I�m coming unglued. I�m fraying at the edges. I....I....I....I admit it. I�m flunking good mothering and I have no excuses. I could say that I don�t have the patience of a saint, and I don�t, but I don�t seem to have the patience of a good mother either. Please, Calgon, take me away from all this. (What is Calgon anyway? I remember the line but can�t seem to remember the product. So much for advertising.)

Yes, the problem is those blankety-blank contacts again. Either that or the problem is the child wearing the contacts who really expects that one can do the same wrong thing over and over but get a different result. I don�t think I was designed to coach a child on getting contacts in for 45 minutes or more every day, especially in the morning. I can�t even think in the morning, let alone be patient..

We were doing better with the contacts. At one point, she had two days in a row where she got them into her eyes in ten minutes or so. Then she had the contact that drifted out of position and they began to burn going in. Mr. Philately solved both problems, the first by showing her how to manipulate it and the second by making sure she did a better job of rising off the cleaner and giving her a handkerchief rather than tissues. Unfortunately, emotional scars remained and now we sit there, coaching, as she approaches her eye, stops, and blinks over and over and over and over and over.

If these contacts were for cosmetic reasons, I�d take myself off the hook and send them back. But they are not. We are all hoping that they stabilize her deteriorating vision so I have to pay attention not to the fuss but to the fact that she wears them all day easily (once they are in) and takes them out quite well. Still, I don�t think that I can just sit there trying to stay calm much longer.

So, if you hear screaming all the way from the Midwest, you�ll know what it is. It�s a bad mother of a child with new contacts and she�s stopped suffering in silence.

LAST YEAR: Being a Trooper

previous - next

|

Copyright 2006 by Ellen