Flea's had some ongoing minor health concerns these past few months.
Yesterday was a long-awaited appointment with the paediatric consultant, and I was (to be honest) a bag of nerves. I always imagine in such situations that the consultant is clearly going to note that my child is malnourished, mentally scarred or otherwise damaged by my attempts at parenting, and I'm going to get 'told off'.
Of course, this being the NHS, there was a long wait for our appointment and Flea had read her school book in the first five minutes and needed to entertain herself.
So she did.
She found a copy of Lancashire Life magazine, opened it up to the food pages, carefully placed the magazine on the floor and announced, "I am a dog and I am going to eat my treats now, and then you have to tell me to stop eating treats or I will get poorly."
Then she crawled under the chairs and proceeded to pretend to eat from a magazine, scratch her ears and generally behave like a dog for the next 30 minutes.
I was relieved when finally the consultant popped his head round the door and called Flea's name. Or at least I was until I realised that Flea wasn't standing up. She was walking to the consulting room on all fours. And WOOFING a hello to the consultant.
The next 30 minutes was one of the longest half-hours of my life. The consultant and two student doctors watched as my daughter woofed and panted, and refused to move or comply with any request unless the consultant used the word 'paw' and 'leg' instead of 'hand' and 'arm'. While the consultant was palpating her tummy, my daughter stuck out her tongue and panted.
The good news is that Flea was judged to be "perfectly healthy and normal."
So I'm assuming that all five-year-olds do this sort of thing. Right?
Yeah.
(What you want to hear is going to be as helpful as anything else, I assume 🙂 )
I’m guessing I really shouldn’t be laughing at this, sorry!
It could be worse though, she could be a monkey
Ah but she’s been medically signed off so it MUST be normal.
If its any consolation at all, my 4-year-old son had his eyes tested again yesterday, whilst pretending to be a snake. Have you any idea how hard it is for a snake to have his eyes tested? For a start, snakes don’t speak, and my son insisted on flicking his tongue and hissing every 10 seconds. He also left the consulting room on his tummy, and slithered all the way through the waiting room. He stood up when I pointed out that snakes aren’t allowed in the shop, and don’t eat sweets.
He was a lion at the paediatricians the other week, has been a dog, a cat, and various Doctor Who monsters, including the day he was a Cyberman when getting a canula inserted, and kicked the doctor in the chin, making him bite through his tongue.
Apparantley (according to my health visitor, who came round to see my giraffge the other day) it shows a healthy and active imagination. Am still not sure if she was just saying that to make me feel better tho.
Perfectly normal with a side of fantastic imagination.
Really sorry Sally but that’s hilarious!! As is the snake trip. Brilliant. All perfectly normal – Jenni likes to be the dog too and is always panting, licking a plate or two and going round on all fours. Nowt wrong with that – she even wants to be a dog when she grows up.
Great news that everything was ok though – not such a bad day….
My four year old gave the GP a kiss goodbye on our last visit.
Baby Boy pretends to be a dog, and licks me. I don’t like being licked.
Absolutley brillaint and yes perfectly normal. Bog Boy is a dog most of the time esp when he comes to wake me up in the morning. I think he has learned I don’t get as cross with the dogs when they wake me up….
Well, you’re no use to me. Tsk.
That works. Thanks.
Or a snake!
That’s my thinking, too.
Oh, that is hysterical! Thanks for sharing, I feel about a million times better.
That sounds about right.
Hilarious! And perfectly normal, a sign of a very healthy imagination and sense of fun. Wish I’d been there to see it, I’d have been in stitches!
Yes, overall, I’m happy with a day like that.
Best comment EVER. I love it.
You say these things just to tease me, don’t you, Pippa?
She’s wonderfully creative and confident, isn’t she? And healthy! Just think of it as another opportunity to shed those pesky grown-up inhibitions… 😉
Smart boy!
The student doctors thought she was very funny, it has to be said.
Ah yes, good point. She really is very confident in some situations, it’s lovely to see.
When we went for the geekdaughter’s two and a half year development check there was a table set up with various toys for the kids to play with.
She went straight in, spotted the tea set, proceeded to make tea for all of us, and handed me mine saying “there you go Mummy, if you want some more you have to drink all of that first”.
The Health Visitor grinned at me and said “no problem with speech and vocabulary then!”.
If she’s as imaginative as Flea when she reaches 5 I will be a very proud Mummy indeed. You have a lovely daughter 🙂
Ha ha that’s excellent.
My 5y/o likes to be a dog too which I used to think was quite cute until he licked one of my friends when they came to visit! I was absolutely mortified and they haven’t been round since lol.
Aw, thanks, that’s a lovely thing to say!
Absolutely – although I hope he was okay in the washing machine!
Hmm. The teachers at Flea have forbidden her from licking. One day we were playing and I licked her, and she told me off! “Mummy, licking spreads germs, you know…”
Only just read this *chuckles* she is a funny kid, bless her! I would rather have a child doing that than throwing and screaming.She has a great imagination and you should be proud of that.
I’ve just stumbled upon this post…and it has made me giggle. I’m actually astounded at the level of imagination and intelligence to carry the ‘role’ through. I think you have a very, very clever girl there :)Brilliant xx