Feb 25 2010
Careful!
The Christian comedian Tim Hawkins makes fun of mothers and their habit of yelling “Careful!” immediately after their child has done something unsafe. He points out the absurdity of yelling “Careful!” when it can no longer do any good. I am one of the countless mothers who says “Careful!” a moment too late, and cannot stop myself from saying it.
We Manrys have been watching the winter olympics these last couple weeks and my children are constantly told which sports their mother will not let them do: No luge, no bobsled, no skeleton, no moguls, no snowboard halfpipe, no snowboard cross, no ski cross, no freestyle skiing, no ski jumping, no short track speed skating…
How can the mothers of these athletes bear watching their child navigate the narrow ledge between success and disaster? I am too big of a wimp. Just watching Ovechkin check Jagr so hard in hockey that he flies across the ice, added “no ice hockey” to the list. (Lucky for Abby, Field Hockey is still o.k.)
The sports at the olympics are dangerous, but nothing compared to the x-games madness. Zeke has decided snowmobile jumping is for him. One kid jumped his snowmobile off a giant ramp, let go of the handle bars, flew to the back end, caught himself, and climbed back on. It was one of the craziest things I’d ever seen.
I’m sure his mother yelled “Careful!” in the midst of it. How could she not?
