I’m not one to trust reports of trends. I get deeply annoyed when people say things like, “It’s been rainier than usual this spring,” after one or two weekends where their shoes got wet. Reports of pandemics are no different. Logically. Misuse of data to support an emotional response. Not my favorite.
However.
Upon reading that there had been 8 cases of swine flu in New York I promptly IM’d my son and told him, “Do not go to New York.” He has the same innate reaction to knee jerk reactions as I do. Scorn.
son: (15:23:45 PM): mom no one has died in the US
LPC: (15:23:52 PM): Still.
son: (15:24:02 PM): they have treatment for 15% of the population
LPC: (15:24:10 PM) Humor me. (note how I haven’t been able to give up punctuation, at least not yet)
son: (15:24:22 PM) ok. whatev
This is an example of the “Class A Motherhood Out”. The motherhood bye in the childrearing tournament. Sure, you have to deal with eye rolls, and your opinion on popular music is barely tolerated, and you have to say “It will be fine honey,” more often than strictly necessary. But come the day you feel an irrational fear for your kids’ safety, no excuses required. You pull out the mom card, the “You know I love you more than life itself” card, and you get cut a little bit of slack.
Note that these are not actual IM conversations, only my recreations.
5 Responses
I got an email from my mom advising me not to bring my kids out to crowded places (in HK, seriously?) or unless absolutely necessary, to keep them at home.
I normally would roll my eyes at my mom’s tendency toward over-protectiveness and just for the heck of it, would fire back something that would dismiss her fears. In this instance, she got “Okay, Ma. Thanks.”
It’s a mother’s privilege. ‘Nuf said. :)
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I’m more the one to write it all off as media hysteria while my son is hyperventilating and running around gathering up masks. I guess that means I can give him the eye roll, right?
You may be using punctuation, but you ARE using IM. Which puts you leaps and bounds ahead of my mother.
I think my kids get a little more caught up in things then I do so they are usually calling me and then I am calming them down. Maybe I have stopped saying certain things to them because I know they will do what they want anyways and I have learned by not saying these things, they end up doing what I would want them to do anyways.
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