Friday, May 22, 2009

Mommies and Daddies can be bumbling dorks. Babies get that.

Even though the Caveman show was a bomb, Geico keeps their marketing machine revved with those funny, prehistoric unibrows.

I for one am a cromagnon-skull daddy who enjoys good physical comedy and proud to sport the thick skull that keeps me a tad dense from day to day (not to be confused with a narcissistic big head).

I am also proud that I’ve passed this genetic “safety” trait on to my baby daughter – to protect her against her bumbling parents not paying attention to where she is in time and space.

For example:

Slide Bang Smack – playing with baby on the floor while baby slides off the pillow support and into the granite fireplace.

Spin Whoosh Smack – spinning baby into the open car door while trying to navigate into the car seat.

Flop Freefall Smack – sitting next to baby on the couch while baby slides face first off the couch and onto the floor (sometimes catching her in midair - that's a trick).

Cradle Plop Smack – gingerly placing baby into car seat or cradle or high chair or bouncy and always, and I mean always, hitting the back of her head somehow, someway.

I know we’re not the only parents to have inadvertently and unintentionally banged our baby’s head, but it can be very scary in the moment. The only levity after the fact is that everyone’s okay, especially baby.

Mommies and Daddies can be bumbling dorks. Babies get that.

And thank goodness they don’t remember anything until they’re 3 or 4.

Happy Fatherhood Friday! It’s a hip place at Dad-Blogs.com for dads and moms to share stories, ideas, photos and movies with one topic in mind – fatherhood. Good times.

10 comments:

  1. yeah, it happens to all of us. I always seem to hit my little one's head on the roof of the car as I'm putting him into the carseat.

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  2. They don't remember anything until they're 3 or 4 because they suffer minor brain damage when we bump their heads so often. And yes, I'm just as guilty of this. Thank goodness he's got a hard noggin!

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  3. I'm guilty of Spin Whoosh Smack too. And if the same name applies, I've even done it when turning around inside while baby's in the sling and smacking them against the doorjam - yeoch.

    I agree with Daddy Files.... the reason they don't remember anything until 3 or 4 is because we've bumped their heads so often. After 3 or 4, they're responsible for any further damage and we're officially off the hook. ;-)

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  4. does over cautious bring on undue crash boom bangs swooshes? after awhile they will be the ones doing their own spin whoosh smack bang crashes. you're just getting them 'ready' lol

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  5. check, ummm, check, and check- yep! did that one too! I tell you, there is no bigger guilt trip than the one we give ourselves when it comes to the little ones. I remember walking with my daughter when she was really little in the dark, and tripping over the stroller on the floor. It was like the matrix- all to avoid severe smashage, I did a spin in the air, my feet still in the other side of the stroller, landed stepwise on my kneeselbow, shoulder, and torso- all to decrease her impact on the floor. She was ok- Me- in pain for a day or 2.

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  6. Ha! Yeah, we can think we're being careful, but the inevitable does occur. I know everyone's being silly here, but I do think that these spin whoosh smack crash moments happen in order to prepare the kid for life's crashes. I read somewhere that kids fall down in order to learn to pick themselves back up. They bang their head to learn to shake it off. And the animosity towards the parents can begin, lol.

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  7. I remember all of this and am guilty of one or more of these moves. Thankfully, mine don't remember what a klutz I was. But, then they get older and do it themselves and you find yourself gasping a bit. Here's to hard heads and cromagnon craniums!

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  8. HA! Mine says now, (at 3)..."Daddy, no bonkin da head on da roof top"...(when getting in the car).

    Kudos!

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  9. If you hit your head that much you wouldn't remember much either.

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  10. Every time it happens I gasp - but it seems like most of the time for our daughter she barely registers that anything happened at all. Faceplants are another story entirely however...

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