Well meaning parrents

By: troutdaddy420 Mood: happy Date: 06/28/2006 05:55:10 Music: Tool, 10,000 Days, "Rosetta Stoned"

Every now and then us men catch a shot to an area that we hold near and dear to ourselves. The crotch. Catching a small paintball traveling at 280 fps to any part of the body stings, but getting hit square in the gonads down right hurts. Well, over the weekend I saw it happen.

It was an ordinary game of speedball with a birthday group. Everyone was having fun, laughing and joking, enjoying cake and the like. All the assembled parrents were watching their children play on our arena field when all of the sudden one child got double tapped in the groin.

Naturally he curled up in a ball on the ground writhing in pain. The group's reff, Chase immediatly did the right thing. He stopped the game, told everyone to plug their barrels, keep their masks on and step off the field while he tended to the shot player. Chase is good at what he does, that is why we keep him on staff at Paintball Arkansas. He went out of his way using quick thinking to solve the problem. I could not have asked him to act more professionally than he did. The parrents of the player that was shot are a completely different story.

I was not there for this part, but from what I was told by several witnesses, the mother of the child ran onto the field, before the game was stopped, yelled at Chase and acted like her son was bleeding to death in her arms. Chase tried to calm her, but she responded by cussing at him and making threatening actions.

I was inside the pro-shop whent his happened, but the mother came inside and asked for a pamphlet. I gave her one and also gave her the name of the field's owner when she asked. I offered her my help but she snapped at me with, "I'm leaving with an injured child; no you can't help me.", and stormed out the door. She was in her car and tearing through the parking lot before I could stop her.

I asked Chase what happened and he allong with the other parrents there filled me in. I made sure that everyone else was OK. Thank goodness they were; infact they were embarassed by the actions they had to watch. So I pulled aside the player's waiver and set it aside. I heard nothing for the rest of the day and found out the next day that she took her son to the local ER and had him treated for trauma.

He was treated and released with no need for a prescription, no need for further treatment, no need for a follow up, nothing except bedrest if he needs it.

So a kid was shot in the groin, that hurts. I know; I have been shot there myself. But does that justfy an unmasked person running onto the field and trying to take control from the reff. NO IT DOES NOT!

I respect the conserns of the parrent in this situation, but I also respond to her with a reminder that SHE signed a waiver after reading it and understanding that certain risks are accepted when playing. If she is that afraid of this very safe sport then she either needs to stay at home wahile her son enjoys the game or introduce him to Laser-Tag. Either way she made for an unsafe and stressful enviroment that placed my reff in a situation that he does not need to be in.

*For all the parrents reading this. Paintball is a very safe sport, great measures are taken by your local insured field to make sure that no one gets hurts when following the rules that are in place. I do not condem the actions of this mother as "stupid", she was mearly reacting to a situation that caused her to fear the safety of her child. However as a future refference for all the parrents who let ther children play paintball; let the reff do his job. If you have any complaints take them to the field manager or owner.