BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Married No Kids Venting Thread

Why I actually came into this thread was to vent about child-safety caps on medicine. No child has entered this house in over 10 years. We have NO need for child safe medicines. And yet every single medicine in the house seems to have child-safe tops which make it a hassle for me to open them.

It seems unfair that they force every single adult in the US to have containers which protect homes that have children in them. They should certainly have a version which is child-safe for that minority of people - but they should not make the majority suffer for that reason.

I know a lot of pain medications come in "easy twist of caps" - especially the ones that are targeted towards arthritis. (Can you imagine a worse ailment trying to twist open those child free caps?)

Plus the fact...half the kids I know have absolutely no problem opening those lids. My niece opens them for my grandmother!

I have Centrum Chewable vitamins and they have a child-safe lid. So every single day I take my vitamins - and every single day I have to get that child safe lid open. It just makes no sense to me.

I should just transfer them to another container ...

At my pharmacies we have a choice a safety cap or one that the top just pops off

That is really good that they give you that choice, skyhaven!!

I guess the things I buy are off the shelf, so not prescription medicine. So I don't think I have a choice for my Centrum Chewables for example, I just have to buy what they have there ...

Huh. I guess changing off to another container is a workable solution. But it's a good point - some of those caps are damn hard to open, and if i am sick in the middle of the night, it's no fun to be screwing around with them in the dark, getting more frustrated and sick.

I am definitely trying to simplify my life. Life is far too short to get caught up in things that are unproductive.

I am decided - a new container it is! One less thing to worry about

It's important to keep a few original containers for when you travel - the security agents want to see actual prescriptions, matching your name and such. So I keep a few empties of my usual meds in my travel bags and refill as needed.

Yesterday my husband and I were out with a couple who just had a new baby. At the end of the meal as we were just chatting she asked me if I wanted to hold him as she was handing him to me. So I took the baby, I didn't know what else to do as he was thrust into my hands. It had been atleast 15 years since I held a baby.

It was ok. He was squirmy and I fed him some formula and basically held him until my arm started to ache like it was going to fall off. Did not make me want one or feel all warm and squooshy. Of course DH who is trying to be PC says somethng to the effect that he wished he had a camera (I did realize later that he had not ever seen me hold a baby before as we were celebrating our 11th anniversary that same day!)and that he thot I would have been a great mother. I said instantly that I was. WAS. I raised my sister, various cousins and then nephews not to mention hundreds of friends' kids (literally) from church and I had foster children for a few years.

I told the table, including the mother, that I took care of a newborn for 3 weeks for a deathly ill friend back when I was 27 and single and how I was caring for the baby and realized one day that I did NOT want one. I could be maternal and caring and loving without the 20 year committment. To whch she replied that it was so rewarding (yada yada yada) and worth all the time and effort (yada yada yada) and how everyday she LEARNS something from her 5 yr old. I decided I better keep my mouth shut, atleast while I was holding the baby which she finally took back none-too-soon for my aching arms.

But when we got home I was thinking about that LEARNING from a 5 yr old, and I could not for the life of me figure out what was so precious and unlearnable in any other form that came from a 5 yr old?

Seriously. OK, so maybe you 'learn' how to love them or remember your own childhood or innocence, but LEARN? Sorry, there is nothing a 5 yr old can teach me that I have not already known and forgotten because it is no longer relevant to my adult life. If I miss a question on Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? it is because it does not matter to me anymore--but I rarely miss the questions.

Perhaps 'learn' is the wrong word. There may be things that I could experience with a 5 yr old that would expand my perceptions, but they would be mostly on an emotional level. To 'learn' as in 'increase my knowledge'--I can pretty much safely say I am not going to a 5 yr old to help me with.

I can learn everyday from Google or Wikipedia without having a 20 yr committment with no guarantee of success without the emotional rollercoaster ride and post-traumatic stress.

RavynG

You handled that really well - parents shouldn't "force" their babies on people like that. They should only give their babies to people who actively want them. Babies aren't toys or iPods!

I think it's natural for people in a situation to rationalize the situation. "I am learning because I am in situation X". It would be pretty unhealthy if they said every day "Man it sucks to be in this situation. I am going to focus on the sucky parts". So if someone was stuck in an awful school for example they could choose to gripe every day about the awful school - or they could look to see what they were learning from it and take solace in that.

So yes maybe she is learning patience, and how to make play-dough. She *could* be learning all sorts of other fascinating things with that time - but it would only make her unhappy to dwell on those things.

So I think you did the best thing you could. Help sympathize with her about how there are positive things in her life, and spend some time with her. Although to be honest, could she not get a babysitter so you guys could talk without having to care for the baby at the same time? The child is 5 right? Or does she have 2?