So, after the trip to the emergency room last night, it was off to the doctor's office today to make sure they did everything right at the hospital. And the better half seems to be doing better.
But after a two-hour stay in the E.R. waiting room last night, which is another story, I spent a lot of time in the doctor's waiting room. It was an interesting wait.
I didn't feel it was my place to try, after having spent time in the company of her son (and I know his name because she said it -- 60 min. x 7 times/min. -- 420 times), but no need to embarrass the little rascal, to talk the woman, who was maybe 19, whose name I didn't catch, out of getting her "tubes tied on the 11th." Really. I am approving of it. Yes, go do it. Too bad you didn't do it after Bla -- oops, sorry -- the boy was born because now you got two kids. And do you really think I wanted to know that about your reproductive health?
I wanted to point out another thing. It was rather obvious from my vantage point that the boy did not understand what the word "No" meant. I admit that these new-fangled child-rearing techniques are foreign to me (And yes, I suppose you can sarcastically point out to me, "Look who's talking here, your kid's a drug addict; but that would be projecting your own inadequacies upon me or ... WHATEVER!), but the boy seemed to think that "No" meant "Keep doing stuff like knocking the chairs in the waiting room over and laughing about it and ripping pages out of the magazines that don't belong to you and turning the lights off and on ... and off ... and on."
And why the heck did you tell your son that you would "ship" him off to his father if he didn't stop it with the lights. I mean, do you really want to do that? I can virtually guarantee that when his father wants that to happen, you will fight tooth and nail against it.
And one more thing ... after you told him "No" six or seven or ten times, why did you smack him? And after he turned the lights off six or seven times and you told him the nurse was getting mad, why did you smack him? I didn't understand that. You thought the things he was doing were cute the first six or seven or ten times? Is that it? And then he was supposed to figure out that the next time he did it he was getting a smack?
Whoa, I got it! The rule in your house is that doing something against the rules is okay until the sixth or seventh or tenth time, then you get some kind of punishment.
Oh, yeah, now I see it all clearly -- you operate like the criminal justice system -- why didn't you say so?
Posted by Bill at September 22, 2003 09:39 PMWhat!! no toys in the Doctor's waiting room? I always had a bunch of keys (when they were really small), a toy car or a book in my bag, just for waiting rooms. Poor kid.
Posted by: Anji at September 23, 2003 07:15 AMwhat passes for childrearing is just pathetic. I bet, though, that this twice-a-mom 19-year-old didn't get much better treatment from her mom. She's going to be raising a child who will only learn what "no" means when he's prosecuted for rape or assault or something. Maybe not even then. He can try saying "no" to his cellmate.
Maybe I'm being to harsh on the little pisher - but people in a hospital should be more respectful of each other. Noisy and boisterous in the supermarket? No biggie. But noisy and boisterous when I'm waiting for my wife to be done with emergency medical treatment? I'm not that patient. And what was mom doing all this time - meditating? or just impotently waiting for her child to become suddenly more responsible than she is?
Posted by: dan at September 23, 2003 03:05 PMBut jeez, that would mean taking responsibility, modeling appropriate behavior and developing some sort of discipline. I mean, gosh, that's a lot of work! Whadda ya mean--I gotta actually RAISE this kid?
Posted by: TW at September 23, 2003 03:55 PMThank Dog she's shutting down the factory on the 11th.
Posted by: Kathy Howe at September 23, 2003 09:58 PMow, kathyhowe. ow. billy just blew out my one good ear laughing at that "shutting down the factory" thing.
and dan: snarf. oh yeah. she was meditating. pfffft. interesting -- the "no" thing. hmmm. is THIS where this begins? that no doesn't really mean ANYTHING?
and anji: there were toys. he was throwing them around when i last saw him. his mom said stop it, and went on talking.
Posted by: stacey at September 23, 2003 11:05 PMMy brother, sister, and I found out at an early age that "no" means "no" the first time it's said, and the lesson was consistently applied no matter where we were. Embarrassing at times, but effective. Too bad this "mother" didn't tie tubes before "Bla--" came along; and yet, who knows ... maybe he's the second coming. bwahahahahahahahaha!
Posted by: mf at September 24, 2003 10:35 AM