The River Wild

In all the hubbub, I almost forgot Throwback Thursday! What hubbub? I don’t know. But it sounds like a good excuse. Anyway, this World’s Worst Moms oldie but goodie is from JoAnn Stevenson, who makes a person wonder if getting back to nature is really the best idea.

It was a beautiful sunny day in August a couple of years back. The family decided to go rafting down the Truckee River near Lake Tahoe. Reservations were made, cooler packed, swimsuits on. We headed out on our adventure. It was my husband and two children (10 and 5). We got a raft all to ourselves and after the safety instructions and life jackets, we began our journey. My husband and I controlled the oars to steer us around any obstacles in the way. Parts of the river were very slow while others had a little more movement. Nothing like riding huge rapids or anything but enough to have a little fun. During one stretch of “rapids” we were getting close to some trees and bushes that hung out over the river. I was in the front with my paddle trying to stop us from going into the bushes. Out of instinct I swung my paddle across the raft to try to stop us. “Crack!” That was the sound of the oar hitting my son, smack in the middle of the forehead. It immediately began to bleed and swell and he immediately began to scream. Grabbing some ice out of the cooler (which was keeping the beer cold), I put it on his poor little head. And, as if I didn’t feel bad enough, my husband had to chime in about how I really need to pay better attention to what I was doing and things like that wouldn’t have happened. Like I really meant to bonk my son on the head with a paddle! I’ve paddled his bottom, but never his head! To this day he still has an inch long bump at his hairline to remind me of one of my “worst mommy” moments.