I Can Fix That! (Lazy Parenting Style)

A few nights ago Elijah's arm hurt.  He kept getting out of bed to tell me so.  The first time he got up, I took a look at the offending spot, on the inside of his elbow.  Normally it's Rob's job to play doctor--since he is Dr. Thacker, you know--but Rob wasn't around.  So I tried to be as professional as possible as I bent Elijah's arm at the elbow, pressed on it, swiveled it, and asked him if it hurt when he did anything in particular.  No red flags were going up.  The area was red, though.  I spent a little time wondering what might be causing the redness.  Then Elijah hit his arm a few times.  Ah.  Yes.  That would do it.

"Why are you hitting your arm, Elijah?"
"Because it hurts."
"Well, don't do that."

I sent him back to bed.

A little while later he was wailing softly to himself.  Except it didn't end up being just to himself because he woke up his brother.  I wasn't happy.  I got him out of bed and told him to lay down on my bed so at least he wouldn't disturb his brother by his wailing.  Sensitive Mother to the rescue!  I advised him that the best thing to do would be to calm down and go to sleep.

Shockingly, he kept wailing to himself.  By this time I was looking at the clock, wondering if I could stall long enough for Rob to come home and take care of things.  I decided it would be too long to wait.  I'd have to come up with a solution myself.  (Again, bed time and medicine are Rob's areas of expertise.)  And I thought of it!

I got Elijah out of bed again and asked if he'd like some medicine to help with the pain.  Medicine fixes everything!  I sent him to the couch so he wouldn't see my sneak.  I got out the dosage cup and poured in some juice.  It's juice that Elijah doesn't like, so I knew he wouldn't recognize it.  I brought it to him and he gratefully drank it down.

"It tastes funny," he said.
"Medicine often does."

I sent him back to (my) bed.

There are all these studies about the power of placebos, and I was banking on that to work.  Clearly there wasn't anything Wrong with his arm.  But I was still feeling bad when he was crying 5 minutes later.  Then 10 minutes later.  Not enough time for even Tylenol to work, I told myself.  At the 15 minute mark, when I was re-thinking the whole placebo idea, he finally quieted down and went to sleep.

Whew.  Lazy Parenting works again!