A long night

I was so glad to come home from work tonight. It was very busy in the e.r. I don't know how those e.r. nurses do it! God bless 'em. Most of the night the e.r was so full that every bed in there was occupied. Surprisingly by the time I clocked out we hadn't had any in-patient admissions though.



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I won't can't go into extreme details but you can "read between the lines." How can a mother be in indignant denial that her toddler has been the victim of abuse when the physical evidence is right there in front of her? How do you console the justifiably worried great-grandparents who bring that toddler in against the mother's wishes? How do you answer their frantic questions (while they are made to stay in the waiting room) when you are prohibited from doing so? How do you keep your heart from breaking when you watch a nurse lovingly hold the toddler on her lap while entertaining her with a computer game and knowing all the while that this nurse's smiles belie the horror of what she knows this child has been through? How can this mother of a sexually abused child even call herself a mother?



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I have to work on Mother's Day so I stopped by my parent's house on the way to work today so I could give Mom her card and gift. She really liked this handmade "primitive" Raggedy Ann doll I gave her. I found it on Etsy.com. I love this website. You can buy or sell all things handmade there.
Mom and Dad are going to have a cook-out tomorrow. My youngest brother and his wife and my sister and her family will be there. My other brother won't be able to make it because his wife has to work and they only have one working car right now.


My brother that can't be there sent my mother this Vermont Teddy Bear for Mother's Day. When I was at Mom's today she brought it out to show me but first held it so I couldn't see the front of it. She told me she wanted to tell me the "back story" about it first.


My brother happens to have a potty mouth. Sometimes it's worse than other times. He doesn't have to be in a bad mood either. The cussing is part of his regular speech. His favorite word is fuck. My brother hasn't always had a potty mouth. He usually cusses more when he is in the comfort of his own house and calls Mom and Dad to chat. Last Christmas when he and his wife were here for our family gathering he didn't cuss at all. So he can control it!


Anyway, last week he called Mom and Dad. Dad was on one phone and Mom was on another. He wasn't in a bad mood at all. Mom told me that my brother was cussing left and right though. Fuck this and fuck that...(pardon my french!) My Mom was getting increasingly annoyed by his cussing. She told him, "Oh please don't say that word!" He cleaned up his language but then a little while later he "forgot" and the f-word slipped out again several times. Mom got exasperated and quietly hung up her phone and told me she decided she had had enough of listening to it and would just let Dad keep talking to him. After my Dad and brother ended their conversation my mother told Dad that she wanted him to "have a talk" with him regarding the cussing. She told Dad that she felt like my brother wasn't respecting her by cussing all the time in conversations with her.


A few days later my brother called when Mom wasn't home but my Dad was home to get the call. Dad told him what Mom said. My brother apologized. So today Mom got this Vermont Teddy Bear delivered to her and after she told me about the cussing, she turned the bear around to show me what it said on the bear's tee shirt. It said "My Mom Kicks A**!" Attached to his arm was a cute Mother's Day card and it said something like "This son seems to have a hard time cleaning up his mouth. He will try harder to be good! @!+$%!!@ Have a Happy Mother's Day! I love you! Your son, S" Mom and I had a good laugh over that. Mom said, I guess this was an apology!


To all the mothers who read this, I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day!