March Breaks Are For Serious Mattress Riding

I opened the door to this. What a pathetic sight. Four boys with nothing to do, begging to go mattress riding.

These ragamuffins had played inside for about thirty minutes and played outside for about an hour.  Hide and Seek seemed to be the game of choice in both locations but my indoor storage cupboards appreciated the outdoor play. So do I.

I have wonderful memories of outdoor adventures with my friends when I was young. My “no school” days were filled with river crossing, knee bandaging, friend chasing, ball bouncing, park playing, puddle jumping,voice screaming challenges and I’m here to say that I survived it all. I don’t recall doing much mattress riding but I know that if I was seven years old, I would have loved the experience.

So, mattress riding it was!

I stood in the kitchen,watching these indoor Lugers get used to their modified sled.  I must say that there was some good, cooperative playing going on as the boys made their way to “foursies.” Then we heard this:

“Can we hug each other for our lives?” and down they came.

Oh yes, everybody looks so happy in the picture…but when these amateur athletes got to the bottom of the stairs, I heard a blood curdling scream. Apparently, someone had hurt himself – I believe he called it a “butt implant”  (for some unknown reason) and he was not a happy camper. It turns out that he was fine – he was just being a bit dramatic. However, as we chuckled at his performance, my daughter made a good observation.

“It seems like the more “out-of-the-big-city” living, the better kids are able to deal with pain.”

I agree. I’m not saying that all city kids are becoming “bubble-wrapped” but there is a tendency on parents’ part to over-protect and under-adventure, for fear of their children getting hurt.  A little “butt implant” won’t hurt anybody, right? Scrapes and scratches, bruises and bumps are the body’s way of saying, ” Let me do this more often so I can get used to it!”