Featured Article: Band-aids

Fetured Article:  Band-aids by Sara L.

My daughter is always hurting herself and asking for Band-aids.  Even a tiny scrape, mosquito bite, or bruise need a Band-aid.  She wears them for about an hour then rips them off.  It is not another hour before she is asking for another one.

I started to get annoyed with the process and limited them. I told her “You can only have one if you are really bleeding.” or “You only get one and if you take it off you aren’t getting another one.”  I also tried getting the plain, non-character Band-aids thinking that Dora, Strawberry Shortcake, and Disney Princesses were her motivation, but nothing deterred her.

I was about to give in to the waste when I happened to be reading the book One Tough Mother by Julie Barnhill.  This is a very good book and Julie Barnhill is hilarious!  I even got to meet her at the MOPS convention in 2010.  Of all the great advice in her book I have always remembered her take on Band-aids.

She tells the reader to go purchase the biggest box of all-purpose Band-aids you can possibly buy.  Julie says, “It’s very important the box reads “all-purpose,” for I want you to buy those Band-aids and then go home, get out a stout Sharpie marker, put a big X through the word all and write in its place the word no as in “NO-purpse Band-aids.”

One thing I love about Julie Barnhill is that she helps to embrace and accept the day to day frustrations we have as moms.  Instead of worrying about the waste of Band-aids why not use it as a tool to show your kids how much you love them.  Julie suggests any time a child whines and asks for a Band-aid no matter how ridiculous to “Stop and think of your home as a haven for healing to all those who enter its doors or cross its yard.  Think of creating a haven of security and rest and instead of belittling a little one’s grandiose concept of pain reach instead for the box of “no-purpose” Band-aids and then gently and lovingly place each one near the wound site.”  Maybe my daughter just needs me to stop and acknowledge that she hurt herself and she needs some attention.  Julie also says “no wound in the family is so small as to be overlooked.”  I love this. It takes so little effort to set aside the thought of waste, stop what you are doing at that moment, and put on a Band-aid to show you care.  My hope is that in the future when my kids have outgrown the thought that a bandage can fix all of their hurts and they have real, big hurts whether physical or emotional they will still come to me with them.  This is worth all the Band-aids I can afford.