Mom v. Kevin

[pat]

A couple of days ago, Kevin mentioned he had an ingrown fingernail that had gotten infected. I said we could soak it in Epsom salts.

Kevin brought to my attention this morning, pointing out where it had broken open -- "all this green pus came out" -- during computer lab the day before. (+5 kids point for not being histrionic, -5 for waiting to tell me until three minutes before we have to leave for the bus).

I find out I have no bandaids ((-5 mom points for no bandaids, - 10 for not taking care of the finger earlier). So rather than having him take the bus, I took him to the store to get bandaids.

On the way over, I was talking to Kevin about music. "From a Distance" had come on, he had made the casual comment that "this song really speaks to me". I draw him out on what it means to him. (+5 mom points for noticing the comment and responding, +5 for saying something other than "that's nice dear").

A long- haired Chihuahua dashes out right in front of the car. He was not on a leash, and was going after the two labs that were being walked on the other side of the street. (The chihuahua was barking fiercely, the labs were wagging their tails at him.) I slam on the brakes, and for a moment was afraid I'd run over it. I stay put until I see him dart into the middle of the road, still barking furiously, then I pull over and get out of the car. The lady walking the dogs and I are trying to figure out where he belongs when he scrambles underneath a gate at a house next to us, where I can hear his owner calling "Come on Pepe, into the house." (If I had more time I might have been tempted to go up and tell them that their dog had just escaped being a furry pancake, although they might have known that: the brakes squealed pretty loudly when I stopped.)

I then get back in the car, and talk to Kevin about how important it was to take care of animals, and having him agree that yes, it was more important to see if the dog was all right than to be on time for school. (+5 mom points for making the incident into a teaching moment.) We then get the bandaids, clean his finger and put Neosporin and a bandaid on it, and drive him to school. (+5 kid points for not freaking out when Mom took the wrong exit -- that stupid Shoreline/85/101 interchange! --and got lost going to school.)

We then pull up and and Kevin discovers that he has not brought his homework (-5). He asks me to get it and bring it to school for him, and I say no (+5 for helping to instill responsibility and letting him take the consequences of his actions). He took it pretty gracefully, with no whining (+5).

Total:

Mom -- +5
Kevin -- +5

It's a wash. : )

Comments

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

The warm Epsom salts softens the nail, and reduces the swelling some. When I was growing up we did that -- often the nail would fix itself after a few days of soaking. We did that wiith Kevin last fall, and it helped, but the toenail was ingrown so badly we ended up having to have a matricetomy (I love that word) on it anyway. Which our insurance insisted was surgery -- even though it invlved only some Novacaine and fifteen minutes of the doctor's time.