The First rule of self defense...

At my families Thanksgiving get together this weekend I had a chance to find out how well I react in a emergency situation.

We have a small group of under six year olds in our newest generation. As when all kids get together they tend to run wild. There is usually one adult in the given room where all the commotion is happening as was the case on this Sunday. All the other adult's (including myself) are in the kitchen preparing the coming feast or visiting with family we have not seen is the last six months or so.
A loud bang, a pause in the pandemonium and then a blood curdling scream stopped everyone in their tracks. Like every mother you are attuned to your children's cry or in this cause my grand daughters cry. Before I could get to the room that the kids were in my eighteen year old daughter came out of said room carrying my Granddaughter and yelling that we needed to get her to the hospital.My first glimpse of her was blood and lots of it pouring from her face. Amanda had a cloth covering her, trying to catch as much for the blood as she could. In that first few seconds my brain shut down and fear, then ... panic took over. Randy (my husband) stepped in and had things under control in minutes. I fought down the panic, tried to breath deep and get control of myself. This takes almost impossible will power and of cause lots of positive self talk.
We got her to the Stony Plain hospital were she ended up with fifteen stitches on the middle of her forehead. With any luck there won't be a scar by the time she's old enough to care about those things and the memory will be dim.
As for me I have something new to feel guilty about. The supermom syndrome kicks in. I should have been able to prevent any of this from happening... etc, etc.etc. The eye opener was how hard it is to control myself and to keep the panic at bay. Is it just my nature to react this way or can I train myself to react differently. Just something new to add to my list of things to fix about "me."

Linda Shipalesky, Stony Plain Alberta Canada