I really believe in the notion that children are blessed/cursed with similar traits as their parents so the parents can figure out a way to help them. I was a bit of a hypochondriac when I was a child. I've largely grown out of it, but now I get to relive all the fun with S. It has become so hard to know which of her ailments are real, which are imagined, which are pressing enough to do something about, and what any of it means anyway.
Sometimes S gets headaches. She also sometimes says her eyes hurt. So, after talking with my older and wiser sister, I figured out S probably needed glasses. I took her to the eye doctor over the weekend, thinking that finally we would get this child glasses and she would stop having headaches. Nope. Perfect vision in both eyes, both near and far. The doctor did every imaginable test and said she's just fine.
She's also started saying that her eyes itch. So, then I thought, maybe it's allergies, because sometimes that causes headaches, right? Although, her eyes never look red. And when I had allergies to pollen growing up, my eyes always looked red and swollen because they were so itchy.
I think the eye itching thing is real. The headaches definitely seem real. But then she made a speech like this one last night right before bed and I start to wonder how much of this I can actually fix...
S: Mom, my legs hurt. And my eye itches. And my arm feels funny. What's that blue thing on my arm??!
Me: It's a vein.
S: Oh! That's weird.
I'm really being punished for my childhood on this one.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
3 comments:
Kids are very fascinated by their bodies. The Dudes are mostly just fascinated by the sounds coming from their bodies, but you know, they're dudes. I have a bad habit of overreacting to their "ailments" and the doctor is constantly telling me to relax. Better safe than sorry, that's what I always say!
Older yes, wiser? I don't know about that one. . . .
We always use the threat of a big shot administered by the anesthesiologist down the street as a way to weed the real from imagined ills.
Your conversation reminds me of a part of Up we just watched.
What time of day do her headaches and itchies usually appear? That might help you separate real from imagined ills, unless you want to borrow our doc threat?
Not punished for your childhood, just given insight in a challenging way :)
We totally use the "i guess we will have to take you to the ER and chop off your arm" tactic all the time. Amazingly a lot of their ailments leave. I love how she asked what the blue thing on her arm was...hilarious!! she is sooo you!!
Post a Comment