One of those parenting conundrums, to tell your child they have vaccinations at school today or……… not?
After a week of discussions, we went with NOT.
Rewind….
His 4 year old injections are etched in my mind forever. I did something I can now see (as a more experienced parent) was a dumb rookie mistake. I took both kids for their vaccinations at the same time. It wasn’t until I got there, it dawned on me the doctor could only do one child at a time and worse still….one would have to watch the other have their’s done, because I was there by myself.
Second mistake: my daughter went first. He watched her (the brave 18 month old) and then…… he (the big 4 year old) ran. He ran out the door, through the waiting room and out of the surgery front door. Screaming the whole way.
I had to leave the crying baby (only a little bit, she was pretty brave) with the doctor and run after him. Through the waiting room, all those eyes following (I am sure there were a few wry smiles) and outside to catch him.
Then…… after ashamedly making my way back through the waiting room, myself and the nurse had to hold him down, screaming for him to receive his two jabs. My daughter got upset watching the drama unfold and I finished up with both kids screaming and crying. Parenting fail….I felt traumatised, silly and I really felt like I needed the lollipop afterwards (or wine!).
Some time after this, there was a blood test episode which involved 4 people (including my husband, I was never doing that on my own again!) holding him down. There was even a second attempt because they didn’t get enough blood the first time. We all breathed a sigh of relief after that and said ‘don’t worry you don’t need any more until year 7’.
So, here we are in year 7.
There was no warning, no time to worry or build up. Period 2 they were marched past their class, to the nurse’s office and suddenly they all realised what was happening. There were those that screamed, those that fainted, those that felt sick and those that felt fine.
And my son?….
He went first and was the one who said, ‘when are you going to do it?’ And they answered ‘already have’!
Wahoo!
He was elated tonight. Amazed by his own bravery and lack of drama. He recounted the whole story; from what the teachers said, to who felt sick, who punched whose arm after (always got to be one!) to what people ate afterwards. Tonight he kept laughing when he lifted his arm, he thinks the aching feels really funny! Not a tear in sight.
So there you have it, I was stressing about nothing and kids DO grow up! I didn’t tell him I knew it was happening today and that I had checked my phone 20 times by lunchtime, preparing for the call from school to say he needed to be picked up after fainting or worse still, that he had run away!
He, on the other hand, was stress free. Blissfully and calmly going about his day with only the briefest of moments to contemplate what was coming.
Good on you kid. x
LLS
The Travel Bee 