True Story...

So let's say a Psychiatrist and a Pharmacist have a child, let's call her "Princess". (That sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn't it? come up with a punch line...) And she is loved and spoiled and a fairly well-adjusted child, but she really doesn't handle pain very well. Not emotional or physical. In fact, while she is never at the center of any of the social posturing or cliquish nastiness that goes on, she feels all of the emotion of it pretty deeply, and has been known to sob uncontrollably when one of her friends gets their feelings hurt. So imagine how much worse it is if she gets her feelings hurt. And even worse than that, imagine when she actually feels physical pain! And its possible that right now she is, as many children her age do, going through a growth spurt. One of those that makes your bones ache a little because your body can hardly keep up with the growing it is doing. (Do you remember those? They may have been years ago, but there was some ache that came with growing) And that sweet sensitive princess can hardly stand it when there is a little ache here or perhaps a twitch there. And she does tend to feel things more with her sweet heart than any child I have ever known. So when her bones start to ache a little I have learned as many teachers and parents do that a bandaid, despite the absence of an abrasion, will cure many ills. And when Daddy came to collect his Princess, she proudly showed him the bandaid that cured her growing pains, and the teacher sheepishly stood aside and made a joke about the placebo affect, hoping that Dr Parents wouldn't be entirely offended by such ingenuity. And Daddy said oh so sincerely "Yes, we'll have to take some medicine for that tonight. Princess has a prescription for obecalp at home, don't you Princess?"

"Yes, it's yummy! It looks like water and it tastes like water, so its not yucky like some medicine. But it makes me feel better!"

And they left. And teacher laughed and laughed and laughed. Because I do know what obecalp is (spelled backwards) and it's nice to know that even smart doctor-y type people with healthy normal well-adjusted children use the same tricks of the trade. Sometimes I worry about the kids in this classroom. But this one, I'm sure she will be just fine.