Your a nurse--You should know better!!

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in ICU/ER.

That is what I was told today by another nurse--the nurse at my sons school.

See I had graciously volunteered my time with about 25 other parents to take over the school for 45min so the entire staff could enjoy a Christmas lunch togather. I was assisgned to gym class. I had the 3rd graders. We could have played kick ball but the kids were not really paying attention--goofing off in line waiting for thier turn to kick---So I had the brilliant idea of lets play "Red Rover- Red Rover" --All kids were included, everyone had a great time.

When our time was up and we were putting on our coats one of the other moms asked what we did in gym class and I told her, that is when the school nurse over heard-eyes rolling/shoulders back and announced in a surpingsly lound voice in front of everyone including the principal. "Your a nurse-you should know better, Red Rover is known to pull childrens arms out of socket, can cause abdominal injuries and head injuries" etc etc etc. Apparently Red Rover has been banned from my kids school for about 10 years now!!

Yikes---if she only knew I actually let my boys climb trees, run with sticks and and play knuckels till someone cries...

Specializes in Med/Surg, LTC, Rehab, Hospice, Endocrine.

Yup, and pretty soon recess will be sitting quietly talking to a classmate from a safe distance of at least three feet to decrease the chance of coming into contact with bodily fluids.

/roll eyes

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Gees, can't we be humans first before being nurses.

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Wow, what would the school nurse have done if you'd let the kids play dodgeball?

Put you in front of a firing squad in the town square at high noon?

Schools have become so politically correct over the past 25 years it makes me want to puke. Not only have they sucked every single ounce of risk out of play (boring!!), they have made our kids soft and whiny. I don't know about anyone else, but when I was growing up in the '60s, playgrounds had blacktop and once in a while a kid fell off the jungle gym and broke an arm. Horrors! We also climbed trees, got dirty, fought, and drank out of each other's soda pop bottles. Mercy! How did we ever get through our childhoods alive?

My older son once got suspended from school in the 5th grade for calling a classmate a "one-legged prostitute". It was not unprovoked; the girl had been teasing him and calling him names, and Chris---admittedly not the most patient boy I'd ever known---came out with this insult, which was a line from the movie "Titanic".

Hey, I thought the girl was lucky he didn't slug her, but he always did respect women and girls enough not to hit them, and frankly, I could think of a lot worse names to call somebody. But I listened as his principal spoke with me by phone to discuss this heinous offense and offer advice on how to deal with my son so that it would not be repeated.

If I'd had a tenth of the huevos I have now, I'd have told her exactly what I thought of the whole incident---anyone heard of making a mountain out of a mole hill? As it was, I should have made it crystal clear that the punishment was far too severe for the crime and that furthermore, I thought my impulsive, explosive Asperger's kid had shown a remarkable amount of restraint. But I was too intimidated by the school system then to stand up for him or my skills as a parent........that's something I regret to this day. And now that my family is but a mere six months away from bidding farewell to public education forever, I'm thankful that the end of 20 years of gritting my teeth is rapidly approaching.

So, to all of you moms who suffer under the judgment of school officials, teachers, and other staff: don't do as I did. Don't be afraid to say out loud that you are the best judge of what is healthy and normal for your children (and yes, playing Red Rover is as normal as it gets!). Besides.........did you ever actually meet anybody who poked their eye out while running with a stick, or who drove a classmate to suicide by calling her a one-legged prostitute?:smokin:

Me neither.

I tell ya no good deed goes unpunished. lol For the record Red Rover was one of my fave childhood games and SHOCKER I never ripped an arm out of its socket or suffered an abdominal/head injury. The woman obviously has a need for attention and drama. Poor children that have to deal with her daily. Maybe they can knit during gym. Oh wait...they could poke their eyes out. Maybe cards would be better. Rut roh...that could lead to a gambling addiction. I'd better think about this one. lol

Specializes in L&D, PACU.

I was horrified to find out that a friend of mine's definition of a good mother was one who never let her children be hurt...ever. No skinned knees, no falling down. Of course she didn't let them climb trees, or skate, or....

A neighbor used to put up red safety cones on the sidewalk and her children could ride their bikes between the safety cones, the cones being the limit of her view from her front window.

I remember having skinned knees for years at a time, it seemed. We rode our bikes down to the river without parental guidance. We splashed in puddles. I fell out of a tree, hitting several branches on the way down. We slept out of doors in a hay field. We jumped out of barns. We rode horses bareback...without helmets. Sigh. I could go on and on.

Yeah, I'm a nurse. And I think it's okay for a child to have skinned knees. Usually it's a sign of a day well spent. Tried something new...pushed a limit a little further, grew a little.

But I digress. We loved Red Rover also, and NONE of the nine children in my family had any physical ailments as a result.

Specializes in Hospice.

I'm not o sure that it's a matter of politically correct as it is one of avoiding litigation. As others have noted, some parents go off the deep end at the thought of any risk at all.

Specializes in psych. rehab nursing, float pool.

How on earth did you contain yourself . How embarassing, that one of our own would do that in front of others just to make herself look good.

I would have said " it is a good thing I did not think of it, it's why you still have a job" nah I really wouldn't have said it. I would have thought it though.

Unbelievable. That school nurse has issues you aren't about to resolve...she felt the need to embarrass you and/or try to discredit you in front of others, she obviously isn't going to accept a rational response.

Probably not worthwhile to tell her that one of my kids' classmates tripped over his own untied shoelace and smacked his knee so badly he could barely walk the next day? Why, we should ban shoelaces and require all "good" mothers to strap their kids into velcro booties (soft, of course) for their own good.

Yeesh.

And how about this: dodgeball is fine at their schools, but taking a photograph of their friends on a fieldtrip or the end-of-school picnic is absolutely verbotten without written permission from the child's parents.

Specializes in Peds Critical Care, Dialysis, General.

Oh me, oh my!!! It's a wonder my generation and those before ever made out of kindergarten. I rode bicycles with no helmet, rode horses bareback with no saddle, climbed trees, played in the woods all day, jumped off the top of my grandmother's garage (okay, it was like a 4 ft drop) AND rode in the back of a pick up truck. Did I mention the mini-bikes and motocycles?? Red Rover was a staple at recess.

In junior high & high school there was softball, volleyball (couldn't they ban THAT instead?). We did trampoline, balance beam and floor routine with no safety equipment.

My kids all played outside, had skinned knees, bumped their noggins, rode bikes without helmets, rollerbladed ... the list is long - I very well could have been voted "Worst Mom" by this person!

The worst thing, I know from experience (mine & my kids) is to be the last picked for the team. Now, there is something that should be banned. Have teachers split the teams themselves. A hurt spirit trumps a skinned knee any day in my book!

Cindy,RN

Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

Oh, I loved Red Rover!! Now, I would have been trying to catch the words "and you can fall and break a hip taking a shower" as they flew out of my mouth. You know those kids had the best gym day! They probably talked about it all day and got in trouble at recess for playing it again. Tee Hee.

Our elementary school is the same way. Girls wearing sandals is discouraged but allowed. If they dare wear them though, they have to stay on the black top. Not allowed on the grass or the play equipment! Mine run barefoot all summer without an injury except the occasional pricker.

I was called into the principals office when my son was 8 because he accidentally hit a boy while waving his arms like a flying dragon. The other boy hit him and my son called him a bullsh**. Now, we rarely use foul language in our home, but he called him something that made no sense and he must have known that's what I was thinking because he right away spoke up and explained that he did not say that. The principal became very upset because now my son was lying (he stinks at lying, just can't do it believably at all). I had to calm the principal down and ask my son to explain and he leaned over and whispered "I called him an a**). It took all I had not to sigh because at least that made sense! I sat there with a stern look on my face and explained what he said to the principal. We had our little talk and I left with my son. On the way home he explained that the boy called him that when my son flew his arms into him so when the boy hit him he decided to say it back to him.

Thanks for calling me in for that, but not when he got hit by the chair flying through the air from that boy who was having a tantrum. Oh, thats where those bruised ribs came from. Got it.

Specializes in Peds Critical Care, Dialysis, General.

Thanks, chevyv--

I forgot about the running around barefoot. I only wore shoes when we went shopping or to church in the summertime. Oh, and we swam in an icky, polluted, cottonmouth infested river (the "grownups" watched out for the cottonmouths). It's a wonder that I made to the ripe old age of 51!

Cindy

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