Picket Fence Post

Okay, so I write about ABC’s Modern Family so much that people might wonder if I’m getting some kind of payment for mentioning it this often. And I do, with laughs.

The promo for next week’s Valentine’s Day themed episode features Claire and Phil, married parents of three,  doing a little risque role playing to spice things up . . . with unexpected consequences. Enjoy.

Item #1: ‘I Hear You’re Running an Infirmary’

That’s what one parent said to me after our second graders’ Valentine’s Day school show this morning. And he’s right, I have been running an infirmary. The Spouse has been sick, though he’s better now. The Eldest Boy stayed home from school on Monday with a cough, headache, low-grade fever combo, the same combo that had The Girl home from school for two-and-a-half days last week. (I sent her back to school one day, but the school had me pick her up at 11 a.m. saying she wasn’t well.)  The Youngest Boy, who spent many days holed up in our house after being diagnosed with a “breakthrough” case of chicken pox (he’d already been vaccinated,  though didn’t have a booster shot, who knew?), got the green light to return to school yesterday.

However soon after I woke up this morning, I began feeling slightly feverish and not quite right. I hope the minor cold symptoms end there, but I suppose this is what I get for running an infirmary and for hugging my patients.

Item #2: Don’t Talk to Me About the Octuplets

I really don’t want to talk about them, or their mother – who’s now a mother of 14 – or her infertility doctor, although I think most reasonable people can agree that the mother and the doctor who transferred all those embryos acted irresponsibly.

But amid all the name calling, the finger-pointing and the discussion about who’s going to pay for what, my thoughts keep gravitating back to those fragile little babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, as well as to their six older siblings whose lives will be turned upside-down once everyone’s living under the same roof. There are 14 children who are going to need a whole lot of care, regardless of how they or this situation came to be. So instead of treating this like a circus sideshow, where everyone attacks and mocks the adult players involved, I can’t help but see this as a sad story for the children whose needs, I hope, will be met, one way or another.

Item #3: I’m Anti-Valentine’s Day Like Risa

I am so with my Mommy Track’d colleague Risa Green when she said that she does not like Valentine’s Day because she thinks you should already be telling the people you love that you love them on a regular basis and shouldn’t require the Hallmark company and the nation’s florists telling us how to celebrate that love.

Her latest column focused on how her daughter’s glee in filling out valentines for her friends was turned into a major moment of decision when Risa told her that she had to give a valentine to a girl who had been mean to her. If she didn’t give a valentine to the mean girl, Risa told her, she wouldn’t be able to give one to anyone in her class. ”She countered with the fact that all the valentines said things like, ‘I Love You,’ and ‘Best Friends,” and ‘Be Mine’ and that if she gave this particular girl a card that said any of those things, it would be like lying,” Risa wrote.

While her daughter ultimately chose to make one for the mean girl, this kind of moment is one of the reasons why I don’t like what Valentine’s Day has become because it all feels forced an inauthentic, like compulsory Mother’s Day celebrations.

Last week, I wrote about how my two fourth graders have been asked to write, excuse me, type up, a two- to three-sentence compliment for every member of their class, including the kids who haven’t been nice to them or who have made fun of them. They, like Risa’s daughter, balked at the notion of having to write a compliment for everyone. Like Risa, I told them if they didn’t want to do the assignment, they didn’t have to do it. My suggestion to blow off the “compliment assignment” was met by both children with utter shock because to not complete it would mean there’d be some sort of notation made in their teachers’ ”Homework Book,” which apparently is very bad. And, like Risa’s daughter, they soldiered through it anyway and wrote out compliments to everyone, no matter how insincere or untrue.

Item #1: Pox Upon My House (Chicken Pox, That Is)

I thought we were all set. The Spouse and I both had chicken pox when we were children. All three of our offspring had received the chicken pox vaccine during their first year of life. But it wasn’t until my 7-year-old boy was diagnosed with chicken pox yesterday when I learned that, in order for the immunity to the disease to be maintained, physicians have determined that a booster shot of the vaccine is needed. And my kids hadn’t had them.

Since the pediatrician’s visit yesterday — where we were told that The Youngest Boy’s bout with chicken pox should be mild because he’s been vaccinated once — we’ve also had our twin 10-year-olds receive booster shots, even though there’s still a chance they too could develop chicken pox in the coming days if their immunities to the disease have diminished.

So I spent yesterday afternoon e-mailing and calling people with whom we’ve come in contact or who’ve visited our house in the past week or so, and informing them that my kid had chicken pox and that if they haven’t had it, haven’t been vaccinated or had a booster shot, they should be on the look out for suspicious red blemishes. It reminded me of the time when one of the children contracted lice from school, and kindly shared it with me, and I had to contact a ton of people to warn them . . . except I think the lice calls were harder and more embarrassing to make.

Item #2: ‘High School Musical’ Lunchbox Gets the Shaft

The Girl is a Disney Channel addict. She loves all things High School Musical and Hannah Montana. She adores the Jonas Brothers, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and The Wizards of Waverly Place. So it’s no surprise that her lunchbox bears an HSM logo and the likeness of the film series’ stars.

When I was packing her school lunch earlier this week, she asked me to put aside the HSM lunchbox and instead use a plain, navy, canvas lunch sack The Spouse got at some business conference and has the name of a law firm on the top. What changed her mind? She said she sits with boys at her lunch table who aren’t big Troy Bolton fans and would have (or already have?) made fun of her. I was surprised to find myself feeling just as disappointed as when she abandoned her Kim Possible lunch box in favor of the HSM gang. It’s one more step.

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