mom, the wall was padded...

Last Wednesday, I got a phone call at work from Mr. Hooper, SJ's basketball coach. He was calling to ask me to come retrieve SJ from practice early. "What happened?" I asked him. "Well....we were having a scrimmage and SJ's team lost. I told them that they would have to run laps. SJ didn't want to run laps and got very agitated. Then, he punched the padded wall under the basketball hoop," he said. "I am not calling you about the behavior, but I am calling because SJ seems to be in  a lot of pain," he added. I am actually shaking my head in disbelief, but I am not actually that surprised that this situation occurred. "I think it might be broken," the coach stated further. "Okay. I can't come get him, but I will have my husband leave work shortly. Thanks for letting us know," I embarrassingly stated.


I hung up the phone call with Mr. Hooper and called my husband. He didn't answer, so I had to text him.

Me: Can you go get SJ now? He slammed the wall with this hand. The coach said he is in a lot of pain.

       He is having trouble keeping it together.

Husband: Ok

I left work 20 minutes later. On my way to meet my husband at the Urgent Care Center, SJ called me on the phone. He was crying. He said, "Mom, I know you are going to be so mad at me. My team lost the scrimmage and Mr. Hooper said we had to run laps. I was so mad! I didn't want to lose and I didn't want to run laps. I punched the padded wall. I didn't think it would hurt this bad, since it was padded," he rambled to me. I replied, "I am not mad, but I am really disappointed in your behavior. You are 13 years old. You need to learn to hold it together when you are mad. Now, you may have a broken hand. You won't be able to play basketball for the rest of the season and I don't know if you will be able to ski." This response from me made his crying worse. Okay, I know you are thinking I should feel bad for him, but I can't believe he would do something so dumb (I am aware that teenage boys do dumb things). "You should have just run the laps," I said and SJ hung up the phone.


I met my husband and SJ at the Urgent Care Center. I gave my husband his medical card and went to the gym (my husband said there was no need for both of us to be there). Before I was done with my workout, I received a text from my husband.

Husband: Fractured the bone on the outside of the hand. Temp cast. Need to see ortho. He can wear my mittens for skiing.

Me: Better than a worse break.

My husband took SJ to the Orthopedic doctor the next day. He left with a half cast. The doctor said he was to come back in 4 weeks. He said he could ski with the cast, but asked him to be careful. When are 13 year old boys ever careful?

This will be his fashion accessory for the next 4 weeks. He was very sad when he got home from school, since he had trouble writing (why is it always the writing hand?).  He was also upset that he wouldn't be able to participate in his new elective, Competitive Edge (an extra gym class), while he had the cast on. I felt bad for him briefly, but then got irritated at him for his very poor choice. "So, what are you going to do the next time you are mad?" I asked him. He said, "Punch the punching bag in the garage." I told him, "That would be a much wiser choice." Hopefully, he learned something from this. He will probably never punch that wall again, but he may kick it. Boys!