Vent: I absolutely HATE stupidity! Not ignorance.....STUPIDITY!!

rn/writer, RN · Jan 9, 2007

The OP stated that she referred to Medicaid moms because they are an example of a group that gets documented 1:1 education and still can have problems. Other people can use the excuse that they were never shown the correct way to install/use/fasten the seats, but even when this is done, parents don't always do it right.

Why does the mention of Medicaid automatically bring up race? Doesn't that carry a certain amount of bias to assume that Medicaid makes it racial?

That said, these are issues that cut across all lines. That's because human nature cuts across those lines as well. Whether it's a momentary lapse in judgment or an established pattern of poor choices, all it takes is once at the wrong time and place.

In 17 years of being an EMT, I saw more than enough dead and damaged kids to convince me that parents need to take better care of what they say is their most precious cargo.

Maybe along with the driver's ed scary videos of wracked up teens, we ought to be showing some pictures of the youngest victims as well.

rn/writer, RN · Jan 9, 2007

DD #1 (who now has four kids of her own) came home from the hospital in an infant car seat long before it was legally required or fashionable. She never knew anything different.

One day when she was just shy of three, we put the car in gear and started to drive off and she let out such a wail I thought she was hurt. DH stopped and we both got out to look. Turns out that she had climbed into her toddler seat, but in the effort of fastening her baby sister into her seat, we had not buckled the straps. That didn't feel right and she let us know it.

When the kids (five of them by this time) ranged in age from 10 down to 2, I had them convinced that the radio wiring was connected through the seatbelts and that it wouldn't work unless everyone was strapped in. By the time they figured out this whopper, they were already so much in the habit that if other people rode with us and didn't buckle up, they got yelled at. By the kids.

As teen drivers, my kids also got razzed by their friends because they wouldn't even start their cars until everyone was strapped in. Fortunately, they were their own peer group. I think they started a trend because they told me other kids were doing it too.

Just before she got married last October, DD #4 told me that she felt weird driving from the hotel entrance the 300 yards to the marquis tent for the ceremony because she couldn't fasten the seat belt over her wedding gown. I looked at her and said, "You mean you've never ridden without a seat belt in more than 24 years. She said, "Nope. I never wanted you to be one of those parents who the EMTs have to tell their child was thrown from the car." She made me cry with that gift.

P_RN, ADN, RN · Jan 9, 2007

Our state has mandatory seatbelt use, mandatory lights on when it's raining, but NO helmet law.When I worked vocational rehab I saw first hand what the no helmet law led to.....chi, blindness, quadraplegia, deafness, loss of intellect, loss of reason.....not that these don't happen to those who ride other vehicles, it's just what I saw.

Last week heading to the county seat to get car tags, pickup truck riding my bumper, woman on cell phone, ciggy in other hand, 6 yr old sized kid walking across the seat. Driver decides to pass me, double yellow lines, on hill, on a bridge leading to a curve. I see 3 cars heading my way......I pull way over to the shoulder. The 3 cars pull way over to their right....One almost hits the bridge rail. Pickup woman gives me the bird, blows her horn and speeds up. I call *HP (our trooper line) and they ask if I got the plate number-I said no but it's the Florida truck with a ______ driving it. About 20 mi later Miss thing is pulled over, 3 cars blue lights flashing and an EMT unit. Oh it could have ended so much worse. I hope she was jailed, but probably got a magistrates date-as if she would show up. STUPIDITY!!!

juicy_jade · Jan 9, 2007

I have not read the entire thread so this may be a redundant post.Sorry if it is but I'd like to point out that this type of stupdity is not unique to "medicaid moms" How many times have you heard about children left in cars "for just a minute" with a tragic outcome? How many times have you heard about small children getting killed by riding mowers? It goes on and on-and the way the parents is treated by the media correlates directly with their class...Upper class white mom can leave her baby in the back of her SUV while she is working all day -essentially roasting the baby- and "it's such a horrible tragedy-a mistake" Let it be a young black mother on food stamps and the media calls for prosecution....And time after time no one is prosecuted-as if the hurt the parents suffer mitigates the fact that a baby was killed....Getting behind the wheel drunk and killing someone and killing a child because you forgot it was in the car in high summer should both be murder,imho...

I was thinking that same thing. Why would it have to be a medicaid mom? Here in Texas, we had a police officer forget to drop off his 4 month old daughter at day care last summer and one of the officer's coworkers found her in the corificeat. We had a police officer's son get mauled to death by a police gun. A couple of days ago, we had another officer's 2-year-old son shoot himself with the officer's service revolver.

TazziRN, RN · Jan 9, 2007

The OP stated that she referred to Medicaid moms because they are an example of a group that gets documented 1:1 education and still can have problems. Other people can use the excuse that they were never shown the correct way to install/use/fasten the seats, but even when this is done, parents don't always do it right.
Why does the mention of Medicaid automatically bring up race? Doesn't that carry a certain amount of bias to assume that Medicaid makes it racial?

Thank you, Miranda

allnurses Guide · Jan 9, 2007

Of course they don't mind..... a motorcyclist will just make a small greasy spot on the back of their trailer in the event of an accident.

"And remove one idiot from the gene pool." (my husband is reading over my shoulder).

It is just rude to drive like that.

steph

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Jan 9, 2007

Our state has mandatory seatbelt use, mandatory lights on when it's raining, but NO helmet law.When I worked vocational rehab I saw first hand what the no helmet law led to.....chi, blindness, quadraplegia, deafness, loss of intellect, loss of reason.....not that these don't happen to those who ride other vehicles, it's just what I saw.
Last week heading to the county seat to get car tags, pickup truck riding my bumper, woman on cell phone, ciggy in other hand, 6 yr old sized kid walking across the seat. Driver decides to pass me, double yellow lines, on hill, on a bridge leading to a curve. I see 3 cars heading my way......I pull way over to the shoulder. The 3 cars pull way over to their right....One almost hits the bridge rail. Pickup woman gives me the bird, blows her horn and speeds up. I call *HP (our trooper line) and they ask if I got the plate number-I said no but it's the Florida truck with a ______ driving it. About 20 mi later Miss thing is pulled over, 3 cars blue lights flashing and an EMT unit. Oh it could have ended so much worse. I hope she was jailed, but probably got a magistrates date-as if she would show up. STUPIDITY!!!

Didn't that make you just want to pull over, yank her out of the window by the hair, and slap the snot out of her??!!:angryfire If I had my way, stupidity would be made a felony and people like that would be doing 5 to Life in the state pen. :madface:

I'm glad you at least got the satisfaction of siccing the cops on her and seeing her get stopped. I don't know about the laws where you are, but here in Oregon, Miss Thing would at the very least have been charged with endangering the welfare of a minor, tailgating, aggressive driving, and maybe even child abuse (for smoking in the vehicle). Stupid woman.........I hope they threw the book at her. :devil:

P_RN, ADN, RN · Jan 9, 2007

Me too Marla, me too. I checked the police logs in the paper that usually have stuff like that listed but so far not there. SC was one of the first states to have both a CB number -years ago- and a cell phone number to call the State Troopers. I've done it several times and they usually call back and thank me.

prinsessa · Jan 9, 2007

I am confused by the one-on-one education that "medicaide moms" usually get. I was a medicaid mom once upon a time and I never got any special education. Is this usually done while the woman is pregnant? Is it done at the hospital? I'm curious because I have never heard of this. I have heard of police departments having special days where experts install corificeats for parents.

TrudyRN · Jan 9, 2007

5-month-old baby sent from the clinic 10 miles away for a respiratory workup. Baby arrived in an infant carrier with a heavy furry blanket over him. Remove that blanket and find Baby resting on top of another one....with the seat's safety straps under that! After eval and treatment, as part of his discharge, I spoke with mom via an interpreter about the carrier and the child safety seat law. First the mom lies and says that she put the blanket under Baby when they got to the hospital. I confronted her on that and she just laughed. When I asked her if she knew what the law was, she was able to recite it. Her brother drove her and Baby to the ER and he tried to excuse it by saying "I'm a very safe driver."
I am so tired of the stupidity, and stupidity is just what it is. Just around Thanksgiving there was an SUV rollover, with a 2-month-old ejected and killed. Two older kids in the car were badly injured, as well as the grandma. The baby's mom was driving down the freeway, Grandma was in the back seat changing baby's diaper, and the two older kids were in seats but improperly restrained.
There is no excuse for this....in this county all medicaid moms who get prenatal care go through a program and get free strollers and corificeats, and they're taught how to use those corificeats.
How many more children have to die before this stops???

I think you are mandated, by law, to hotline her, are you not? As much as I think government is too nosy, I think you are required by law to report her.

TazziRN, RN · Jan 9, 2007

I am confused by the one-on-one education that "medicaide moms" usually get. I was a medicaid mom once upon a time and I never got any special education. Is this usually done while the woman is pregnant? Is it done at the hospital? I'm curious because I have never heard of this. I have heard of police departments having special days where experts install corificeats for parents.

In my county, the clinics have prenatal programs for medicaid moms to learn about pregnancy, birth, baby care, etc. At the end of the successful completion of the program, the moms get a corificeat/stroller system and are taught how to use the seats. The program is not open to those of us who are privately insured.

"I think you are mandated, by law, to hotline her, are you not? As much as I think government is too nosy, I think you are required by law to report her"

I cannot report someone for something that happened before, only if she were to leave in the same manner. I can flag her for a social services referral to check on her, which we did.

tattooednursie, LVN · Jan 9, 2007

You would think people would treat their infants as if they meant something to them. I have seen very young children in cars improperly restrained. I would feel like crap if I LET that happen to my children.