spinning seat again.

3 comments:

Cassie said...

Poor guy, I hope he learned his lesson. Mine never seem to. They sit on the swings in the park and twist it round and round, let go and spiiiiin until I'm dizzy. They are fine.

(her name is Torrie) said...

I seem to remember 2 little boys vomiting like crazy after a stint on the merry-go-round at the park a few years ago. These wouldn't be those same kids would it? Nahhhhhh!

Ruth said...

Torrie you are SO right! This is the individual version of that old-fashioned torture device. So now they have to take turns getting sick.