Help me reconcile some feelings

It was an accident. Take it easy and relax.
Thankfully, the injury wasn't more serious.
Why would you restrict your son's access to his friends or confront the parents?
It was an accident.

 

Well said.

 

In a home where there is no supervision, accidents will happen. I'd bet this won't be the last one at that particular house. You as a parent have a choice whether to allow your child into an uncontrolled environment. No way I would let him go back. If those parents are paying attention at all, the fact that your son isn't allowed to come back around should deliver the message more effectively than any confrontation will. If they're not paying attention, that just validates the decision to keep him away.

 

In a home with excellent supervision, accidents will happen.
They happen.

You're trying to raise a functioning person, not create a boy in a bubble.

 

There are an awful lot of assumptions being made on this thread. Maybe they were being supervised and she got distracted for a moment. Maybe the 5 year old was told over and over to not go near the kid hitting golf balls.

 

It does seem that everyone is pretty quick to say, "An accident happened; must be crappy supervision."

Accidents happen. There's no telling who is to blame for sure. Parents can't have their eyes on kids every minute of every day. I would bet when most people on this board were 5-7 years old, they did a LOT of playing with no parents watching them.

My only problem with the mom was whether she should've gone over. A bruise, in all honesty, ain't that big of a deal to a lot of people.

 

I guess without seeing the severity of the injury it is hard to tell. She did ice it for him. I would have walked the kid home and explained but to each their own.

 

CI,

I'd make some attempt to talk with the other child's parents. Doesn't have to be bull-in-a-china-shop-level confrontation ... based on your posts, that doesn't seem to be your style. But your child does not go over there until you've had some discussion with one of the other child's parents and you're satisfied that if there's a next time, the situation will be handled a little nicer.

Cannot imagine how much a positive outcome will help your peace of mind as a parent regarding a loved one.

As already suggested, though, that doesn't preclude your son from encouraging his friends from being at your place to play and have fun.

 

To play Devil's Advocate, is it possible the accident happened and it didn't look too bad, so the mom set him up with ice and had her kids walk him home, and en route (don't know how long that would take) is when the swelling really blew up?

Doesn't excuse the mom being cold on the phone, but it's at least possible.

 

I did...especially the fish hook in the eyelid thing ...Seriously, thank god, it didn't get stuck in the eyeball.

 

Yeah, it was a close one. I was in kindergarten. Wasn't too easy to get it out either.

 

We're talking about a black eye here.
Accident happened.
Mother gave injured child ice for black eye.
Kid who swung golf club and his sister walked injured kid home.
Mother called you after incident.

Yet we're concerned because she seemed 'cold'?
Seems to have been handled fine. And one kid learned to watch his back swing, and another to watch when people are swinging shit around.
We used to call that life.