- Older siblings do not mind being yanked out of school for the morning if they are showing cool movies like The Polar Express in the reception area.
- Those surveys they have you fill out are becoming increasingly invasive: Do your children wear seatbelts? Okay, how about sunscreen? Do you own a gun? If so, is it locked up? Is your children’s father locked up? Do you feed your kids stale Doritos for breakfast? (So I’m kidding about those last two.)
- Pediatricians (and I do love mine) tend to ask homeschoolers a few extra questions.
- My four-year-old daughter is very, very brave. She watched as the nurse prepared to take a blood sample. She watched, curious and quiet, as the needle got poked into her arm. She wiggled her little feet good-naturedly. She said nothing.
- I am not nearly as brave as my daughter. That whole process nearly floored me.
- Mary must have been really, really, really brave.
- And finally, it is all worth it when later that evening, your 4-year-old sits down on the potty, looks at you with those big brown eyes and murmurs solemnly, “Pokes make poop don’t come out.”
My kids are always braver than I am. Today we went to the dentist so my ds6 could have some teeth crowned and drilled. I stayed with him in the room while they worked to give him support in case he was scared. He took the novicaine shots and did not even flinch. I was wringing my hands and my mouth was watering like I was going to throw up,just watching.
I can never sit for bloodwork without squirming. Your child is very brave!
Now I’m a little worried because every now and then we DO have stale Doritos for breakfast. And my doctor is also very condescending about homeschooling. I do my best to avoid the subject.
Doctors are required to ask certain questions and make note of them in order to ascertain every patient’s mental health. It’s called the New Freedom Initiative, and it is very insidious and ugly. We had a doctor at the army hospital who would make note of things like “Mother home alone all day with five kids; Father in Iraq” in my kids files when we had and eye infection or a skin rash or a bad cough. Relevant? I think not, but I knew what he was up to. He was a lousy doctor, too, though, and he’s no longer working there. Still, when they ask, that’s why. I wish I was making that up.
Here’s the government website.
I can’t find anything current in a quick search, but if you just do a search for it, you’ll find lots of government and concerned citizen information.
Stale Doritos are BAD??
Jennie,
Could you elaborate? How are these questions justified as being related to Americans with disabilities? I guess I should just google ….
I, too, am curious about this New Freedom Initiative.
And, joke that I may about these questionnaires, I do not fill them out. Too Big-Brother-y for me.