All those memes that we are flooded with about how mothers do not nag their children, they just REPEATEDLY ask them to do what they asked them to do in the first place, are 1000% FACT!!
So I have just one word……”Pepper”……well actually two words….. Salt and Pepper, but for the purposes of this blog, we’ll just be dealing with that good for nothing Pepper!! So Pepper just became a working man, and yes………a Chartered Accountant Degree, doing his three years of Articles, and yet…..I still have to REPEATEDLY ask this child to do things that, in actual fact, are for HIS OWN BENEFIT!!
Now I love my Land, but we live in a Country which does not provide, what some pieces of paradise do, free healthcare. Nope, only the privileged are entitled to decent healthcare this side of the world, and we pay dearly for it. So essentially, the majority of my fellow countrymen are slaving away to afford health insurance and school fees. Yes…….very few households have one member earning an income from only one job or profession, and are still able to afford such (apparently) unnecessary basic human needs!!
So when my Pepper became ”an adult” with a job, I was informed by said Pepper, that included in his work package, was medical insurance. I was also informed that I would need to take him off my medical plan, before they would register him. So with him starting to adult and all, I had decided to back off a little, as he needed to learn how to navigate his 23 year old educated life without his mommy!!
However, I had no choice but to dip my toe into his life, when he requested that I get my medical insurance to send proof of his removal from my plan. This I did……..I mean, this was not ”getting involved” in his life, this was merely carrying out a reasonable request. So faster than you could say ”he’s out”, I received the proof of his removal, and forwarded it to him. Job done, and now my grown up man was going to finally fend for himself.
This all took place in the first week of January, and a week or so later, I merely mentioned that I hoped he had received confirmation that he was on the new plan from the beginning of February. Just double checking, as surely this adult would have sorted this out on his own??
”Mom, there is a lot of admin that I need to sort out, and I just have not had the time yet,” my allegedly adult son mentioned in an irritated tone.
”It is very important that you sort it out, otherwise you will not be covered by either the old or the new scheme, and you never know what is around the corner” I (as un-naggingly as possible) mentioned.
”Oh mom….you are always so negative…don’t worry, I will get it done….R-E-L-A-X”.
Now, I need not mention the obvious, about when you tell a totally non relaxed person to relax, and despite what you think, yes, he did actually get it done. Obviously only after a few more requests, but it was done. Well…..pheeeeeeeuw…..he was an adult after all!!
Aaaaaaaanyhoooooo……nope…apparently not so much. In February he informed me that some of his colleagues had mentioned that this scheme his employers were using, was ”not so great hey”.
”What do you mean not so great??” I asked. ”Do you have to go with that scheme?”
”Well yes, it is specifically for Accountants….but I don’t think it’s the scheme, I think it’s the package I chose.” he nonchalantly mumbled.
”What do you mean?” I asked, all confuzzled and interfering like. ”Do you have a choice?”
”Well yes, we pay half, so it depends how much of our salary we want to contribute, and I chose to go with the package that is going to be the cheapest for me,” the idiot man child mentioned.
So here we are, living in a country where the majority of the middle class are busting their butts to afford FIRST AND FOREMOST a DECENT medical insurance, and my blithering ignoramus Pepper, has decided that he would rather have more money at the end of the month to spend on take outs!!!!!!!
After I (fractionally) calmed down, and realised that he really wouldn’t have known any better, and that this would be one of those life lessons I had anticipated, I explained the importance of having a decent medical insurance.
”So you had better phone the scheme and find out exactly what, where and how you are covered, and perhaps you will have to upgrade your plan,” I explained in adult.
”Yes, I will, just not right now, I am very busy with work,” he replied.
So, of course, there were repeated ”requests”, which fell on his deaf juvenile ears, and I chose ON THIS *&#@^$ OCCASION, to leave it up to him to sort out. I will not interfere…….the child……adult…..whatever he bloody was….needs to do this on his own. I will NOT be phoning the scheme on his behalf, I thought to myself…every day….at least once a day…..
So, yes…..cut to him playing indoor soccer a couple of weeks back. You know…the one where I mentioned that there are almost weekly injuries…….the one where I waited with baited breath each week for him to return with full use of his limbs………that one. Well, his turn happened, and he came into my room (just need to mention that I had just bathed, got into bed and was about to do some therapeutic Netflix binging), with his left hand holding his right arm up!!!
In case you had even an inkling of a suspicion that I was one of those warm, fuzzy and comforting mothers when my children were sick or sore………you are WRONG!! I gave him an absolute death stare……like a “I knew this was going to eventually happen” stare. Actually no, I seem to remember that there was the death stare first, followed by the ”I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO EVENTUALLY HAPPEN” screech, while he stood there looking dazed and confused.
Once he had composed himself, he told me that it was no wonder that it happened, what with me having such negative thoughts. So it was at that moment that he chose to believe in the law of attraction, something that he had always ridiculed me for believing in….
Anyway, all the while, left arm holding up dangling right wrist, I quietly reminded him the lengths I had gone to in order to keep our family away from doctors, dentists, healthcare workers OF ANY SORT, in the year of COVID, and now we would have to go to the *&^$ CASUALTY WARD at a HOSPITAL in our area IN THE MIDDLE OF A (*&^$ PANDEMIC!!!!!!!!!!
”Should we wait for tomorrow and see how it is,” he meekly suggested.
Now, before you think I suddenly felt guilty or had a weak moment….full disclosure….the wrist swelling before my eyes got me out of bed and dressed for this &%#@$ field trip.
Oh, and in case you were not feeling sorry enough for Pepper yet….side note….Salt, who had also played the match, was highly irritated with Pepper, as Pepper had asked him to go to the shop to get ice for him to put on his wrist. Salt had obviously decided that Pepper was being a drama queen (which he is so not btw), and was sending him on an errand unnecessarily. So all in all…no sympathy was had for Pepper at that point.
So we ventured forth to casualty, me spitting and farting fireballs the whole way there, filling out forms…….sitting in chairs……..exchanging proof of ID and medical insurance documents…….MID COVIDDDDDDDD……and poor Pepper left arm holding up dangling right wrist, too terrified to utter a word to his insanely frenzied nutjob of a grumpy mummy.
And just as a nanoscopic sense of compassion started to surface from within me, the receptionist advised us that Pepper’s medical plan was not covered by their clinic.
Moved to team Grumpy Mummy yet??
Grumpymummy 