Asa is halfway through his cast-wearing adventure. He’s got crawling and scooting down pat. He’s only mentioned the possibility of getting the cast off twice. And he still says he doesn’t like his doctors.
But the whole reason he has a broken leg is not because I let an almost 2 year old go down Chick-fil-a’s slide. It’s because I let him go down the slide WITH HIS SHOES ON. Yup. He was wearing Crocs with no socks. And when I saw the dirty floor, I thought, “Ugh. He can just wear his shoes. No big deal.” Yeah, I know they have the cubbies for your shoes. I know there was a big sign that said “NO SHOES”. But, the floor was dirty. So, the Crocs stayed on. He only went down the slide twice. The first time, Lydia took him in her lap. He laughed and laughed, even though his slowed him down. The second time he came down right in front of Lydia and his little leg was stuck under him AND Lydia.
I promise I’m not beating myself up about it. But I can remember the exact moment I thought of keeping his shoes on. I wish I had just been obedient to the rules of the playplace and let him go shoeless—even if he did get dirty.
I just glanced through google (or rather swagbucks search) to see what was written about fast-food playground injuries. I found lots of things that made sick to my stomach. Like a 2009 article that said 200,000 children are treated at the ER for playground related injuries every year. There was even an incident of brain injury because a boy fell at a play place.
But the most sobering news was that 40% of injuries* are because lack of parent supervision. If you hang out at fast food restaurant playgrounds you know what I’m talking about. It’s not the parents that can’t see way up top in the tunnel. It’s the parents that are eating in another side of the restaurant while their child plays. (I know because this happened to me a few weeks ago. I was the only parent in the enclosed room with 12 kids.)
I think it boils down to integrity. Or lack there of. Parents don’t obey the “no shoes” rule or the “for children under 42 inches” or the “no unspervised children” rule. Then they wonder why their own children don’t obey the rules at school and home!
This is not an investigative report. I’m not trying to prove anything or scare you. I’m just reminding you (and me) to obey the rules, be an example and TAKE OFF YOUR KIDS SHOES AT CHICK-FIL-A!
*I promise I read that statistic but I cannot find the article again!
It makes me crazy when parents don’t supervise and I feel like I am referring a WWE wrestling event because I choose to stay in the play area with my small children. Also? Our chickfila play area is for children 4 and under – I get a little nuts when parents allow their much older than 4 (although admittedly not shaving yet) children in the play area to terrorize all of the small children.
Sorry about your little guy…I don’t think it would have occurred to me that leaving shoes on could lead to an injury.
Yikes!! I’ve had my daughter wear her Crocs in the play area, too, for the same reasons. Never again!
Don’t beat yourself up! But…I am grateful you’re helping us all learn a lesson from little Asa’s injury. I really am surprised to learn how many injuries happen in playplaces each year!
I love our Chik-Fil-A’s playplace, but the unsupervised and unruly kids in there drive me CRAZY!
It is for this very reason (the dirty slide, not the injury) that I try to keep a spare pair of socks in the van – particularly during flip-flop/crocs season. Plus, you never know when there will be an unexpected trip to Monkey Joe’s!
One of the reasons I don’t like going to fast food playplaces is the unsupervised children. They ruin the fun that the littler kids are having by being bossy and shoving. I’m not above reprimanding a stranger’s child when it puts my child in danger.
Yes, how can we expect our children to obey the rules if we ourselves think that we are not subject to them. Great post, Amanda!
I am glad he is adjusting well! The last time we went to a McD’s play place, Alina started crying and told me she couldn’t come down. So, I went to see why in the world she was so upset. Apparently, a little boy (whose mom was not watching) took down his pants and peed everywhere. Alina couldn’t get through the pee. I was so disgusted and vowed to never go there again.
Thanks for the humble pie for breakfast, Amanda. =)
Love you! Accidents happen even when we DO follow the rules, don’t beat yourself up, mama. k?
I am totally familiar with the crocs and slide friction because I never have taken off Zion’s crocs, but most recently he has started taking off his own shoes because I guess he sees the other kids doing it. So there you have it, my 2 year old is better at following the rules than I am.
Oh man…. I wouldn’t have thought a thing about that, either… I am kind of hyper about the big kids playing in the little kids spaces. That bothers me any time we go into a mall/restaurant play area…
I probably would have done the same thing. I think Chick Fil A is one of the cleaner fast food play areas (at least around here) and my son’s socks are BLACK when he comes out of there. There’s little chance I would let him play in there barefoot. And the unsupervised children issue gives me a little bit of a panic attack, so we only go for breakfast when no one is there!
I have my own confession about a Chick-Fil-A playplace a couple of weeks ago. I was also the only parent inside the room with several older children, and they were so loud and boisterous that I decided we didn’t need to stay. I had to yell to get my kids’ attention, but they couldn’t hear me over the noise, so I had to yell even louder. I finally got them by their hands and turned around to find someone holding the door open to come in. When we walked out, all the other parents were staring at me because I was the crazy mom yelling at her kids. I felt their eyes on me the whole way out. Oh, such fun!
That is almost exactly the same way my kiddo broke his leg. Only Dad took him down the slide, and his shoe caught the side of the wall on the way down. Now THAT is some major parent guilt. Turns out that this is a pretty common accident. But no one knows that.
Wow, that IS sobering. I constant rail against “helicopter parenting” and I do believe that sometimes kids get hurt and that’s okay. But still, it’s a good wakeup call. We need to be paying attention at all times.