Oh, Give Me A Break

I had to take two of my children to the doctor today, one for a shot and one has strep.



Our regular doctor was out so they were seen by his nurse practitioner. She's nice enough I guess, but ever since the first time one of us had to see her there was just something that didn't exactly mesh with me. I'm sure it's just a difference in personalities, hers being a bit more bold than mine, but none of my kids have seemed to feel very comfortable with her either.



So she comes in and after looking over our 5-year-old daughter's records, this is how the conversation went:



(NP) "Will she be going to school?"


(Me) "No, we homeschool." (Probably didn't need to tell her that, but I never think anything about it. I really don't care what other people think of our decision. I don't mean that in a snotty, holier-than-thou way, I'm just being honest. What other people think about our decision to homeschool really doesn't concern me at all. The only one we have to answer to is the Lord, and what HE thinks is the only thing that matters).


(NP) "Oh, ok. Then she won't need any kind of physical or anything like that."


(Me) "No."


(NP) (turning her attention to dd) "Hey sweetie, can you sing your ABC's for me?"


(DD) Silence, with her head cocked and a shy look on her face.


(NP) "No? Ok, how about your numbers. Can you count to ten for me?"


(DD) Silence.


(Me, in dd's ear) "I'll let you have TWO ice creams if you'll just do it." (Daddy had already promised her one if she was a big, brave girl at the dr's).


(DD) Silence.


(Me) "I think she's a little worried about that shot coming up."


(NP) "Can you tell me what color mommy's pants are?"


(DD) "Blue."


(NP) "What about Pooh? What color is Pooh?"


(DD) "White. Oh, I mean yellow (giggle)."


(NP) "How about Pooh's jacket. What color is it?"


(DD) "Red."


(NP) "Can you come here and draw a man for me?"


(DD) Shrugs her shoulders and looks at me as if to say, 'What's up with this chick?' She takes the paper and draws a very good person, if I must say so myself!


(Me, after thinking, 'Enough already! Get on with it.') "She can tell you most of the states and capitals too if you'd like her to."


(NP) "Really?!"


(Me) "Yep!" (while thinking, "Oh come on, ask her, ask her!")



She didn't ask.



Oh well. Whatever. Didn't bother me in the least, especially when the student nurse-in-training that had come in with her turned to me and asked, "So with homeschooling, how do you do it? We have a 9-year-old boy who we'd like to homeschool because we're worried about the kind of influence he's around every day."



(Me) "Well, as long as you can handle him being drilled every time he comes to the doctor you should be fine!"



No, I didn't really say that.