Kids | Redhead Ranting

What Is Ringworm?

Filed under Ex#2, Kids, WTF? by Jen on December 13, 2011 at 2:12 pm {5 comments}

What is ringworm*? I’ll tell you what ringworm is. It’s the reason my kid has been home for the last four days and the reason your kid came home with a note only slightly less better than the lice note.

Thankfully we are not the lice family but ringworm is a very close second.

What is ringworm?

Until a week and a half ago I was merrily living my life never having Googled “What is ringworm” and “images of ringworm”. Life may not have been easy but it was less complicated before the dreaded ringworm made its way into my lexicon.

It all started a few weeks ago when I noticed a little red mark on my daughter’s wrist. She had a small, red circle on the top of her wrist and while she said it didn’t hurt, itch or otherwise bother her it tickled the back of my brain.

You know that feeling you get when you know something but can’t for the life of you remember what it is? I had that feeling about her rash but it wasn’t coming to me. I knew there was something familiar about the circular pattern on the top of her wrist but having had Lyme’s disease twice now and knowing full well that her rash was not the bullseye so common with Lyme’s disease I ignored that nagging part of my brain that said I should be paying attention.

One week later the ex and I took the daughter to the pool to try out for placement in swimming lessons. There, dressed in a Hello Kitty bathing suit that was a tad too small for her was not one circle rash but two. Now, the daughter was sporting one on her neck as well as her wrist, which was now much bigger.

The ex said it looked like ringworm to him. Me, knowing so much more than he could ever hope to know, blew off that crazy idea because our daughter does not have worms. Surely it must be something else. The ex husband, knowing it isn’t wise to argue with me, didn’t.

Does ring worm mean you have worms?

Yes, I thought having ringworm meant having worms. When we found our beloved Reuben I brought him to the vet to get de-wormed and was surprised when he pooped out spaghetti when I knew he hadn’t eaten any. I knew that our daughter did not have worms.

Until that nagging voice in my head kept itching at me. It was saying something like “you know, he has been right before” and “he isn’t always wrong” so I asked Google what the heck was on her wrist by searching for the term “what does ringworm look like”.

It’s not pretty.

After being diagnosed by Dr. Google I called the doctor to schedule an appointment. I didn’t think we really needed one, I knew what it was now, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to nab a prescription simply on Google’s say so. The doctor took one look at my daughter’s wrist and neck and prescribed me gobs of cream because apparently ringworm takes a long time to go the fuck away.

School and the note about ringworm

The St. Paul Public Schools don’t like ringworm (can you blame them) and they insists that the horrible skin affliction be covered – securely- at all times on school property. It is also their mission to make sure the afflicted child is reminded to wash their hands every five minutes. The child doesn’t need to get The Note that is passed out during class, the one meant to warn but that really scares the other parents that their children have been exposed to a dreaded disease and now it is too late to prevent the passing of said disease so really all that is left to do is panic and wash everything in the home that has every been touched – rash or not.

Yes, we are the family with the ringworm. I don’t know where it came from but I have been told to check the animals for it (none of them have any rash that I can see). She is not the only child in the school with ringworm, there is another one in a higher grade whom she does not know. How she got ringworm, I don’t know. All I know is, it’s not lice.

*The term ringworm or ringwormsrefers to fungal infections that are on the surface of the skin. The name is derived from the early belief that the infection was due to a worm, which it is not. Ringworm is a fungal infection in the skin. Nevertheless, the name ringworm remains. Some of these fungi produce round spots on the skin, but many do not. On the other hand, many round, red spots on the skin are not due to a fungal infection. - Medicine.net

Ringworm (vetdepot.com)
What can I do about a recurring ringworm problem? (zocdoc.com)
How do you get rid of ringworm without prescription cream or pills? (zocdoc.com)
Keshya Williams: Hard to prove child got ringworm at day care (tcpalm.com)
Simple home remedy for Ringworm (prophet666.com)

(If you enjoyed this article, please consider giving it a ‘thumbs up’ on Stumble and sharing it on Facebook)

Minnesota’s Children of the Corn

Filed under Doing Things Differently, Ex Husbands, Ex#2, Kids, Things I Really Like by Jen on October 11, 2011 at 8:37 pm {12 comments}

Ex#2 and I took the daughter to the Shafer Corn Maze this weekend. It seemed like a fun, family outing when I suggested it and obviously the others agreed because they were game to go.

Normally this time of year, I am gearing up to start complaining about the cold. Not this year. This year in Minnesota the weather has been so lovely I’ve completely confused the seasons. It’s been in the 80s this past week in Minnesota.I am sure it is really spring and summer is just about to begin.

Usually by mid October the less sturdy of us have already given in and turned on the heat at night. This past weekend I was bitching at myself for taking out the window air conditioning units too soon.

I’m loving this weather. It’s ruining my blogging and my relationships but I am totally loving this weather. I walk around with a smile on my face, I have nothing to complain about and most importantly Xcel Energy can suck it because I get at least one more energy bill this season where I won’t have to sell a kidney to pay for my heat!!

So I was all jazzed about going to the corn maze for an afternoon of adventure.

The deal with the Shafer Corn Maze is that you go through one of the mazes (they have three) and try to figure out the whodunit they created.

Basically it’s like Clue. At least that’s what the woman in the little ticket stand said as she passed me three cards that needed to be hole punched at each check point.

It seemed like an easy enough thing to do – find 6 check points, mark the card with the hole punch at each one and then figure who did what.

The whole who did what aspect of the maze was lost on me and my daughter. Ex#2 didn’t even bother to understand it. He spent most of the time walking through the maze telling me that what was missing was motivation. You see, he wasn’t motivated to find all six check points because he knew there wouldn’t be beer at the end. Now if they had a keg at each check point, he said, things would be different.

But we live in Minnesota and you can’t sell, or otherwise distribute, beer in the middle of a corn field. This is too bad because the Shafer Corn Maze is pretty cool. It’s a huge maze, cut well and they have a bunch of activities outside of the cornfield.

The Shafer Corn Maze is also just a stone’s throw from the Wisconsin border and I am pretty sure the corn mazes there offered beer.

Even without beer we pressed on for two of the check points. No one had a clue who did what to whom and no one cared. Both the ex and the daughter were bored and wanted out of the maze.

I tried to convince both of them, but especially the daughter, that this was a lot of fun and when we were through the maze we could say we accomplished something for the day. Of course the whole time they were complaining I was wondering how we were going to find our way out of the maze. I had my phone so I was pretty sure if we got lost in the corn maze the police or whoever finds idiots who can’t find their way out of a corn maze, could track me, I mean us. Thankfully, I was not that woman who got lost in the corn maze. However, I totally understand how it could happen.

Neither of them cared about accomplishing anything but getting out of the maze. Normally I would have pressed both of them to finish the damn maze. It cost $21 for the three of us to walk 2 miles through the stupid maze and dammit we were going to have a good time doing it.

Normally that’s what I would have done. After seeing this, I thought better of it.

(If you enjoyed this article, please consider giving it a ‘thumbs up’ on Stumble and sharing it on Facebook)

I Have Child Induced ADD

Filed under Ex#2, Kids, Send Jen on a Vacation, Things that piss me off by Jen on July 27, 2011 at 11:29 am {19 comments}

I do. I have child induced Attention Deficit Disorder which means I can’t focus on one task for more than a few minutes at a time. I’m not ashamed to admit I have this disorder, most mothers do. Scratch that, all mothers have child induced ADD.

It starts during gestation, though we don’t notice the degree of the disorder until after birth. In the beginning, during pregnancy, it’s innocent enough. You get excited about bringing a new child into the world, picking out cute little baby clothes, when to tell your boss, when to go back to work, if you go back to work. These thoughts take up a huge part of the brain during pregnancy though they are completely overshadowed by the worry that comes with being a new parent. Worry that no one warns you about because if we knew about all the worry that comes with parenting no one would have kids. Add to that all the strangers who start touching your belly, asking you personal questions about breast feeding and the inevitable changes in your body that take place, it’s no wonder we can’t focus on our work.

After the child comes it’s nothing but constant distraction. Even once we are finished with the toddler stage of childhood and they can actually do things for themselves we still are constantly interrupted with stupid questions such as “what is the dog thinking now?”, “Why can’t I use a Sharpie to paint my nails?” and “Where is the hamster?!?!?”.

We might have come a long way baby but if you are a mother who works outside the home you don’t wonder why you get paid less than your male counterparts. You know why.

I know, them is fighting words, but the truth is men don’t worry about their kids when they are at the office like women do. And children don’t bother their fathers nearly as much as they do their mothers. If you are a mother and you work outside the home you know you get at least five calls or texts a day asking for something like money, to go somewhere, to do something or to tattle on a sibling. If you are a father you only get a call when something big happens like a broken leg or the house is on fire. And both of those calls usually come from the mother and not the child.

I’m not suggesting we aren’t productive, we just aren’t as productive as we could be because half our brain is worrying about the call that is coming. And, when the call doesn’t come we worry about that and call them.

Case in point: My ex husband, ex#2, picked up our daughter on Monday to take her to the pool so I could get some work done. He hadn’t had her in his possession for more than an hour before I got a call from him asking me what was in her teeth.

WTF?

I didn’t know what is in her teeth, scrape it off with a toothpick, I suggested. He said he had tried, that it was like cement and he couldn’t get it off. I don’t know what he expected me to do about the stuff in her teeth. I couldn’t see it (not even in the picture he texted me), I didn’t know what it was and as far as I was concerned she was on his time and he should be able to handle this.

Now he is not a stupid man, he isn’t prone to hysterics, though she is and I could hear her getting panicky in the background. I suggested it was time for a teeth cleaning at the dentist and didn’t think much more of it. He called me back several times to ask me what it was.

“It’s epoxy” he said, somewhat accusingly.

I don’t have epoxy, I use Elmer’s glue for all of my adhesive needs, and if I did I doubt that my 8 year old daughter would go to the basement or garage, where it would be stored, mix it together and then apply it to her teeth. Sure, she has done some questionable things in her short life but she has been warned ad nauseum to stay out of the cleaning products, and to not but things in her mouth that weren’t food. Hell, she won’t even put vegetables in her mouth, I can’t see her putting epoxy in it.

I got 7 calls within two hours about the epoxy in her mouth. I was so frustrated I told him to take her to the ER if he was so concerned. Mind you I am sure it is just tartar or plague on her teeth and I made a mental note to set up an overdue dental appointment. He told me he was going to make some calls and handle it. Why he couldn’t have done that before calling me 7 times we will never know.

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what was on her teeth. I Googled it, I asked all my friends if they knew what it might be, and of course they didn’t because they couldn’t see it anymore than I could. The point is now that I knew about the epoxy on the teeth I had to search my home to see if I actually had any epoxy which is like trying to prove a negative. Just because I don’t think I have any, and because I didn’t see any when I tore the house up looking for it doesn’t mean it isn’t somewhere in the house. She could have found some, smeared it on her teeth and then hid it because she knew she would cause all this trouble when she realized she couldn’t get it off her teeth.

Needless to say I didn’t get a whole lot of work done on Monday.

And that’s when the kids are gone. When they are here I can’t focus on a task for more than a few minutes because I need to be updated with the status of Justin Beiber’s relationship with Selena Gomez and then I need to be convinced that I am getting this news not because someone is jealous. Then there is the constant getting of things that are placed out of reach for safety’s sake. Scissors are stored above the fridge because I worry about my children running with scissors. If the scissors are stored in a place where the kids can reach then I just know they will spend the day running with them and holding them the wrong way. I have to constantly get up and monitor the scissor usage.

Guinea pigs are routinely placed on my desk while I am working.

Yesterday morning my son’s girlfriend stopped over. My son is 18 and his girlfriend is 19. I tell you their ages because they are both taller than me and can reach anything in the house that they might need. Everyone was eating cereal and I asked her if she had had breakfast yet knowing full well she had not. I offered her some cereal and started toward the kitchen to get the bowl down and pour the milk. I stopped myself and said she was a big girl and could do both of those things on her own without my assistance.

As mothers we grow accustomed to taking care of people. We cut their meat, we pour the milk, we do all those things because when they are little they can’t do those things. But, they do grow and they learn how to pour the milk without spilling.

School starts in about a month, 43 days to exact, and I can’t wait, but I know that it will take me at least three days to grow accustomed to them not being here, and I will still get up from my desk every five minutes because it has just become a habit.