Friday, December 4, 2009

Is it wrong to need a drink while at the health department?...

Oh my.

Yikes.

I think I will survive our experience yesterday getting the kids second dose of the H1N1 vaccine but it was shaky as of last night. I have been scarred for life. I know deep down that getting the 2nd dose of the vaccine was the right thing to do but I have regrets based on what we saw while waiting for our turn in line. I am by no means criticizing how scared most children were to get the vaccine. I know it can be very scary and overwhelming. Molly told me it was scary after we were done and back in the car. Poor thing. It was the reaction of many parents that made our experience worse. I know that I shouldn't judge the parents reactions to a stressful situation. I am SO blessed that I have pretty laid back children who waited patiently and without any drama. The family in front of us had 3 children with them. I guess it was the tone of the father and the words that he used that really bothered me. "Turn it off." "Turn if off, right now." (What he said to one when the waterworks of tears started.) "You want to act like a baby, I'll treat you like a baby." To his wife when he was tired of the crying - "Do you want to to walk out of here and leave you?" The one child was kicking and screaming so loud and fiercely that it took 3 workers and the Mom to hold her down. By this point my children's eyes were as big as saucers and we couldn't help by stare. Not a good feeling. The experience is over and done and we won't have to go back for a year. I'm seriously considering bucking up and paying the nurse at our doctor's office to do them next year. Maybe in a year the memory will be distant. It just isn't today.

I said a prayer for that family and I said a prayer for myself that I work on keeping an open mind. I haven't walked in their shoes.

2 comments:

  1. We went to the health department once. It was traumatic for all of us and yes I totally could have used a drink afterwards!

    I told my nurse at our peds office how scary it was and she told me a little secret about a way I might be about to get my kids shots at the office, but out of the health department batch. Our insurance has changed since then and we can now get them at the ped's office without the trick, but it was well worth knowing the secrets!

    I try to remind myself not to think the worst of other parents too. We never know what went on in their lives before they walked into where we are standing. There are somedays if I saw myself on a bad day I'd surely do some tsk tsking. Although that didn't stop me from deciding that the parents in front of us Black Friday's eve at 11:15 in the ToysRus line were terrible because they had two preschoolers huddled up in a cart waiting in that crazy line in the cold.

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  2. Those parents are everywhere! We seem to find them at a lot of Oklahoma youth wrestling tournaments!

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