trip to the Plunket nurse

Quincy finally had his three-year check with the Plunket nurse today.

Here Plunket offers well-checks and looks after kiddos until they're five, ensuring they are reaching milestones and growing properly, and also offering (often unsolicited) parenting advice. This is a free service. It is a good service. Really. Especially when they are babies, I found. When they get sick, you take them to your GP.

Depending on your Plunket nurse, it's easy to leave feeling like you are doing an inadequate job as a parent. They have very specific things they want to cover at each different appointment and are pretty much all business. If all the right boxes are ticked, you might get a compliment.

We weren't in the room but 30 seconds and she requested that he sing her a song. Not surprisingly he declined. Luckily I had been forewarned that she asks them where they live, so he redeemed himself pretty quickly.

She asked him to draw a picture of my face. I had no idea what he would do, as I have never asked him to draw anything specific. I was surprised that he actually included a mouth, nose, and eyes. The fact that they weren't anywhere near the circle didn't seem to worry her. Shwew!

He sailed through the object counting and letter matching, but disappointed her big time by not completing the never-ending eye test. He did well on the right eye, but after a while, the novelty of the eye patch wore off and it was irritating the heck out of him. In his book it's written, "Left eye: incomplete. He grew bored."

We were told to floss. Really? I have a hard enough time getting him to keep his mouth open to give his teeth a quick brush.

Last up...ball bouncing and catching. He held out his arms with a big smile and wide eyes, but managed to miss every time. It was a small ball, I tell ya! The last time he picked up the ball he quietly talked about the fact that the ball was actually the world. If given the chance, he could have identified about 20 countries. Instead, she turned and said, "You see what you have to work on, right Mum?"

Let's just say, I was very surprised to read in my book later that "I should be very proud of our accomplishments." Don't get me wrong, there were a few kind words and compliments thrown our way during the visit, but, when it comes to your child, those are too easily overshadowed by even the smallest criticisms. Fortunately, I am confident enough in my parenting to take it all for what it's worth. Really.