alternate title: Proof Positive I’m NOT a Bad Mom
The day before yesterday evening my youngest son raced into the kitchen through the back door with a pool of blood in the palm of his hand, one tine of a heavy-duty staple fully embedded in the fleshy part of his palm near his thumb.
Tears were streaming down his face, and he was sobbing hysterically. Tears and snot and slobber all ran together down his chin as he cried like I haven’t seen him cry in a long time. His big sister saw the blood and ran to her room, in tears herself.
I cuddled him close to me and walked him to the bathroom to better assess the situation. One tine was still in the palm. The other one had apparently been pulled out almost as quickly as it went in just because of the position of my son’s hand, and it was this hole that was bleeding. It wasn’t even bleeding a lot, but the way he was holding his hand caused the blood to pool.
I was calm, and able to get him to calm down enough to explain to me what happened.
The offending staple gun and a sample staple (not the offending staple)
Note to young boys everywhere: be sure you know which end of the heavy-duty staple gun you’re dealing with BEFORE trying it out.
I carefully extracted the embedded staple, carefully washed the wounds, and carefully bandaged his hand with waterproof band-aids. I wiped his face and hugged him close.
I took him in the kitchen to get an ice pack to put on his hand and talk some more about what had happened.
At NO point during that time did I think to take a picture OR post something about the experience on Facebook or Twitter. My first concern was getting my son taken care of, dealing with the wounds on his hand, and the fear that kind of hurt causes. Treat first, tweet later!
It was only after I had him sitting at the kitchen table, hand thoroughly iced, medicine administered, tears dried, and fears calmed, that I posted a quick status update to Facebook and Twitter. I didn’t even get a photo of the injury…
And NOW, 2 days later, I’m just NOW putting it on my blog.
SEE! That’s positive proof that I AM a good mom, caring first for my Cutie, and NOT a complete and total social media maniac. 🙂
mommy 1; computer 0 lol!
For the win!!!!! 🙂
Good job on not tweeting and giving first aid instead! I am highly addicted myself to social media. That staple gun must have hurt quite a bit. I may still be sobbing, but I am a wuss
I’m slightly addicted to social media myself (I’m a social media manager in my other life!) which is why this whole thought process came to mind. Honestly, I’ve seen videos or photos of children in precarious situations or in various stages of ‘hurt’ placed on our friends’ FB pages or twitter updates and thought, “Duh, mom…. take care of the kiddo. Who cares about tweeting this right now? SURE it makes a great story, but your kiddo needs you!”
With that big staple gun I’m sure the force of the thing hurt quite a bit, and it was a blunt staple, so it would have been a rough entry, on top of being scared because he wasn’t expecting it and worried about maybe getting into trouble for playing with something he shouldn’t have been. It all adds up! I didn’t cry, but my daughter made up for that! LOL!
Awww, Raylene. Poor child. I feel so badly for him. I will say, I had to laugh, when as I read down to the end there was an advertisement for ‘Staples’ office supply….
NO WAY, Kay! That’s TOO funny! Well, Google is famous for picking out those key words… even when they are prone to creating morbidly funny connections! LOL! He’s doing OK now. None the worse for wear!
Great mommy moment! I’m not so sure I would have stayed so calm! I love your line: “treat first, tweet later!” – – hope he feels better!
I wasn’t sure what to make of it when he first came inside, and I felt like I might panic. This is the son who is likely to be the MOST regular at the Emergency Room, so anything was possible with him. But when I saw the staple, I knew I could handle it! 🙂 He’s doing fine now. thank goodness!
Oh my goodness! I hope he is feeling better! My fear of staplers was officially strengthened lol
He’s doing great! The next day he was on the monkey bars and everything. Still sore, but thankfully no infection or anything. PHEW! This was a HUGE stapler, too. The little ones can staple you, but not likely to do this kind of damage either! LOL!
I’m still gonna keep imagining that it was Bish!! Glad that Mr. Cutie has been “first aided” and patched up… :0)
Lol, you go right ahead, Crispy! It REALLY wasn’t my husband with the staple gun! haha