The Queen's Rambles

*I just fired off an e-mail to the principal. Tonight I found out that Erik is the victim of bullying on the bus. Apparently a kid was slapping his face and holding him down. The kid also regularly pushes him, says mean things to him and “pretends to be a mean horse.” Last year I think I under reacted to the situation with his teacher, so I am trying to be more proactive this year. My e-mail was not an angry screed or anything. It was firm, but clear. It said that we needed to work together as a team because physical abuse was completely unacceptable. I know it is hard to control what happens on the bus, but my kid should not be getting slapped in the face. No way, no how.

And yes, I know Erik has a history of making things up. I tend to believe him in this case because I have heard of this kid before and the general consensus among adults is that he’s a very mean little bully. I know that means there is something awful going on in his own little life, but my kid is not going to be his punching bag while he works that out.

Whoever said “bigger kids, bigger problems” was so right.

*I am a big idiot sometimes. I have been using my food scale to measure things for my WW adventures. Not everything, thankfully, but the meat, cheese, and even a chocolate chip cookie. I thought my scale was set on ounces and that I just couldn’t see the decimal point. So when it said my cookie was 30, I thought that meant it was 3.0 ounces. For a reasonable amount of points I can have two small cookies that are .5 oz each. I could not figure out how the hell anyone could make a cookie that was 1/6 of the size of my cookie! And I sure as hell wasn’t going to use that many points on a damned cookie! Turns out my cookie was just 1 ounce. Big difference! I had enough points for one. Yum yum.

I had a much more satisfying meal tonight, with a lot more meat than I’ve been eating. What a difference! I can’t believe I really thought I was just too blind to see the decimal point.

No wonder I was so hungry. I was totally cheating myself out of quite a few points. I’ve been eating a ton of fruits and veggies, but was missing out on protein.

*There’s a lady in my social circle who skews towards crazy. I have come to accept her, but some of the things she says blow my mind. She’s Dutch, so when she does something strange she says “Well, that’s just how we do it in the Netherlands.” I want to tell her, that may be so but we are living in America. Great attidtude from a former immigrant, eh? Everyone thought I was crazy, too. I should have sympathy, but I don’t.

The last time we had an event she told us that ALL Dutch women have home births, no Dutch women take prenatal vitamins, and no Dutch people use Novocaine during a visit to the dentist.

She said all this with pride, like this somehow made the Dutch people superior, but all I could think was “what the hell? I didn’t know there were third world countries in that part of Europe.”

I had to do a little research because I just couldn’t believe it.

Turns out that the home birth rate has dropped to 24% because the Netherlands has one of the highest infant mortality rates of any developed country. The problem seems to lie in the midwives, not the home births. A study showed the higher mortality rate happened with women who delivered with a midwife, whether it is in the hospital or a home birth.

Women do take a small prenatal vitamin–folic acid only.

I am thinking I never want to go through a pregnancy in the Netherlands! I didn’t take my pre-natals like I should have because they made me so sick so I’m not sure how totally necessary they are, but the high infant mortality rate gives me pause. (Not that I ever want to go through another pregnancy no matter the country I’m in.)

And forget about dental care. I was gagging as I was reading complaints about dentistry over there. Apparently most dentists don’t use anesthesia, nor do they sterilize their instruments between patients.

So what should I say when this lady brings up the Dutch superiority again? And I know she will. Do I just ignore it like usual or say “You know, I’ve been doing some research. I guess now we know why the infant mortality rate is so high over there. And haven’t your dentists had any modern medical training?”

*I have chigger bites. Holy hell, they are itchy.

*The end.