cell phone sex

ok. i hooked you with the title. this, however, is a true story from this week.

i took a call from mercy hospital monday afternoon while in the room with a patient in the office. they were calling to tell me that i had 2 new babies just born that afternoon. they usually give me the name, time of birth, weight, length, apgar scores, hep b and group b strep status, and whether the baby is a boy or a girl. that takes a while, and i was in a hurry due to needing to answer some questions the patient's mom had. so when the nurse asked me if i wanted all the information on the babies, i said 'just give me the sex, that will be enough for now'. needless to say, i backpeddled a little pretty quickly and said, 'i mean the gender...not sex, oh well...'. i'm sure the mom, who had no idea of what was being said on the other end of the call, was wondering exactly what was going on when i answered my phone 'this is dr. stephens', then the next thing i said was 'just give me the sex...'. 

that's why cell phones in offices should be outlawed. or maybe the hospital should text me with baby info... 

new mantra

recently it hit me that as parents we may be creating little puppy dogs that perform for treats vs. children who grow up with love as a covering for their lives. kids, like puppies, know what gets praise from their parents, and if they are praised for those specific things, that's what they will do. but that may limit them. they may not be confident enough to go 'outside the box' to do other things, to grow, because the parents' praise is necessary for them to take the next step. so...instead of making life one 'trick' after another, one to be noticed ('look what i can do!) and commended, we should make our praise, our positive comments, more general. this is sort of like "i love you" as a general statement vs. "i love it when you...". 

in the same vein, we should not criticize so generally, but more on a 'per event' basis, so that the child knows what he did to transgress. much the opposite of many parents' styles today.

so...praise generally, criticize specifically. instead of each act getting a nod, the nod goes to the whole day or week as 'man, you kids have been really great today, i really appreciate it, let's go to the park and have a picnic'. and 'tristan, we don't bite/hit/pull hair/scream/throw food/pee on the floor/etc.'

that's the mantra - praise generally, criticize specifically.

when is it ok?

signs meet me on hospital room doors, telling me to wash my hands, avoid going in if i'm sick, don't sneeze or cough on anyone, etc., etc. because of the recent potential H1N1 flu pandemic. so...when is it ok to not wash my hands, to go in sick, to sneeze and/or cough on people? these are things we should do (and that we do, hopefully) every day regardless of the presence or absence of a potentially serious pathogen.

i have seen this scenario played out recently in at least one other area. when the economy crashed, all of a sudden business were cutting back - no more corporate jets or flying everyone to the main office for meetings, instead they teleconference. no more frills and extras. i can't even think of all the things i've seen 'cut back' (i'm not talking about employees losing jobs here), but my point is: why were they doing these wasteful things in the first place? 

it seems that if we can, we will, then when things get tough and we can't, we're surprised. or we're mad. 

ok, now that's off my chest.

recent radical thought

why do we like babies to be fat but adults to be thin? 

why is that it's ok, even preferred, for babies to be distractible, but it's ADHD when it happens when we're older?

you're sensible people...

i get scared when people follow all my advice all the time without question. mind you, i do like it when people take my suggestions/commands, but like everyone, i have been known to be wrong from time to time. 

you're sensible people. if you get advice from me that sounds wacky or doesn't work for you, check it out. ask others, look it up, try some other stuff. maintain a healthy skepticism about any advice, even from me.

that's like handing a machine gun to a serial killer for some parents, as they don't believe even themselves most of the time, asking questions almost to hear themselves talk, but for the vast majority of you, you're sensible people, as far as i know given the information and experience i have at this time, my advice is good and timely, or at least not bad and harmful - though some would argue. just don't consider me the source of all medical knowledge - or i will most definitely disappoint both of us.

the illness formerly known as...

since president obama was criticized by the pork industry over the name of the current influenza media frenzy/pseudo pandemic, it has come to my attention that there is a group that has a gripe with it being called H1N1 flu. 

press release from jim henson productions: sesame street and its sponsors would like to lodge a complaint against the cdc and whoever else decided to call this strain of influenza H1N1 flu. on behalf of the letters H and N, and the number 1, we protest that this nomenclature dishonors these letters and this number and should be changed immediately. why should miss piggy get her way just because she's a swine? big bird hasn't said anything about the 'bird flu'. our recommendation is that it be called 'the illness formerly known as...' and given a symbol - preferably one that doesn't resemble anything of this earth or this universe or any subsidiary thereof, so as to prevent further confusion when it has to be renamed once again.

thank you. 

this protest was brought to you by the letter A, the letter Y,  the letter K, and the letter M - as in Are You Kidding Me?