My Overprotective Parents

Growing up I hated it.  I hated that I wasn't allowed to spent the night at friends houses.  I wasn't allowed to go to the houses of people that my parents didn't know their parents well.  I never had a baby-sitter, and that made me mad too.  I always had to stop playing outside to check my blood-sugars.  I couldn't skip a snack, even if I wasn't hungry.  Or the opposite...I was hungry but could only eat something super small, with barely any calories (like a piece of celery).  I hated that I had to check my blood-sugars at every single meal.  I hated that my parents watched my every move.  I absolutely hated it.

Then I grew up.  And I became a Mom myself.  And I know now why they did it.  And I would be the exact same way if either of my children (heaven forbid) ever became diabetic.

It's true.  I wasn't allowed to spend the night at friends houses.  Growing up it was an uncomfortable subject for my parents and I because all the kids were having sleep-overs, but I wasn't allowed to go.  I would go for the evening, and then they would pick me up at bedtime.  I thought they were being silly and mean, they were just terrified that something would happen with my blood-sugars and nobody would know what to do.  They were right.  When I was in high school I had a really close friend Kristin.  My Dad bought a Harley Davidson and Kristin's Mom wanted to see it.  So Dad and I drove to her house to show her Mom.  Two days later I was ecstatic to spend the night at Kristin's.  In the middle of the night Kristin woke up to me convulsing.  She got her Mom who called my parents.  Luckily for showing the motorcycle to them two days before, Dad knew exactly where Kristin lived.  It wasn't in our normal neighborhood and he would have never found it otherwise.  So ya, I understand why they never wanted me to spend the night away from home.   (Parents 1, Krista 0)

When I a toddler both of my parents worked.  My Dad was an engineer for Bell Canada, and my Mom had a great job at the Bank of Canada.  The day I was diagnosed Mom quit her job.  Her boss told her to take all the time she needed to get my diabetes figured out, but she simply said she would not be coming back.  The second I was diagnosed was like a dark cloud was put over my parents heads and it never truly lifted or left.  They would not trust me to be in anyone else's care.  One of them was always with me.  That meant no date nights, no Christmas parties, no social events, no movies, nothing.  In return, that meant no baby-sitters for me.  All of my friends had baby-sitters.  Not me.  I had my same routine as usual.  Bedtime, on-time, every single night.  When I was about 10 we had my grandmother watch us (my brother and I).  It is the only time I can ever remember having someone other than my parents in charge of us.  She watched us at our family cottage.  My blood sugars were always on tight control...but surprise, I went low.  The ONE time my Granny watched us and I went low.  Sigh, Parents 2, Krista 0.

Growing up we had a family cottage.  It had the most beautiful lake at the back with crystal blue water.  We had a boat dock from the land that went into the water.  The water was so deep that if you ran to the end of the dock and jumped off, you couldn't touch the bottom!  We spent HOURS swimming.  There were no weeds on our end of the lake, so we could swim from one side of the lake to the other.  One of us would row the boat for safety, while he other person swam.  I did most of the swimming because I loved it, while my brother did the paddling because he loved the boat.  I would always have to get out and go inside to test my sugar and have a snack.  To this day I can still hear my mom saying "You've been out here a long time.  Get something to eat before you go low."  It made me so angry to have to get out of the water, go inside, eat, and check myself because I would be half dry by the time I was done.  I wouldn't want to go back in the water once I was dried off, so ya, this upset me.  The fact that I never drowned because mom always pulled me out to refuel means Parents 3, Krista 0.

I was diagnosed with diabetes almost 26 years ago.  Things were SO different back then.  I'll write a blog soon about the way things were then, but for now, lets just say we had to eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, bedtime snack all at the exact time each day.  Yup, breakfast was always at the same time.  It didn't matter if it was Saturday, a holiday, a school day, or on vacation.  Then we had to have 3 snacks to keep up with our activities.  Dinner was always around 5:30.  No, I take that back.  Dinner was AT 5:30, on the dot, every night   It makes me giggle to hear people these days eating dinner at 7:30 or 8:00 at night.  It makes me think "When do you put your kids to bed?"  Bedtime for us was 8:00 every night, so bedtime snack was about 7:30.  That's the way life was.  Luckily for us, Mom no longer worked, so we had a home cooked, real meal every single night.  We NEVER ever ate out.  When I say never, I mean never.  My brother Brian and I would get excited about our family vacations that were car trips (ever 3 years or so) because we would eat McDonald's on the drive.  We might, maybe, have eaten out twice a year.  It never happened.  Guess who I try and be like now though with my families meals?  My mom.  Parents 4, Krista 0.

When I was younger, my parents kept all of my diabetes supplies (test strips, meter, insulin) in the kitchen.  The kitchen was where we always were so that's where we kept it all.  While Mom would be serving food or setting the table, Dad was measuring my insulin, examining my book of bloodsugars (he was the king of adjusting insulin levels.  He knew exactly how much to switch and when to do it), or watching me check my sugar.  I couldn't get away from it.  If it wouldn't have been so "in my face" I probably wouldn't have done it.  Actually, I know I wouldn't have.  In college I kept all of my diabetes things in my bedroom.  I lived in the kitchen and living room.  I'll let you imagine how well I kept control of my diabetes care.  Parents 5, Krista 0.

Well, that was depressing.  I hate saying they were right!  ;)