I'm going to let you in on a secret; I vaccinate Goose and Roux. Shhh...don't tell anyone. I don't have the energy to debate with the other Mommies. I could argue that both of them received the full intensity of my attachment parenting bonanza; co-sleeping, extended breastfeeding, baby-led weaning...the whole kit and caboodle. With Roux I even got more intense: *queue creepy music* she had an adjusted vaccination schedule. But I'm too tired to debate these things anymore; raise your littles your way, and I'll raise mine my way. Live and Let Live. Or Live and Leave me the heck alone...whichever is easier.
So, onto the point of this post. Today is officially the first day of flu shots in grand old Quebec; I get mine for free at work [one bonus the Big Green gives us along with our five sick days], so I left work early to bring the Goose and Roux to the drop in flu shot clinic down the street. Now, I don't do crowds, or germs really...but once a year I forgo my hangups and drag my littles to get shot full of attenuated flu virus.
Now I had confirmed with the provincial health folks earlier in the afternoon that this clinic was walk in only and ran until seven thirty so I figured if we arrived at four thirty that left us plenty of time...according to the big, burly security guard that barred our entrance I was very, very wrong.
Upon arriving in the subzero temperature in the growing darkness [and trying desperately to ignore Roux' demand that we play in the adjacent park instead] the big, angry man informed me that the clinic was only accepting people with appointments and I could come back tomorrow. Now, being a perfectly rational beaver I informed him that I had taken time off work, taken my littles out of school early and been told by the provincial health folks that I was able to attend this clinic. I refused to leave. I repeated my three points, again. And again. More people queued up behind me. They seemed to agree with my three points [most of them having brought their own littles]. I requested that I speak with somebody else [I'm Canadian we hate to be rude], several times...and refused to leave. Eventually he gave up and brought out a volunteer. I explained the situation and my trinity of arguments, and repeated it, twice.
As more and more people were gathering around me [including an absolutely sweet lady about to start chemo] her teen aged son and I figured it out. It was like a Jedi mind trick...they kept repeating 'We don't have appointments' but then people would arrive saying they had appointments, at which point they would add 'Unless you have an appointment', but when we requested appointments for tomorrow they repeated 'We don't have appointments'.
Eventually the head nurse came outside and repeated their strange mantra 'We don't have appointments' while still allowing people flashing their not-appointment cards into the building 'Unless you have an appointment'. No solution was reached and the littles and I went home. Attenuated virus-less.
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