As a mom, I worry about my girls. Every mom worries about their kids. Since my daughter has decided to take up a couple of sports that can cause serious injuries, I try really hard not to think about it too much.
She has had a love of horses since she was little, really little. Sweet Pea wanted to start riding lessons from the time she was 2 years old! We found a wonderful farm when she was 4 and she started taking lessons in the spring when she after she had turned 5. She was so little when she started! Her feet couldn't reach the stirrups unless they were super short; her feet didn't come below the saddle when she first started. Now she's on a much bigger horse, rides well and enjoys being a recreational rider. In the back of my mind I see Christopher Reeve, first as Superman, then riding, and later in a wheelchair from a serious riding accident. I don't think of him often. Too scary to think about something like that happening to my daughter.
So as she got older we encouraged her and her sister to try snow sports. Although I grew up in Virginia, I learned to ski in high school at Massanutten (funny how things work out) and also at Ski Liberty in PA. When I got married to a man from New Hampshire who had never skied, I took him to the slopes. He's really enjoyed it as well so we encouraged the girls a few years ago to give skiing a try. Sweet Pea decided that she wanted to try snowboarding and Rosie Jane decided to give skiing a try. They both like their chosen sports. One thing Bob and I have always required from them when biking, and now skiing/snowboarding, is they must wear a helmet. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, no helmet, no bike. To be on Massanutten's ski and snowboard teams, the athlete must wear a helmet, not optional there either. And again, as a mom, I see the famous people who have died or been seriously injured skiing, most not wearing a helmet.
This was brought to the fore again recently with a snowboarder and a freestyle skier in the news. Kevin Pearce was a competitive snowboarder with Olympic dreams when he hit his head on the lip of the half pipe just over a year ago and suffered severe brain injury. He is well into his recovery but won't be doing any more competitive snowboarding. He just recently was allowed to get back on the slopes. Two days ago Sarah Burke, a Canadian freestyle skier, was injured training for the X-Games and is in a medically induced coma. We are praying for her recovery.
These kinds of injuries, while rare, prey on a mom's heart, stuff I try really hard not to think about. When Sweet Pea was getting more serious about snowboarding and we started talking about it more, I told her that the half pipe was out. She actually has no interest in that or even in the trick parks at the ski areas. She's all about speed, so it's boarder cross for her.
Since we live in Virginia and this has been the winter without snow, the ski areas are covered in man-made snow. This is not the nice powdery stuff you sometimes find in New England and always have out West; this is, especially this winter, more icy bits. Fine for skiing, not so fine when you fall, your shirt comes untucked and you slide down the hillside. Sweet Pea now has a nice "snow burn" on her hip from when she fell Thursday night at practice. If this is the worst thing that happens to her, I'll be one happy mom.
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