I really understand the temptation to drug children for convenience sake. Last night was one of those nights. 3 out of 4 kids awake between the hours of midnight and 2 am. Two of the kids with worrisome illnesses which had me mentally prepping for emergency room visits. By morning all was well, or at least recognizably settled into colds rather than more serious illnesses. Gleek’s cough was still croupy though so I gave her some cough syrup to try to decongest her.
An hour later she’d reached that wide-eyed loopy state that makes drugged people so amusing. I had to go get blood drawn for a test on me, Gleek had to come along for the trip. She sat quietly in the chair next to me blankly staring at walls. The person taking my insurance information turned to Gleek and said “Wow, you’re such a lady!” I was really really tempted to answer “Yeah, it’s cause I drugged her.” Usually the commentary I get about Gleeks behavior are along the lines of “Wow, she’s really active.” Or “You certainly have your hands full!” Or wordless gasps of dismay as Gleek engages in acrobatics that should surely end in injury or death but somehow never do. “Docile” is not usually in Gleeks behavioral repetoire.
Yet, docile is the best word to describe Gleek during that lab visit. It was the most pleasant Errands-while-herding-Gleek I’ve ever had. She walked holding my hand, when I stopped, she did too. When I sat, she quietly sat next to me. Hence the temptation. Fortunately I understand that parenting isn’t about convenience. The point of parenting is to nurture the development of the children. Drugged children simply exist, they don’t develop and they don’t glow with joy. Gleek is very very good at joy which is one of the reasons why I can put up with all the mad and contrary.
After the blood draw we returned to the car and Gleek crashed into a nap. She awoke back to normal and all in all, I’m glad for that.
Yes, I have also experienced that temptation. “Hm, if I double the dose of ‘Children’s Tylenol…'” I have, I am proud to say, never given in, tempting though it was.
“Fortunately I understand that parenting isn’t about convenience. The point of parenting is to nurture the development of the children.”
I thought the point of parenting was so your own parents could grin with evil pleasure as your children put you through everything you put your parents through.
Nahhhhh
That’s just an added bonus…
You’re lucky. Cough syrups and decongestants don’t seem to work on Goose, Pirate, and Wen. So we deal with hot lemon with honey for coughs and hot showers/baths for stuffy noses. Luckily Tylenol/Motrin will bring fevers down. But more than once I’ve just drawn a cool bath (90F) and let them play til the fever comes down some.
Well . . .
With Gleek it is actually a toss up. Sometimes the decongestants and antihistimines knock her out, other times they make her go twice as fast. Twice-as-fast is NOT the result I want at 2 am, but the medecines do seem to help prevent ER visits, so I gamble.
I think the knock-out today was greatly affected by the Awake-in-the-night between midnight and 2 am.