sueeeus

While I’m on the subject of memory lane.

One thing an ex used to say. “I paid my dues.”

As if a few years of self-sacrifice entitle one to a lifetime free of any further responsibility.

Hello? What are dues? Life is responsibility. It doesn’t stop until we’re dead. How is it that there comes to be a roof over one’s head, food on one’s plate, a shirt on one’s back?

As parents, we provide these things for our children. When they are grown, off they go to provide these for themselves and for their children. It’s the way of the world.

Grow up.

Ever the hard-nosed biddy.

I marvel at those people who think the world, or somebody, owes them something. I wonder where they get that notion, and so deeply embedded at that.

I generally don’t understand the whole influenza inoculation buzz that surfaces every fall. I decided to get the shot, one year, several years ago. I then proceeded to get sick. Very sick. Sicker than I’d been in a very, very, very long time. There are many who will say it’s only a coincidence and one can’t get flu from the shot because the virus is dead. However. I was very sick. With flu. The other argument is that the shot can’t address all strains. Well, if there are a bazillion strains, what good is it to guess at which one is or will be prevalent? It seems like a shot in the dark. So I don’t get vaccinated for flu any more.

Being a mother, I now feel a bit guilty about it. As though I have a parental obligation to have my youngster inoculated.

I’m torn.

He has relatively low exposure to the outside world at this point. The daycare kids currently don’t have elder siblings circulating in school, collecting and transmitting all manner of microscopic ickiness. He plays hard and gets lots of fresh air. He eats well (in general). He is robust. I’m not planning to take him in for a shot. But I’m feeling guilty about it.