A waterpark freak accident

A few summers ago my family and I were excited to spend the day at a water park. It was a gorgeous, sunny, hot day. As we walked through the gates, my children’s faces were gleaming of happiness.

Sadly, 10 minutes later, it all came to a sudden halt.

My son flew down a slide and submerged under water. As I bent over to retrieve him, he powerfully jumped up. And he head butted my chin ---- hard.

So hard that four of my front teeth pierced a one-inch hole through my tongue.

Unfortunately, my partner had missed this freak accident. And he was about to send my daughter down the slide for me to catch her.

But because my mouth was filled with blood, I couldn’t speak. I was so in shock that I couldn’t even think of waving my arms or shaking my head no.

As I stood there frozen, he noticed the subtle changes in my posture, facial expression, and demeanor. He didn’t know what was wrong but trusted his gut and left the slide with my daughter.

With a bruised ego from the accident and a towel wrapped around my tongue to slow down the bleeding, this freak accident reminded me of the importance of becoming in tune with each other’s body language.

For example, at work when we become aware of children’s body language cues, we prevent or de-escalate challenging behaviours.

That’s because our gut tells us to:

1.   Go see them.

2.   Become curious.

3.   Ask them reflective questions (e.g., “you seem upset”, “are you having a hard time with X”, “what’s going on”).

4.   Offer our help.

When my partner listened to my subtle body cues, his instinct was to come towards me. As soon as he was beside me, I felt relieved. Of course, I was still in pain, but I was grateful he picked up on my unspoken signals.

This is a practice. It takes time and forces us to look at them more closely. And the more we become aware, the more they’ll appreciate when we come to lend a helping hand.

With all my love,

Alex