Things that make you go Hmmmm....

What a Day! This morning I sat for hours in the emergency room with my thirteen year old daughter...hence why my blog post is tardy!

She, like most teenagers, finds cleaning her room an alien thought. Well, hopefully after today's little fiasco, she just might rethink the idea. Besides being an utter slob, she's a wonderful kid, if sometimes a little clutzy. Last night she tripped over a cracked, hard plastic lid to a storage box (hiding stealthily, of course, beneath the mess on her floor) and ripped the heck out of the bottom of her foot.

I took care of it and her, as all mother's do, but this morning her foot was still bleeding...so off to the ER we went. My mouth in her ears about how this wouldn't have happened if she just picked up after herself. She's missing school, I'm missing work, etc...

After a long wait, we finally made it into an examination room. While the doctor was gluing her skin back together, (yes, glue...something about infection and the statute of limitations on when you can sew up a wound) she aksed if my daughter had ever read the Illiad and the Odyssey. My daughter politely replied, "No, I'm only in the eighth grade, but we're being beseiged at the moment by Harper Lee."

"To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorites!" The doctor answered. "As a parent I can certainly appreciate it more now than when I first read it in school. My favorite scene is when Atticus Finch tells his brother not to scold Scout for cussing, that there are worse things in life that he should be concerned about...like talking to her about rape."

I have to say, I didn't know what to make of her comment. Should I have been upset that she took it upon herself to open a topic of discussion with my daughter that perhaps I wasn't prepared to discuss with her? Was it a sweeping commentary on the trivial worries of most parents, and a warning that we should be tackling the bigger issues with our kids? Or was it just a passing remark...purely a literary opinion?

Considering the ER was a raging, chaotic mess, I didn't have the time (nor the inclination) to ask the good doctor what she meant. But it got me thinking. Maybe it was all of the above, and perhaps my daughter isn't the only one with something new to rethink.

Thanks Doc....prescription for a new perspective filled.

Marianne Morea