I think I own the clumsiest 4 year old ever.

Well not own, but you know what I mean. I gave birth to the clumsiest child ever!

So far in the last week alone she has:

Fell over twice within as many minutes in the garden, by going down the slide sat on a plastic pink rocker, that she’s now far to big for but I’m a hoarder so it remains cluttering up the garden. You would have thought she’d have learnt from the 1st time but no, even with me telling her not to slide down riding the rocker, she knew best. Cue nasty graze on her knee, you know the type that takes off a couple of layers of skin and hurts when you bend your leg or move and your leg seeps that sticky clear liquid. What is that? Colourless blood? Skin juice?

Fell off the sofa backwards, it was more of a backward roll off the sofa, and banged her head on the floor. She’s not even safe indoors!

Caught her finger on someones cardigan button at school and ripped off part of her nail. This required a box full of plasters.

Stubbed her toe on the floor and scraped skin off her big toe.

Banged her face on a zip line (she was supervised) at the park and is now sporting a super bruise on her cheek.

Fell off a swing in our friends garden backwards, luckily onto some fairly soft grass, again banging her head.

The last 3 things happened on the same day!

The swing was the final straw for her, she decided she was going inside ’cause she kept falling over! She was more fed up than hurt though!

I’d like to blame the fact that she’s been out a bit more with the weather being better but no, although the many bruises she sports on her legs I attribute to her falling over at school and playing out, she’s always been like this.

At 2 we had our only, touching a very, very large and solid piece of wood, trip to A&E when she fell and cut her cheek, right by the corner of her eye, by tripping in nursery and falling on someones shoe! A Shoe! You could aim to hit your face on someones shoe and still not manage it! That cut had to be glued and she sported a pretty big shiner for a week or so and has been left with a permanent crescent moon scar which has only recently faded to silver from red!

She once walked into a door and ended up with a purple egg shape in the middle of her forehead! That took a little while to fade!

When she went into hospital to have her tonsils and adenoids out at 3 she went sporting a ‘burn’ down her back from an astro slide at a play place and an inexplicable scratch right down her face, which we have since come to the conclusion came from a the zip on the netting of the trampoline. You know the bit of the trampoline that’s supposed to stop you from hurting yourself! Those 2 injuries were fun to explain to the anesthetist! Good job she could talk and explain herself!!

There’s been many an occasion of trapped fingers, including the loss of a thumb nail, despite being told over and over and over and over and over and over not to put her hands near, cupboards, draws, windows, doors. A couple of slips down the last few steps on the stairs, one time landing on her back (?!) despite her holding on to the handrail. Lots of scrapes and scratches and I’m not even going to into the amount of stuff she’s knocked over and broke, the amount of drinks, food, paint she manages to spill!

Sometimes I think she must just walk round with her eyes shut!

It’s a good job she’s pretty tough, 9 times out of 10 she just gets up and brushes herself off, giving the sore bit a rub. It’s only the one that will require mummy or daddy attention!

We all want to keep our children safe, but do I want  to stop her from trying things out and make her scared of playing and being a kid?

No, do I heck.

If she picks up a couple of bumps along the way, it’ll heal. It’s nothing a cuddle, a wet cloth and a little bit of chocolate won’t fix. I remember falling off my bike into a bush of stinging nettles! After some doc leaf magic and some chamomile cream I was back out riding my bike, albeit slightly blotchier!

We have that all to come! Learning to ride a bike! Can’t wait! Savlon and plasters at the ready!

I will keep warning her of imminent danger, but I’m not going to wrap her in cotton wool! I’m not That bad of a mother that she’s ever in any real danger that would cause permanent damage. Honest!

It’d be nice for her to be a little less clumsy but as long as she’s smiling, I know she’s learning by experiencing, I know we’re making memories and I know she’s happy!

I want her to be carefree and adventurous. I want her to be a child.

Even if she is a really clumsy one!