Memories and Unintentional Sexism

[beckyfeld]

On 9/11, I was working at an inpatient psych facility in Rockville, MD. I remember hearing about the planes crashing into the Towers and the Pentagon, as well as numerous rumors about other planes crashing into who-knows-what. I remember watching some of the coverage on the TV in the Adult unit. Needless to say, many of our patients were NOT

Comments

[beckyfeld]

But panic doesn't explain why they had done this the week before when Aaron hurt his wrist, why they SKIPPED OVER Harold's contact information (since we'd listed him FIRST), and why they copped an attitude about my bouncing them back to Harold. There has been a real shift in the last decade in who the "primary contact" parent is, with many more fathers being actively involved in their children's care and it's time the daycare folks realize it. Temporary insanity or not, they had to have spent a significant amount of time tracking me down which could have been spent more productively tracking down the "proper" parent.

I dislike falling back on "temporary insanity" or "panic" as a defense for this sort of thing - if it wasn't an emergency, they wouldn't have to be getting in touch with us in the first place. That's what "emergency contact" information and emergency procedures are all about. That's why we do fire drills and other types of emergency drills - so that the practice is in place to fall back on when your mind blanks out in an emergency. That's part of being in a position of responsibility.