I was hoping to be spared this

We are extremely cautious parents. We don't allow the boys outside without supervision, all bikers, skateboarders and scooter-ers(?) must wear helmets and other safety gear, we know where they are practically every minute, seat belts, brush your teeth, wipe your rear, yadda, yadda, yadda. However, one area we have yet to be unscathed is the area I dread the most: the stairs.

Every one of my children have fallen down the stairs. We've had fences, we've had barriers, we even installed a fancy prison-like gate thingy at the bottom of the stairs that keep small children from even reaching the first step. You can kind of see it behind Peyton in this pic:

















It covers the entire base of the stairs and anyone needing to go up or down must open a gate that even some adults struggle with. Our older children have been guilted, threatened, yelled at told to never leave said gate ajar. Usually they are pretty good about it but this morning SOMEONE dropped the ball and left the gate WIDE OPEN.

Now, I've had the unfortunate horror of watching too many of my children tumble down the stairs, their rag doll-like bodies hitting one step, bouncing up in unnatural contortions, and then tumbling to the next, and the next, and "Oh, God!" the next, and the next until they reach the bottom with an horrendous thud. The scream escapes my throat, my breathing stops, and my heart falls as I lurch with every power of my being and frantically try to reach them, never in time and never knowing whether to pick them up or make them lie still. It really is one of the most horrific, gut-wrenching events a parent can witness.

And I got to experience it again this morning. She's fine and other than about two minutes of crying and an extended hug, she dashed off to find a Bubba to play with her. It's been several hours now but I'm not sure my heart rate has yet to slow down or my mind to stop creating more what if scenarios.

I can only send up more prayers of thanks that yet again another child of mine was spared what could have easily been life-threatening injuries.

Now SOMEBODY shut the FLIPPIN' GATE!!!