mickeym

Update on the sunburn: it's actually a lot worse than I initially thought. I mean, it's healing now, not as bad as it was Thursday evening/night, but if I had to guesstimate, I'd put it at somewhere between first and second degree burn, probably edging close to the second degree. At least along his shoulders and at the top of his back. I noticed tonight, probably because I made him kneel down so it was easier to put lotion on him, that the skin there is actually bubbled a little. Not full-on blistered, but damn close, and I'll be keeping a close eye on it. Meanwhile he's taking cool showers, and we're alternating solarcaine and lotion applications, and alternating tylenol and advil, and the kid is probably close to drowning, I'm pushing so much water and gatorade on him. He's sleeping a lot, too, which is good. (It kind of freaked me out Friday, he LAID DOWN FOR A NAP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AFTERNOON. O_O)

I told him it's critical that he stay out of the sun probably for the next week, because any more burn on top of what he has probably would result in blisters. "So?" he asked, and I told him blisters can break and leave exposed raw skin/open sores, which can lead to infection. He didn't like the sound of that. He also didn't argue with me, so I think...maybe...he's learned a lesson from this.

Also, the job interview went well enough (have I mentioned lately how much I loathe group interviews? Or committee, whatever they're called? Ugh). I have another one Monday, different office (different county, even).

We talked about racism and discrimination, and how the two are related but that discrimination is a much broader-based thing, covering things like gender discrimination, or religious discrimination, or size discrimination (weight). He wanted to know what the difference was, and I told him that people discriminate against others for any number of things, but racism is discrimination/dislike/etc based on race. I know there's likely more in-depth discussions there, but with Matthew it's best to start with very simple concepts, and then build them up.

We talked a lot about the whole genital cutting thing, which somehow led to me explaining what 'intersexed' meant, and how people are scared of things they're uninformed about, and how many people are very uncomfortable with anything different than their ideal of 'normal'. He asked why parents of intersexed children don't wait until their children are older -- or grown up -- to explore surgical options (if anyone is ever bored on a Friday night, I challenge you to sit in a car in a drive-thru lane, trying to explain to a kid who has trouble with "concepts", exactly why some people are born with both male and female sex organs and how they might be surgically turned into one, while remaining the other).

That conversation led to a discussion about foreskins and circumcision, and why/why not. I told him if I were having a boy baby today, now, I wouldn't have him circumcised. That I did so when he was born because his dad was, and it was presented to us (and probably every other new set of parents) as a "you're going to do this, right", not a "do you want to do this?"

THAT led to discussing the power doctors/the medical professionals have, the influence they have on the people they see (which allowed me to tie it back to the gender reassignment surgery and the genital cutting), and how information (or lack of) is a powerful thing--and how much more I know now than I did pre-internet.

In any case, it's been an interesting week of discussions with my kid, and while I am thrilled I can share this stuff with him and expand his horizons and viewpoints, it makes me kind of sad that I didn't have that when I was his age. My parents aren't bad people by any means, but they are definitely products of their generation, and I'm not sure racism or discrimination were ever topics we discussed -- and certainly never anything that might've dealt with sex, or sex organs, and the like.

And now I think I should go to bed for a while, as it's nearly 7am. *g*