Hugs are not free. Not at this house anyways. I have come to realize that it costs me an average of 6 cents per hug which is in direct correlation to the average of cost of a Band-aid. We buy them in bulk at Costco and go thru approximately 40 to 50 a week. They are on our permanent grocery list right under Egos. In fact, I am actually considering hiding them in the frozen vegetable bags too.
Let me explain. My kids are growing up. My oldest is almost seventeen. Just the thought makes me throw up a little in my mouth. How much hugging do you really think I get there? Then there are my tweens. I get the typical goodnight hug, but anything past that, is not happening. I am lucky to have my seven and eight year olds. I get to snuggle with them much more often, but even that is starting to fade. So, I have accepted the fact that hugs will be on their terms only.
All is not lost! Lucky for me, my kids are all hypochondriacs. (This is minus my oldest; I’m just out of luck with him. However, my youngest does get in on the action, because she refuses to be left out of any attention seeking behavior). No really, they are. You see often times trauma survivors’ emotional or mental pain manifests into physical ailments. This is similar to feeling queasy before giving a speech in front of a large group of people, only, it is about a million times worse. You never know exactly what you will get. It could be leg pain, a headache or the sudden realization of a bruise that may or may not be 3 weeks old. The ouchie tends to appear during times of stress, anxiety, sudden change and PTSD episodes, which happens often around this joint. Once the ouchie is detected, the request for a Band-aid is never far behind.
After calculating the cost spent on these plastic icons of motherly love at approximately $12.00 per week, which is similar to the cost of two coffee house lattes, I felt the need to see some return on my investment. It was then that rule #625 at the Sartor house was created. Possession of all bandages will now require an active (as in not limp noodle) hug to be entrusted on to the supplier. The kids get Band-aid therapy and mom gets hug therapy, which even I will admit is better than wine therapy.
