Once you have a baby, everything in your life becomes a little bit more moist. There's no other way to describe it. And I'm not being vulgar here; this doesn't pertain to the usual culprits found down in diaper land. That's a given. I'm talking about the bits of food, dribble, residue from wipes and the biggest offender of all, whatever is leaking like a broken tap from your child's nose.
It's a fact of parenthood. Deal with it.
We happen to be a very snotty family, no pun intended. Both my husband and I suffer terribly from sinusitis in the winter and it's looking like junior might be struggling with the same issue. But I can't be sure, because kids are leaking wells of snot, whether they have a family history of it or otherwise. It's just what being a kid is all about. I used to work with kids and most of them were really good about having their noses wiped because the stickiness was annoying them. My son the champion equates having the snot wiped from his nose to the world's greatest form of torture. It seems to be just about the worst punishment we could inflict on him, other than taking away whatever bath toy he was infatuated with. For the life of me, I can't understand why. He's seemingly quite bothered by the snot - he struggles to breathe easily and feed properly because of it, but he also gets terribly insulted when we try to relieve him of the mucous-y monster that plagues him. Go figure.
The other problem with snot, apart from the obvious grossness, is that it makes people think your child is constantly sick, when in fact he's just a child. We all have lots of snot - it's the body's natural defense system. We as adults just know how to dispose of it properly. Kids don't. It's just there, and it doesn't bother them nearly as much as it bothers us. At a recent outing, a childless friend kept pointing out my son's drainpipe of a nose and kept suggesting he was unwell. Several times. To the point of ridiculousness. I politely said, "Ah it's just a bit of snot. He's playing and eating and interacting happily. He's fine, not to worry." What I really wanted to say was, "Mind your GD business! It's so bloody easy to comment when you play with the kid for five minutes and hand him back to me because he dripped something on your 250 Shekel sweater! Shut the hell up and stop telling me what my kid is or isn't!"
But I didn't. And neither did you, even though you wanted to. Because, you know...it'd be awkward later.
The other problem that arises with snot is that my daycare providers are constantly convinced that he's unwell and keep calling my husband and I at work to come and collect our perfectly happy, healthy child. I do hope they realize that we are going to lose the jobs that pay their salary if they keep this up. WIPE HIS FRIGGIN' NOSE! It's not that hard. It is, in fact, part of the package I assume we're paying megabucks for, above and beyond the hot lunch and cozy environment. I'll pack a thousand extra wipes if it means they'll use them and not call me every time baby boy snorts.
But que sera. This is the world we live in. We fear germs and illness the way our ancestors feared the plague because we think they'll be the end of us. It's time to toughen up, folks. Our kids need to get sick to get better, and we need to correctly identify what's "sick" and what's just a bit gross. Kids are kids, and kids are messy. The answer? We simply need to keep wiping his nose. Whenever you think it's done, you have to keep in mind that that's snot all, folks....
I totally agree, Jamie! We need to toughen up just a bit! We were looking for a mishpachton for the baby and we had to warn the ganenet that Yoav has allergies just like his Ima. If he has a runny nose in the Spring and Summer, it's likely because he's allergic to something - not because he's sick. She totally got that and said that unless he has a fever, she won't be calling us to come pick him up. When we interviewed with her, she was actually running after a toddler with some tissue to wipe a runny nose.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, by the way!!