My sis and I were talking the other day about the accidents and mishaps we used to have as kids (which was started by a conversation we were having about the accidents and mishaps our kids are currently having!) For us it was mostly cuts and scrapes that came from falling of our bikes or coming off skateboards or while playing sport or something like that. Luckily there were no broken bones and no trips to the emergency ward unlike a lot of the other kids we knew!
Anyone out there have any interesting childhood accident stories?
I've never had any broken bones (touch-wood) but when I was 3 I fell off a slippery-dip and fractured my skull and spent a few days in hospital, that's probably the worst "accident". Whenever I do irrational things, I half-jokingly blame that incident from years ago. I once fell through the ceiling (and got stuck) at my great aunt's place when my father and I were fixing her roof, although I was about 14/15 then. It hurt quite a lot with scrape marks up my body, but it was more embarrassing than anything else. Apart from the usual array of cuts and abrasions from misadventure, falling off bikes and skateboards, bee stings, etc, that's about it.
I think it would be a lot easier to talk about the accidents I didn't have! I'd been run over, fell off my bike, took a slight tumble down the stairs, slipped on some ice, fell off a trampoline... and all of this happened withing the space of a year. I was about 12 or so at the time and to this day I don't understand how I was so unlucky!
I went on an activities weekend with my year group when I was at sixth form. I was canoeing when somehow I fell out of the canoe. Even though I had a life vest on, I still panicked because I'm not a good swimmer. The other girls in the canoe tried to help and calm me down but I ended up being rescued by the instructor. I wasn't hurt, just shocked and frightened - and a bit embarrassed because everyone saw. 😣
I had a pretty bad fall during gym class when I was about 12. It wasn't as bad as it looked thank goodness but I still had to go to the hospital to get checked out and my parents had to be called. I did get a couple of days at home after that which was pretty neat. But that's about as serious as it got for me where accidents were concerned.
I had the usual scrapes and so on that most kids do. But one that stands out was when I was about four or five and I saw what looked like berries that were growing on a plant in the neighbour's garden that was climbing over our fence. So I did what any kid of that age would do (or maybe just the daft ones!) and plucked them and started eating them. My mum had come out into the garden, and seeing what I was doing, hurriedly rushed over to stop me, getting into quite a panic.
My memories after that are a bit vague (so I'd probably need to ask my mum) but I do know that that evening I was rushed to hospital as my mum discovered some weird bumps appearing on me. She didn't know if it was chickenpox or the result of whatever I'd been snacking on that afternoon. But I wasn't violently ill and neither did I die (evidently!) and as I remember having chickenpox at a young age, I'm guessing that was the result and not the 'wild berries.'
I don't have any interesting and exciting accident stories for you all sadly! Haha! But I did have a girl in my class at secondary school who seemed to have my share of accidents and crazy calamities happening to her. The first was getting hit by a bus but thankfully she wasn't too badly hurt. Then she fell down some stairs and came to school on crutches. After that she'd suffered some sort of sports injury and the list just goes on. She was off school an awful lot. Even our head of year couldn't believe how unlucky she was!
I'm mates with her on Facebook although I haven't met up with her in years. But I'm very happy to say that her accident-prone days seem to be over!
I don't think I had anything seriously go wrong. But I do remember when I were about five or six and I were playing with the little girl next door. Her grandad had made her a little rocking horse. I wanted to try it out and I rocked a little too far back came off the rocking horse and hit my elbow on the floor. I can still feel the pain of that now and I cried my little eyes out. Though not for long! My friend then showed me how to use it. Basically you couldn't rock too far back and had to take it slow. Good job grandad wasn't making rocking horses for sale or he would have failed the safety inspection!
One that springs to mind was playing tag in the playground when I was about 7 or 8 and somehow I ran head first into a wall. It hurt really bad and I had to wait in the nurse's office for my mum to come and get me. We got it checked out and thankfully there was no real harm done with the exception of a big sore bump but my mum still kept me off school for a few days just in case. You were allowed to do that in those days! Thankfully there wasn't anything more serious than that happening to me. Unlike my boys who have been through pretty much everything!
Of course there were the usual little calamities that most kids have. Nothing major for me accident-wise. Though one of my cousins did once swallow a washer or something! He was six at the time. No idea how that happened. All I know is that his parents got into a mad panic and dashed off to the hospital. I think it 'passed out of his system' within a day or two!