To our health!

A needle is NOT a good surprise!!

***We interrupt this week’s e-news for an important announcement…
I’m going to say this right upfront, I believe in the COVID vaccine. I believe even if you aren’t yeehaw-crawling-over-broken-glass-to-get-one, that if at all possible, as an act of kindness, as a ‘take-one-for-the-team’, as a ‘let’s do-whatever-we-can-to-make-this- world-better’, that ‘I- would-consider-it-a-personal-favor’, that ‘even-if-you-are sure-you-can-fight-it’, you ‘take-it-for-the-young-and-the-elderly-and-the-healthcare-professionals-and-the-canceled-surgery-patients,’ and on and on. Please.

Or unsubscribe, that’s fine. I’ll miss you, but fine. While I typically love readers’ responses to my enewsletter – please save your time if you are an anti-vaxxer, let’s just agree to disagree on this one. *** Now back to our regularly scheduled enews…

I didn’t read the manual, I didn’t know what to do, I just made it up, I guessed. And I guessed wrong. My daughter was just 5, getting ready to go to kindergarten and I was gearing up to get her immunizations. And so I told her words that I regret to this very day, “We are going for a surprise!”

I don’t know what I could have possibly been thinking – how on earth I thought this was a smart idea but that’s what I did and well you can just imagine the fiasco that ensued.

To this day my daughter, now 30, hates surprises and really, really dislikes that I did this to her. I am scarred from scarring her!

I am reminded of this long-ago time now because soon COVID vaccines will be available for the children and if I had to do it over again, I would do it so much differently.

Maybe something like..

Kara, tomorrow I’m going to take you to get a needle in your arm. It’s probably going to hurt a little bit, I know mine does when I get a needle. I want you to know that you are safe and I’m here for you.

The reason we are getting the needle is to help us stay healthy. It hurts a bit and you might want to cry a little and that’s ok, but you will be safe and I’m going to be right here for you and we can cuddle up and be a little sad together when it’s over. But soon after that, it’s not going to hurt anymore and we will go do something fun together. Even though you are getting a needle in your arm, you will be safe, I will be here for you and you can cry if you want to.

I would repeat this over and over and over until her vaccine was administered.

Parents aren’t perfect, we can’t have a redo – but if we could, I’d sure take it on this particular incident.

Somehow it seems kids remember the things we did wrong a lot more than the things we did right. Oh well, if we are lucky they love us anyway.

They say, ‘When we know better, we do better.’ I don’t always agree with this sentiment as many times I do know better but I do ‘the other’ anyway! In this case, though, I sure wish I knew better and I sure wish I had done better.

Everyone wants to feel safe. People are getting the vaccine to feel safe. Some people are choosing not to get the vaccine because that feels safer for them.

In a world already so divided, it makes me so sad we have yet another reason to disagree.

We all just want to feel safe – in the end, maybe that can connect us after all.

To our health, Steph