I slashed the inside of my thigh open with a pocket knife once. It must have missed the artery by half an inch, maybe, although I didn’t know it at the time. I had, at this point, been hurt so many times that I closed the knife, put down the piece of wood I had been whittling on, and wandered into the house to ask my mom what to do.
She said “oh my God! Your new pants!”
And then we duct taped my leg back together because we didn’t have insurance, and we didn’t want to sit in the ER waiting room for the rest of the day.
Goddamn, the US (I assume?) is so fucked up
You got that right. Murica. :( :( :(
When I was in high school, I really, really wanted to play football (egg ball, for the non-Americans.) Went to the camp before starting my freshman year, had a lot of fun, was decently good and by all accounts would have started. Finally got the waiver to bring home, basically “your kid might get hurt and we ain’t paying for shit” and so ended my football career. I actually probably need to make a phone call after this one, because I do remember being told we don’t have insurance and that’s why I couldn’t play, and I do remember being both pretty obstinate that I would not get hurt and this was basically an impossibility (youth, am I right?) and being an asshole because there was probably no bigger injustice in the world.
Of course, now I know that probably a single trip to the ER for anything would have probably bankrupted my family.
And you all are robbed because you don’t have me now as a great football start to look up to (just kidding, I was slightly above average in a small town.)
Anyway, America. 'Tis a stupid place, let’s not go there.
Yep
We sure are
You can assume it’s about the US. That’s what we do too. 🤣
Duct tape?! That"s a wild home remedy.
Well, duct tape and paper towels.
Damn, what a life, we only had used packing tape and old newspapers.
Back in my day I had to stop blood flow with sheer willpower. Damn kids and your fancy shmancy tape.
Stop blood flow? Then what did you have for dinner?
Is there anything packing tape can’t do? People say duct tape is the more versatile tape, but I have to disagree.
No one tell this guy about the glue doctors sometimes use in place of stitches (it’s essentially super glue)
It is superglue. That was what superglue was invented for. The only difference between it and what people use for making plastic model kits is quality control for cleanliness.
CA glue. Cyanoacrylate.
I’m so glad I live in a developed country lol. That’s wild.
Me when America is no longer considered a developed country lmao
Pretty sure that’s been the case since about the 50s? You had a good run with that moon thing, but it’s been downhill since then.
If a fairly large percentage of your population can’t take their children to the emergency room in an emergency, among them the majority of “essential workers,” you’re not developed.
It does rather point to the fact that it’s not a matter of ability but will in America.
The worst I ever cut myself was I cut the side of both middle fingers all the way down to the bone in exactly the same spot 1 week apart.
I was trying to do some really precise cutting and didn’t have the right kind of knife for that so was holding a regular one like a pencil. And apparently didn’t learn my lesson the first time.
I still have it and it’s still that sharp. I didn’t feel it at all either time.
I don’t remember doing this, cause I was 3 at the time. I wandered into the kitchen, where my mother was doing some cooking prep, and my father was doing some paperwork of some sort. I said “Mom, I think I hurt myself.” She said, “Oh no, you’re fine.” In her defence, prior to this if I ever so much as gotten a tiny scratch, I would be screaming my head off. My father looked up and said, “No Anita, he’s hemorrhaging!” She turned around to find that I was bleeding from multiple gashes in all five fingers on my right hand.
Apparently, I had gone into my parents room, which I knew I shouldn’t be in. Gotten into their closet, which I knew was even more off limits. Pulled my mother’s sewing kit out, which I knew was super duper off limits!!! Found her pizza cutter razorblade thing that is used to cut cloth, and proceeded to disassemble the thing, managing to slice all five fingers on my right hand three times trying not to drop it. I’ve no idea what I was gonna do with the thing. Apparently I had to get multiple stitches in each finger.
I’m the 3rd of 5, though it was 3.5 at the time.
Sheesh! I don’t want this to sound harsh, but as a kid you sound like you were …contraceptive. What took your parents so long?
My mother claims she was praying for patience when she got pregnant with me, and the fact that I’m still alive proves that she learned patience.
That’s awesome, you’re like …a miracle or something!
Those things are no joke. I have a sick scar on one of my fingers for trying to cut one of those wrapping paper tubes with one.
…Yeah, in hindsight trying to cut a round, rolley thing thing with another extremely sharp round, rolley thing was pretty retarded.
This post has some real “drank from the hose” energy
The sweetest water.
My mother would have hung up the phone and then beat the shit out of me on top of whatever trauma I’ve already gone through 😂
My grandmother never bothered to ask us about any of it. She’d just wordlessly break out the peroxide, slap a bandaid on it, and return to whatever she was doing around the house.
I could and did wander into the house with blood pouring from the side of my head or with the front of my shirt soaked in it, and all she did was admonish me once for ruining my clothes. Very 1940s parenting.
I thank god for this. Because if I had told her where any of our war wounds had come from, that would have been a beating for sure.
😂 I guess we turned out alright regardless.
I don’t know why but my mom just couldn’t multitask on the phone at all. I don’t have kids but my gf has one, and I try to always be attentive to her. I remember being really frustrated about this as a kid.
IMHO (not a parent), children need to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around them. If they’re not hurt, they can wait a minute.
Covered in my own blood dammit.
I’m on the phone 🤫
Lol no, when you have kids, the world absolutely does revolve around them to a large extent. That’s just life.
Sure, but only when they are too little to know better, or to do something themselves. If they are babied into childhood they may turn into adults who still believe the world revolves around them. I have a couple x’s like that. Into their late 30’s and still can’t function without someone else helping them
Lessons need to be learned at the appropriate ages
True. But you often do have to care for a kid long into adulthood simply because of the way society works.
And like it or not, you do have to put your kid’s feelings and concerns above yours in order to parent them properly.
Those ostensibly spoiled kids who act that way throughout life are the products of abuse, and were either neglected, abused in various ways, or never taught to care for themselves.
The feelings, needs and concerns of kids overrule yours and if you refuse to accept it, *you * need to accept that the world doesn’t revolve around you.
Life isn’t always fair. That’s something you need to deal with, not children.
I don’t have children yet, and it might come to pass that I have none, but I have worked with them. I’m an observer type of person. I like to analyze things. I also come from a household where my own voice wasn’t heard. I didn’t learn how to manage my emotions, and as a consequence I’m having to continue to do so well into adulthood.
Kids emotions are raw, intense, and untamed. Yes, they should be listened to, yes their needs should be met- but they also need to understand that the world doesn’t revolve around them and that sometimes they need to wait.
They need to know that they are loved. They need to know that they are important. But again, they need to know that other people are important too. They need to understand that other people’s feelings matter, too. They need to be able to identify when someone else is busy on the phone and come back later to show that cool new drawing they made.
If the parent drops what they are doing each and every time, allows the child to interupt constantly, and leads them to believe that they are the most important person in the room at all times, then what lesson will they take with them into adulthood?
You know those people that start yelling when their starbucks drink is not to their liking? That’s one way that those people are made
You’re not listening to what I am saying. Being told to wait a minute isn’t telling someone the world doesn’t revolve around them. Telling a kid the world doesn’t revolve around them is making a moral stance that that kid doesn’t actually matter, and that is what adults actually mean when they tell kids such. It has all of jack and shit to do with minor petty shit like making a kid wait when you’re on the phone. It’s about why you’re making them wait and how you truly feel about them.
It’s nothing but petty ageist bigotry and I can’t be the only one tired of hearing it.
Yes the world absolutely does revolve around children. Literally everything we do is for them to some extent.
My guess is that perhaps you’re a bit young and inexperienced with the world. It isn’t as black and white or cut and dry as you may think it is.
It certainly doesn’t revolve around children.
If parents are not there for them when they ask, who in this world trully is going to be? You’re right the world doesnt revolve around them, but parents should.
Don’t have kids
If you’re downvoting this don’t have kids
I am downvoting this and not having kids
deleted by creator
I don’t have kids but my gf has one
how are your gf’s kids not your kids? (or at least step-kids)
how are your gf’s kids not your kids?
From a different relationship
(or at least step-kids)
They’re not married
married or not you’re still kind of their parent
In this specific case it’s via ethical non monogamy, so I’m not a parent to the child. She has two parents.
that works too I guess
Why do I imagine this mother holding the phone with one hand and a dry martini in the other?
It was a Schlitz.
I read this as in the kichen was all covered in blood. Really confuswd me for a moment.
My mom yelled at me not to bleed on her new carpet. Gotta love being the youngest child.
Funny because that’s about what my own Mom would say too. We’d come in with snake bits and split lips from falling off our bikes, and she’d be angry that she has to dirty another washcloth. I don’t have kids but now that I’m grown, I kind of get that.
I worked as a volunteer (and this has nothing to do with the topic, I just remembered) at a local aviary, and we’d often have to take split baby rabbits out to the raptors at feeding time. It was fine usually, because usually the rabbits are frozen and so not that gross, but sometimes they’d thaw out in your hands and you’d come back covered in blood and gore. (which is why you have hide the thing from the birds’s sight when you enter certain enclosures).
I’m not sure I ever grew out of that “what the hell am I covered in this time” phase.
Gosh, that was a wild ride to read… Thanks, I think?
Yeah I know it was a bit TMI…but I couldn’t resist. I’m a boomer - get me started and you’ll wish you had duct tape around to shut me up with.
Image Transcription: Twitter Post
jo diggity, @WhaJoTalkinBout
me, as a child: *walks into the kitches covered in my own blood holding a rabbit I fought from a hawk*
my mom, on the phone: *mouthing* I’m on the phone