by Jennifer Lavoie

Created on: October 19, 2008

I believe it was a revelation. My beautiful baby boy, who was nearly 2 at the time, was lying helplessly in my arms with a very high fever and terrible cough. The first thing that I tried was to give him some Tylenol. After an hour, when this wasn't working, I did the best thing I knew how. I decided to call my mommy. This lady that I believed knew nothing about anything ALL through my teenage years is the person that I decide to call in this state of Emergency? Of course, she must know something about babies though. She did, after all, have three of them and we all survived! Being she only lives a few blocks away, I explain to her that it may be "easier" for her to come and SHOW me what she could do with this screaming child of mine. I wouldn't want to put her out, after all, by having to call her again later. Disturbing her again, if the things that she might suggest I do didn't work, was out of the question.

My mother showed up at my house promptly and took my child into her arms. She didn't seem to mind that he was spitting slimy globs of mucous all over her new blouse. She just held him and soothed him in a way that only an experienced mother can do. This is why I was so surprised when she then decided to march straight to the bathroom, my baby in her arms, as she turned the shower to its very hottest setting. I must admit, I panicked a little! No way was she going to punish MY baby for being sick! At this point, I did the only thing I could think of...I screamed for my dad. I worried a little when I saw her start to laugh. "What a twisted woman!" I thought. "Do I even know this evil being?" That's when I saw her close the shower curtains and sit down gracefully on the toilet seat as she smiled at me. This is the time she chooses to finally explain what it is she is doing. Apparently, they used to do this in the "old days". How was I to know? The goal is to get steam into the baby's lungs in order to loosen any mucous that may be forming in there. From what I could see it was working. His coughing seemed to be a lot more productive at that point and his nose seemed to be running a lot. He even stopped crying. Hey, whatever works! We were able to tuck him snuggly into his bed, although I must admit, he was a little damp. My beautiful baby was soundly asleep, finally.

This was how I learned that our parents actually do know a lot more than we give them credit for. This was not the only lesson to be learned, however. You know all the clichs that always came

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