Below on my post about Good Racism and Baked Goods, Peony pointed out that I was mistaken by the purpose of the bakesale and who hosted it. Actually, I really was not trying to say who hosted it as opposed to where it was, and I didn’t do very well.
So sorry. I am having an extremely bad week, culminated by a worse day and tons of stress. I think I will stop trying to think and type for a bit and drown myself in some wine and Star Wars novel.
But before I do, let me share a story that this event truly reminded me of and this is why I was a bit animated. A year ago when I came home from the hospital after having Gorbulas, I received a phone call. The county health department wanted to send a representative over to teach me parenting skills, how to learn to do things like manage to properly care for more than one child, proper nutrition for children etc. I asked them point blank “how did you get my name?”(I have a rather ethnic Hispanic sounding name). Their reply was they send people out to everyone in my area who has new babies. “Everyone?” I asked.
“Yes”
I turned them down. Having visitors I did not know, especially right after bringing new baby home, did not sound like fun action to me.I was also suspicious, and as I mentioned before, am a bit paranoid about our privacy.
I received a pamphlet in the mail in case I changed my mind. It said their rep will answer questions like:
“What do I do when all these kids make me stressed, and I have a baby”
“Proper baby care and nutrition”
“Changing and feeding a baby”
Ugh.
In November, my neighbor (same area) had a baby. Now she is also bi-racial (she is half Irish, half black), but her adopted mother is Irish and she has a very Irish sounding name. I will not give it over the Internet, but it may as well be something like Maureen O’Hara. Anyway, social services, or the health department or whoever it was never came to offer her their assitance.
Now, I cannot say “why” because my head is seriously spinning from cabin fever induced stress today, why that article had me brooding all day about this incident.I really only thought of it briefly in the past year until today. Peony is much smarter than I, maybe she can explain why I am so frustrated…LOL