Should I Be Worried?

Tonight was ski club night for my 11 and 14-year olds. They both do the snowboarding and just love it. My 14-year old is learning it for the first time. She's getting good enough to go down some of the hills that her more experienced friends can go down. Luckily, though, she's also a scaredy-cat. She's afraid of heights. She won't go on any high rides at amusement parks. I don't have to worry about her doing anything stupid while snowboarding.

My 11-year old has been snowboarding for a few years now. He's passionate about it. Without my knowing, he told the instructors that he's good enough to learn jumping, so they put him in the group that teaches jumping. He told me he's so good he can't believe it. He wants to constantly improve. He doesn't have the fear. This is why he wears a helmet. I tell him ALL THE TIME, "Be super carefull! Please don't do anything stupid!". "I won't, mom." I know he doesn't think he'll do anything stupid.

I'm usually not a worrywart. I don't know why. I'm careful. I make sure my kids are careful, but I just don't worry that much. Snowboarding worries me. I remember when I was little. My friend's older sister was in the ski club at school and broke her leg. People ride into trees and get seriously hurt (but I can't say the "D" word on my blog). One of my neighbors is a senior in high school, and he is an instructor at the ski resort. He's even going to college in Colorado to take up something about snowboarding. He loves it too. I ran into him this afternoon at Best Buy. He wasn't in school, and was on crutches. I told him, "Please don't tell me you did that snowboarding!". "Yes", he said, and he told me how he ran into a tree while snowboarding in Oregon with his freinds. He ripped his leg in a few places. He just had surgery yesterday and won't be able to walk for 6 months. I felt sick. My kids have ski club tonight!

Well, my kids came home fine, other than some bruised up knees. Then my daughter said, "Guess what happened tonight?". I didn't think I wanted to know. I didn't. One of the boys in her class forgot his helmet and crashed. He got a concussion. She didn't know exactly what happened, but he wasn't on the ski bus home. I love how my kids get the chance to do this, but I hope I'm not making a mistake. I know a lot of people are skiers, but I also know a lot of people get seriously hurt skiing. Only three more weeks of worrying left.