I don't really know what to do....it's our first fight

Ladies and gentlemen I hoped this day would  never come.  I hoped that I could to through the rest of my life with just the lovey-dovey feelings I've told you about but the day has come and I don't know what to do.

24 Hour Fitness and I are in a fight.

Let me tell you what happened so that you can commiserate with me and leave me comments about how insensed you are too.

On Monday as the hubbs and I were getting Claire ready so that we could take the hubbs to the airport the hubbs leaned over to me as he was putting on her shoes and said, "Have you seen this?"  He then points out a little thing that looks like a pimple on Claire's ankle.  I had not seen it but as I'm looking I notice that she has another one on the side of her foot.  We talked about it for a minute and the hubbs says, "sometimes I get little blisters like that when my feet get too hot" and we continue on our merry way to the airport.  After the airport Claire and I head straight to the gym where we stay for about an hour.  After we're home I take her shoes off and notice another little blister on her other foot.

I panic.  I then carefully examine her feet and find three little red marks on the sole of her foot.  A couple of our friends have recently had hand, foot and mouth disease (HFM) and I know that it's making it's way around two of the housing complexes in this neighborhood.  I hit the internet and look up pictures and sure enough, the little marks on Claire's foot look like the pictures on the internet so we buckle down and I get prepared to spend a week at home.  I call a friend who's kids had it and she tells me exactly what her Dr told her.  It's a virus and there's nothing you can do and they are contagious for 48 hours.  I email anyone who has had contact with Claire to let them know they should be on the lookout and then I call 24 Hour Fitness to tell them the same thing and tell them that they probably need to Lysol down the kid's club to be safe.  I also canceled a Dr's appointment and the babysitter and hunker down for the week.

Well the week rolls on and nothing happens to Claire.  The 3 blisters on her feet and the 3 red marks on her sole don't expand--there aren't more of them, she just seems fine.  There's a chance she had it but really I think that she just had a heat rash on her feet--though to be safe we stayed away from kids for the 48 hours that HFM is contagious.

And here's where the fight begins.  Today I got a call from one of the managers at 24 (who is a very nice girl and who I really do like) and she says, "So, how's Claire." I just say that Clarie is feeling better because getting into the whole false alarm thing didn't seem like a great idea. And she says, "great.  I'm so glad.  So...I was wondering, do you think you could bring a Dr's note to the gym when you come back to tell us that she's okay?" 

I told her "No Way" and I start getting mad.

She said, "well...we're just trying to figure out how we can not tell everyone who it was."

I then explain to her that it is a common childhood virus and that there is nothing a Dr can do.  I tell her that it is contagious for 48 hours and that we have not been back to the gym in 4 days just so that we could be sure.  She sort of mumbled and said, "okay.  See you tomorrow."

I've hashed through this a couple of times with my mom (oh my poor mother having to hear this insignificant story all day long) and here's why I'm mad.

I was really trying to be responsible.  I didn't have to call to tell them what happened but I was trying to keep the other kids safe.  Then, after I had tried to be totally honest and responsible she calls thinking that I'm going to try to sneak Claire into the gym before she's totally well.

When I first hung up the phone my thought was, "That makes me not want to be honest and tell them when Claire is sick."

My second thought was what kind of witch-hunt is waiting for me when I get back to the gym.  I imagine all kinds of parents thinking there is some conspiracy and getting ready keep their kids from getting anywhere near that mom who would take a sick kid to the gym.  Really that's not what happened.  It was an honest mistake and I tried to take care of it the best I could.

So here is what I am going to tell myself before I go to bed and before I go to the gym tomorrow (where I will not take Claire just because if there are witch hunters waiting with pitch forks I'm much more nimble when I don't have her on my hip)

The Paradoxical Commandments*

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.


- Kent M. Keith


Be honest and frank anyway...be honest and frank anyway.

*a copy of these hung in Mother Teresa's Orphanage and thanks to a kind friend they also hang in my living room