AMA

Dear Jack,

I was on the phone with your pediatrician yesterday and during the course of the conversation, I let it slip that we had gone to the Children's Museum.

Oops.

The pediatrician was not thrilled that you were not only out of the house, but in an enclosed, crowded space filled with germy children. I do understand that. In fact, I completely see her perspective and would agree with her except for this one point:

You live in an enclosed space with a germy toddler we like to call Sydney who crowds in very close to you every chance she gets. And if I had not taken both you and your sister to the Children's Museum on Friday, then your father would have taken just your sister out to the Museum on Saturday while I dutifully stayed home with you. Then your sister would have come home with the very same germs that I would have been trying to protect you from. And you and I would have missed out on all of the fun.

So, yes, it would be best if I stayed home with you, keeping you from all of the viruses and bacteria that live in the world. But your sister lives in that very same world, going to daycare three days a week and off to the church nursery every Sunday and I'm not about to keep her from enjoying her summer or keep the two of you from bonding any way you can (even if that means letting your sister put her "so special she cannot allow it to be washed ever so who knows what germs are on it" blanket on you from time to time).

In short, even though the pediatrician (whom normally I agree with) said you shouldn't go out to all of these places, I am going to continue to take you out. I will continue to put you in your sling or wrap, or in your stroller with the sun shade covering you in the way that says, "Do not touch" to even the nicest old ladies. I will continue to do like I did just last week when a very strange lady at church asked if she could kiss the back of your head and I politely told her you were too little for that. I will continue to put a protective hand out when other children (like the very sweet, but very austisic boy we met yesterday) try to touch you. I will continue to nurse you, giving you those precious antibodies. I will do all of these things to keep you safe. But I just can't justify keeping you, me, your sister and your father from going out into the world. And if any of us are out there, we are all being exposed to those germs. So I will do my very best to minimize your contact with other folks, but I am going to continue to take you out.

Even if I have to do it AMA.*

Love,
Mom





*against medical advise