Growing up, your parents obviously have a huge impact on the person you grow into. Their occupation is just one of the many aspects of your parents that shape you more than anything. Growing up with a nurse definitely put my life into a different perspective than any other occupation would have.
1. You get every shot.
If there is a vaccination out there every nurses kid gets it: flu shot, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningitis and Gardasil. Sometimes you just go in for a routine check-up or physical and you leave after being impaled two or three times because new vaccinations came out. And don’t even think about trying to talk your mom out of it because it’s not going to happen.
2. You don’t go to the doctor for anything that isn’t life threatening.
Small cough? It's probably just allergies. You have a cut? Your nurse mom can stitch that up herself or better yet she can glue it and you’ll have a cool scar for the rest of your life. Momma didn’t raise no pansy, so your chances of going to the doctor for anything that isn’t life threatening or school mandated are slim to none.
3. You can basically save someone’s life.
Whether it's the CPR skills you’ve had since you could walk or you have the ability to glue someone’s head shut without passing out, you have a very large range of skills that you can use to treat others.
4. You vaccinate your own animals.
As much as you hate holding down your poor baby to give it its yearly rabies shot, you do it - because there is no point in paying a vet to do something you can easily do yourself. Beware: your animal will probably hate you until you give it some sort of treat as an act of apology.
5. You don’t smoke.
Regular parents are one thing when it comes to smoking or drinking. Nurses are a whole new kind of pain when telling you (or showing you pictures) of the dangers of smoking cigarettes.
6. You got “the talk” earlier then you care to admit.
As you get older you get “the talk” more frequently than you hear about the dangers of tobacco. Then you see all the nasty things that sexual intercourse can bring into your life to hopefully scare you into abstinence.
7. You know that if you ever drink and came home that your mom would know.
Because one, she knows everything and two, drunk people frequent the emergency room; therefore, she’s seen it all.
8. You or one of your siblings will inevitably take a job in health services.
It is reliable, stable and you pretty much already know how to do everything after seeing your mom do it time and time again.
Basically if you grew up with a nurse for a mom you grew up to be a pretty tough cookie. Your friends will go to the health clinic regularly, while you insist that your persisting cough is just allergies - until you eventually recover from whatever illness you actually had. You will still go get every shot out there once you move out because the fear of your mother dragging you in only to find three more that you need outweighs the one yearly flu shot you have to get. You will inevitably grow up to become just like her, which actually isn’t such a bad thing because your mom is pretty much a beast when it comes to anything.
