Some Advice

I have been keeping this note from a parent  of a child I cared for in the NICU. I have had it in my kitchen drawer for over 2 years. I keep accidentally grabbing it to use as note paper, flipping it over, realizing what it is, and then re-stashing it as a sweet little note that I want to save. Recently, someone didn’t flip it over to see it was something special to me that I was keeping, and they used it as scrap paper. The note isn’t ruined but I think that maybe I should stop storing precious items in my kitchen drawers. Instead, I’ll just copy the content of the note here, where I can reference it when needed.

I don’t remember why this baby was in the hospital. I do remember his mother though. She was beautiful, young, totally together, and had some outrageous number of kids at home while her newborn was in the hospital. I’m not exaggerating when I say I think this baby was her 7th, and she was younger than me (that’s young!). I must have been having some hard times with just my 2 at home because we had a conversation about how the hell she manages all these kids and seems to absolutely love it.

After her baby left the NICU, she left me this note.

5-17-2008  Dear Fiona, Thank you for sharing such precious moments with me and Logan, today. I thought of two rules about being a mom for you. Its a silly rhyme, but its still true: Your children will learn from everything you do AND they won’t have to learn everything from you. SO do what you love, do it good, and be content knowing you did what you could. 

Sweet.

Is it OK for a parent of a sick child in the ICU to give their nurse some mental health and parenting advice?