Playing doctor

I mentioned last week that my kids have a unique doctors kit. It is a combo of Bob the Builder tools and play doctors instruments.

Being from medical parents, my kids also have actual medical instruments to enhance their play. Included in this wide array of tools is a tenaculum, real reflex hammers, suture kits, and “tuning forks” to check for hearing disorders and such. In addition to this, they have a real blood pressure cuff , stethoscope and an actual otoscope.

Here is part of their kit. The rest is stuff that has to be supervised.

May2006 025

Playing doctor with them is hardcore. They fight over who is Dad, Dr. Tim and Dr. Ralph. They have real bandages and such to finish off their “surgical cases”, and I frequently come out of “anesthesia” with bruises and sometimes missing locks of hair during “suture removal”.

Such was the case last week while I was down with mastitis. As I mentioned, Quinn got out the childs doctors kit from hell, and while they worked on me, I dozed off in my feverish state, waking abruptly when they used a saw to “fix” my owie boobie or a reflex hammer on my ocular bone. Not……kidding.

So, let me just say that when most kids break out the doctors kit, it is play. When my kids do it, it is war, and seems to be practice for M.A.S.H. deployment. Quinn in particular seems to be on his way to wanting to be a doctor, as he talks about it quite frequently.

It would not surprise me in the least, given his experiences so far with the doctors and physical therapists. He adores his dad as well, and I completely see him following in Bill’s footsteps.

Like father, like son.