Yesterday afternoon my son said to me, “Mom, Johnner broke his nose.”

I asked him how; he told me that he managed to knee himself in the face while jumping on a trampoline. A few hours later there is a knock on my door and it is John, John is 16 or so, and his nose is swollen to twice its normal size.

He looks at me and asks me “What do you think of this?” while pointing at his face and I, in turn, look at him and tell him that it’s most definitely broken. He then tells me that his mother is refusing to take him to the hospital even though his nose has been bleeding off and on for about 6 hours at this point.

I could hear and audible change in his voice from the internal swelling of his nose, his nose was at least twice bigger, there was blood in the back of his throat, under his eyes were starting to bruise and swell; how? How can a mother not see the need for medical advice/ intervention?

I will never comprehend those who sluff off on getting proper medical care for their children. Hell we live in Canada, we have socialized health care, it isn’t going to cost you anything more than perhaps a cab fare to get the kid seen and still there are parents here who act like their ill or hurting children are nothing more than a nuisance.

Maybe because his mother works in a hospital ( not a doctor or nurse BTW) that she thinks she knows a broken nose when she sees one, but I do know a broken nose when I see one, having a son that broke his three times in a year , and that kids nose was BROKEN but good!
I don’t even want to imagine the force with which the boy kneed himself in the face on the trampoline, but I digress…

This is the third time in a month where a neighbor child has come to me so that I could convince their mother (parents) to take them to a doctor, the first being my eldest sons girlfriend, she had an eye infection and her parents weren’t listening. The second being my third sons girlfriend, she had a strep infection so bad that it was starting to distort her face with swelling and now the third last night with a very visibly broken nose.

I can’t help but want to go and bitch slap the parents.

They are not nuisances, they are your children. Children that you opted to bring into the world and I’m sorry if their illnesses and accidents go against your grain or don’t fit into your schedule, DEAL WITH IT!

I’m sorry if you don’t have a car, or if you just worked a midnight shift, your child is still your child, is sick or hurting and still needs you regardless.

I have just about had it with people neglecting and shunning their responsibilities. I have 4 sons and that means I got to spend a ton of time in doctors offices and emergency rooms and even though it wasn’t my favorite place to be, the health and welfare of my children always comes first.

And now, since I am writing this in the early hours of the morning, I must sit and wait… sit and wait and worry about a child that I didn’t birth, wondering…

Wondering did she take him to the ER? 
Did she make him go to sleep last night without him being seen by a medical professional?
Did he even sleep or was he in too much pain?

And don’t even get me started on the worrying about him choking on the blood pooling in his throat…

Sometimes it’s hard for me, because I do appreciate my children and I appreciate other people’s children and I get so deeply hurt when a child suffers…