Eden is feeling ill. Yesterday a girl in her class threw up on her desk, so when Eden came into my room at 4 am I wasn't exactly surprised. She is laying in the bed next to me right now watching Disney on the ipad and laughing out loud.I have not doubt that Eden will throw up tonight. And tomorrow she will drink soda pop and watch TV and the next day she will be back to play. This is my privileged view of illness.
But at four in the morning I am more likely to think worst case scenario then base line. What if we get sick abroad?
Protecting my kids ranks pretty high on my priority list. It is right up there with breathing. So vaccinating my kids against some of the worlds greatest killers is a no-brainer. I know a lot of people who feel differently about vaccines. And I know they have the same mama bear love for their kids.
But I wonder if in America we have forgotten what these bad diseases are. There was a beggar who sat on a cardboard box just outside of the YWCA in Dar es Salaam. His legs were twisted in on themselves and he carried himself on his hands swinging his useless legs beneath him. The orange flip flops with hand prints sat next to him on the sidewalk and he held up a bowl when I walked by. This is what Polio looks like to me.
We have monsters among us. And they are not to be trifled with. So I've made an appointment with the local travel clinic to get the full range of vaccines for our trip. I know vaccines aren't perfect and many of the disease that we face have no vaccine.
So why don't I just stay home? After all the chances of my kids getting yellow fever in Salt Lake City are virtually zip. As much as I want to make my kids safe I also want them to know how to be safe. You are safe when you have put yourself in a position without risks. You can be safe when you are in risk but you navigate it. Safe isn't something that happens to you. It is something you do.
When you try to make your world safe things shrink in on you. You can not leave the country, or leave your house, or your saferoom and things will still be dangerous. There are risks in everything, even being safe. The problem is the risks of being safe are less obvious than the risks of taking chances. But if you can learn to be safe then the world expands. You start to see yourself as more capable and you can push out.
I force my kids to walk to friends houses even though it makes me the "WORST MOM EVER" (Sam Lyman, 2014, Strange Guy At Canyonlands, 2012) because I want my kids to know that they can be safe. They are not an object that is acted on and needs to be surrounded by cushion safety. They are a smart and capable person and they can (in age appropriate ways) navigate their own world. I don't want fear to govern how my children see the world. I want world-proof the child not child proof the world. "Yes", I tell my kids, "The world is a scary dangerous place. But you are wicked capable and you don't need to let the things out there determine your life."
This is a scary thing for me to do. And honestly, I would love to wrap my kids up in bubble wrap. But second only to my desire to protect my children is my desire for them to make a contribution to this beautiful life. That means I vaccinate and teach them as best I can and then I give them the world.
But at four in the morning I am more likely to think worst case scenario then base line. What if we get sick abroad? Protecting my kids ranks pretty high on my priority list. It is right up there with breathing. So vaccinating my kids against some of the worlds greatest killers is a no-brainer. I know a lot of people who feel differently about vaccines. And I know they have the same mama bear love for their kids.
But I wonder if in America we have forgotten what these bad diseases are. There was a beggar who sat on a cardboard box just outside of the YWCA in Dar es Salaam. His legs were twisted in on themselves and he carried himself on his hands swinging his useless legs beneath him. The orange flip flops with hand prints sat next to him on the sidewalk and he held up a bowl when I walked by. This is what Polio looks like to me.
We have monsters among us. And they are not to be trifled with. So I've made an appointment with the local travel clinic to get the full range of vaccines for our trip. I know vaccines aren't perfect and many of the disease that we face have no vaccine.So why don't I just stay home? After all the chances of my kids getting yellow fever in Salt Lake City are virtually zip. As much as I want to make my kids safe I also want them to know how to be safe. You are safe when you have put yourself in a position without risks. You can be safe when you are in risk but you navigate it. Safe isn't something that happens to you. It is something you do.
When you try to make your world safe things shrink in on you. You can not leave the country, or leave your house, or your saferoom and things will still be dangerous. There are risks in everything, even being safe. The problem is the risks of being safe are less obvious than the risks of taking chances. But if you can learn to be safe then the world expands. You start to see yourself as more capable and you can push out.
I force my kids to walk to friends houses even though it makes me the "WORST MOM EVER" (Sam Lyman, 2014, Strange Guy At Canyonlands, 2012) because I want my kids to know that they can be safe. They are not an object that is acted on and needs to be surrounded by cushion safety. They are a smart and capable person and they can (in age appropriate ways) navigate their own world. I don't want fear to govern how my children see the world. I want world-proof the child not child proof the world. "Yes", I tell my kids, "The world is a scary dangerous place. But you are wicked capable and you don't need to let the things out there determine your life."
This is a scary thing for me to do. And honestly, I would love to wrap my kids up in bubble wrap. But second only to my desire to protect my children is my desire for them to make a contribution to this beautiful life. That means I vaccinate and teach them as best I can and then I give them the world.
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