There's nothing worse than a mother's guilt

So I am learning firsthand just how hard it is to deal with mothers guilt. We've had our fair share of bumps and bruises in the past 22 months of Josilyn's existence, but tonight was by far the scariest for me.

We were going for our typical end of the night walk through the neighborhood then up to the pond to feed the ducks; but tonight one of Josilyn's buddies Ava was out playing as well. We decided to stop and chat for a couple minutes so the girls could play. Of course being the adventurous and never fearful daughter that she is, Josilyn decided to climb onto another neighbors "bigger" kid bike. So I'm standing right next to her - literally not even a foot from the girl - and I turn my head away for a split second when all of a sudden I hear the scream and the tears. Sure enough she tipped right over onto the sewer grate.

I scooped her up and started my normal calm routine of checking her over whenever she falls when I instantly noticed her teeny tiny top front tooth was chipped. Not a little chipped, about 25% of the tooth was missing - leaving a very sharp dagger looking tooth in its place. Ugh. My perfect little princess has her first unhealable boo-boo :o(

Yes I know it could have been so much worse and I am thankful that it wasn't; but I still cannot get over the guilt of not watching over and protecting my angel better. My stomach has been in knots since the incident ... no matter how hard I try to tell myself these things happen the guilt just keeps coming back.

Thankfully she seems to be doing fine, the tears only lasted about a minute before she was ready to start running around like a wild animal again. A little Motrin before bed and a couple doctor and dentist appointments in place for Monday morning and hopefully we'll be good as new. Minus the uneven teeth that will be front and center for every picture from now until she gets her permanent ones. Let's just pray the damage stopped with the chip and there's no long term nerve damage.

The question for the day: why is it that the children of parents who actually watch their kids typically end up getting hurt more often then the children of parents who rarely watch their kids?