When my pediatrician asked the question I was caught off guard and answered “Yes”. Big mistake. She was so surprised by the honesty of my answer she actually stammered a bit and had to think of what to say next.
It completely derailed the meeting and wasted a lot of valuable time. Next time I get asked it will be a simple “No”.
It’s none of their business anyway. My understanding is the question gets asked because the organization of pediatricians (whatever it’s called) is very anti-gun and pushes for it.
I’m not offended either, we pulled my sister out of an abusive relationship, I’m glad they are asking. If even one person gets helped into a safe situation, it worth me answering the question.
Likewise, when we were asked about guns in the home, making our kids wear helmets on bikes, keeping them in carseats, how much soda they drink. and talking to them about drugs and sex. It’s an opportunity for parents who aren’t informed to become informed.
I lie to doctors about a few things. No need to get a lecture about something that I’m not going to change anyway. For example, I tell them I recently had a pap smear somewhere else (my current doctor’s office will NOT let that go though, they’re pap smear nazis. They call me up bugging me to make an appointment and when I lie that I’ll check my schedule and make an appointment later, they still urge me to do it right then, and when I say I already had one they ask where so they can get the records and when I say I don’t remember, they try to jog my memory…just leave me alone!).
I’m glad to hear that pediatricians ask about guns in the home though. I don’t remember if my daughter’s did or not because I don’t have one, so it would be a nonissue.
Since the Newtown shootings, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera has been publishing a daily item in his blog that lists a sampling of gun violence incidents reported in the media from around the country the prior day.
One of the sickening things is that it seems like every few days he lists an incident where a pre-schooler shoots and injures or kills himself with an unsecured handgun.
Here are the incidents of three- and four-year olds shooting themselves that he lists for the past two weeks, from among the reports of senseless violence (and not infrequent incidents of defensive firearm use) in his daily reports:
Undoubtedly the plural of anecdotes is not data, but when there is a published report of a toddler shooting himself every two or three days – not counting the numerous situations where small children are killed or wounded when teenagers or adults in the household use a firearm – it indicates at the very least that gun safety around children is a legitimate concern.
Well, you being you, they probably aren’t surprised somebody is beating you. Maybe they want to help next time.
I keed! But you’ve been here long enough to know you shouldn’t leave an obvious straight line like that hanging.
It’s an easy thing to not realise since in my experience dumb gun owners who don’t take appropriate precautions only exist in the third person. You could talk to a thousand gun owners and 100% of them would agree that 50% of gun owners other than themselves are irresponsible.
Hey, it just seemed like either that’s what you meant, or you were getting all moist and quivery for the idyllic days of the past when no women were ever beaten. We got guys around here like that, I don’t know if you’re one of them or not.
Is this true, or is an organization “anti-gun” just because the NRA says so? Meaning, do you have any evidence of the American Academy of Pediatrics being anti-gun?
Can I use “Debaser’s understanding” as a cite now? If I’m pushed for a cite on the number of civilians killed in drone attacks, can I just say “Well, it’s Debaser’s understanding that it is 2,324?” Or if I pull some conclusion out of my ass, can I just say “well, it’s Debaser’s understanding”?
This was my first thought also. The notion that you get a 7-minute appointment with your ped once a year is crazy - you need a new one. I think my kids get at least 20 minutes, usually 30, for their annual and have since they were born.
It never would’ve occurred to me to be a seemingly-basic safety related question, regardless of how much of a gimme the answer is. When both my kids were babies, their pediatrician asked me if I drank hot beverages. Clearly, she was telling me that coffee was unsafe and that I shouldn’t drink it. Maybe she even meant that I was fat and should lose weight because everyone knows that people put fattening things in their coffee. That bitch! How dare she try to press her anti-coffee, fat-hater views on me under the guise of ensuring that my kids didn’t scald themselves by pulling boiling hot things down on their heads.
Seriously, it’s a simple question. Is there something you own or do that could pose significant danger to your kid and are you aware of how to mitigate the danger? Some things just don’t occur to some people, no matter how much of a “duh” you think they are.
