Murphy’s Law for Mom

I took Goldilocks to the beach yesterday. Mainly because the rest of the family needed a break, but also because it was hot and he loves the water. We have a state park with a very nice beach only 15 minutes away. So we went and had a great time for about an hour, until Goldilocks needed to use the restroom. I, for once didn’t panic about if he would say something inappropriate to a stranger or walk into the wrong restroom. He’s been doing so well in this area, when Papa & Brother Bear are around, that I didn’t worry at all. I didn’t even get out of the water, it’s only about 50 yards to the restroom. What could happen? I watched him go to the correct door, yeah! Then he came out and came back to the water. I asked him how it went. He answered “okay, but the floor was wet, I fell & I’m bleeding to death” Goldilocks says he’s bleeding a lot when he’s not, so I thought, “oh, sure,” but I did look just in case. He did indeed have a cut on the back of his head that was bleeding. It didn’t look bad. I hustled him out of the water, grabbed a towel to apply direct pressure, held it on with one hand and gathered our things with the other hand. Walked him to the car, got him in and realized, we don’t have a first aid kit in our car (we do now). I quick called Papa Bear to see if the rangers had a first aid station and drove Goldilocks up to the main gate. The whole time applying direct pressure and not looking at the wound. When the ranger showed up she took one look at the wound and said in a loud voice “It may need stitches” Thanks lady, now I have a hysterical Autistic kid screaming the whole way home. Papa Bear looked at it. A small cut not very deep. Asked how long it bled, less than five minutes. We cleaned it up and gave the boy a Tylenol for his headache. No stitches were needed, it’s healing nicely. It really wasn’t so bad. So why do I feel like a heel for not walking him to the men’s room & waiting outside the door? Like I could have stopped this from happening, if I did something differently.