Ding dong, anybody home?

Have you ever noticed children have really short-term memories? It is like they put themselves in situations that screams to us "normal" people, "Ding dong, anybody home?"

I figure we all are like this at some point of our mortal life, it just seems to me to be more evident in children.

Example: As mentioned in an earlier post, I watch the neighbor boys after school. I have learned a lot about the difference in how boys and girls play. Regardless of the differences Emma seems to think that she can be just as tough as "The Boys" , but always falls short of being tough.

So in the last week Emma has been trying to do the same tricks as the boys on the tire swing. They will twist that doggone tire swing so tight that I think one of these days it will literally shoot someone off of it.

So this particular day as I was outside observing the children at play, the 3 boys were all attempting to go faster than the other one. I thought for sure one of them was going to lose their snacks they had just ate.

As I watched I noticed Emma carefully watching them. I can just imagine Emma's thought process : "Huh, that doesn't look that scary, maybe I will try it."
She then mustered up the courage to announce to the boys, "I want to try that!"
So they gladly made the swing available to her. They let her settle in before they start twisting.

As they are twisting her and the rope is starting to slow down from being so tight I can see the bubble above Emma's head screaming : "ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!" But being true to form of a child she ignores the shouts of her internal danger warning system and hunkers down on the swing with this look of horror that could be easily described as "I really do not know if I am going to survive this! Please Lord help me live through this! I promise I will never do anything stupid like this ever again!"

As the boys release the human grenade, she starts screaming this most hideous scream only a mother can detect as true and utter fear from a child. The boys then decided to sway Emma as she is swirling around and she is banged into the tree. They then realize they have crossed the line, as Emma changes into TIHOE (The Incredible Hulk On Estrogen), and they immediately stop the swing and help her get off.(this all happened in about 45 seconds)

After she got off of the swing she obviously was crying and ran to me all upset and stuff. Anyway Emma tried to make it sound like the boys had tricked her into hopping onto the swing. I reminded her that she very gladly and willingly got on that swing.
(Remember I had watched the whole thing) I told her that I was sorry that she got hurt, and that she needed to remember that boys play differently than girls! (And then gave her hugs and kisses, because that is what we do to make things better) "Okay Mom" was her reply.

So I went inside to finish dinner up. 2 minutes later I hear a scream and a cry again. So I go to the door and it is Emma again.

"Moooom (sob, sob, sob, sup, sup,) the boys hurt me again!"

ME: "How did they hurt you?"

Emma: "I was swinging on the tire swing again and they started to twist me again and (sup, sup,) I said stop and they didn't and so (sup, sup,) I started to get off the swing but they didn't stop (sup, sup,) the swing, and so my foot got stuck while (sup, sup,) I was trying to get out(soooobbbbinnngg)!"

Now I am thinking at this point "Are you serious, you are telling me that your reasoning thought that it was safer to jump out of the perpetually moving swing then to stay put until it came to a stop?"

Obviously that is not what a nice mom would say out loud. We only think these things and hope that they never come out of our mouths.
So I said "Emma, I am sorry you got hurt again. Next time just stay away from the boys when they are near the swing(hug and kiss)" Emma: "Okay Mom, I think you are right."

So it is with our life journey. We ignore the promptings we get that warn us of danger and we get hurt over and over, and still we have a loving God who gently reminds us "Ding dong anybody home?"