No More Golf in the Backyard

Crash, followed by the sound of breaking glass. You know the sound it makes your shoulders bunch up and propels you towards the source. Is someone hurt? Will I find a child covered in blood as I turn into the room? Is someone breaking in? These are some of the thoughts that ran through my head.

The next sound I hear before I even get to the bathroom (which is where the ominous sound originated) is a scream and crying from outside. It is getting louder and is identifiable, it is P. What happened, though I can now cross a break in off my list. He comes running in and I look into the bathroom. The window is broken. In the center of the break is a suspicious circular pattern, It looks like a ball was thrown through our bathroom window.

So far there is no blood. P comes running in and he is hysterical. All he can say is he broke the window. I can see he is uninjured and I go into mommy mode. D is on site and is starting to clean up all the glass. The glass is all over the bathroom and into our hallway. That must have been some throw.

P and I move into my bedroom where he just wants to be comforted. Now B is upset because P is upset. It is a crying chain reaction. Both children are scared and P is just beside himself. He is so upset that he broke the window.

D is still picking up glass and P finally calms down to tell us what happened.

Earlier in the day D took the kids to the driving range. P absolutely loves to hit golf balls and is pretty good at it too. He hardly ever misses and the balls go far. We are (were) toying with the idea of getting him some golf clubs because it is something that he really enjoys. Well, they ran out of balls at the driving range and P was so upset. They came home and P still wanted to play golf.

I am still a little fuzzy about this part of the story. I am not sure if D let him use his driver and a practice ball or if P just took it upon himself to use Daddy's clubs. But he managed to shoot a lightweight practice ball at the bathroom window with Daddy's oversized right handed golf club (P golf's left handed). The result was a huge hole in our bathroom window.

There was some silver lining to this. P knew he did something wrong and let us know he did it. He didn't make up a story, he didn't try to get out of it. He owned up to his actions. I was so proud of him for telling us the truth. Even hours later he was upset and wanted to know if Grandma (she is our landlord) would be mad at him for breaking the window. We assured him that she wouldn't.

Tonight the window is taped up with duct tape. I have no idea how to take it down so we can get the glass replaced. I am sure there is a way. The golf ball bounced off the window as it broke and we have no idea where it is. I suspect that we will be going to the driving range a lot this summer. There is no more golf allowed in the backyard.