#if you were never physically restrained above a bathtub with a jet of salt water being forced up your nose your opinion on colds is invalid
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Honestly this cold would be 5x more bearable if the way our mom used to treat colds when we were kids wasn’t so insanely traumatising
#if you were never physically restrained above a bathtub with a jet of salt water being forced up your nose your opinion on colds is invalid#look. I was a quiet kid. I never yelled. rarely made noise of any kind#but when mom filled up that salt water bottle? I began screaming so loudly you’d think I was being murdered#it was like I was possessed. kicked and fought and grabbed onto furniture as mom dragged me to the bathroom#my sister was the same#and of course the mutual screaming set mom off so she yelled too#it was so fucking awful#and the reason we were so against it is because water up your nose is the worst feeling in the world#we are biologically wired to not want to drown. why the fuck would someone come up with a treatment like that#it got to the point I would try to hide the bottle just so I could avoid it#I learned how to breathe silently no matter how blocked my nose was so mom wouldn’t hear#eventually the came a day when my sister struggled against mom’s hold so much that instead of pushing snot from her nose does to her mouth#the salt water pushed it back into her ears and she spent weeks with an infection#that paired with the fact I threw up a few times following these procedures made mom READ UP ON THE TREATMENT FOR THE FIRST TIME#AND FIND OUT HOW FUCKING DANGEROUS IT IS AND THAT THE ONLY REASON IT TOOK LIKE 3-4 YEARS FOR THE FIRST EAR INFECTION TO OCCUR WAS SHEER LUCK#it could have been so much worse#it could have gone to our brains or something and given the rural town we lived in we wouldn’t have even received proper medical attention#after that incident mom finally stopped doing it. thankfully#but she still treated it like one big joke. offering to get the salt water whenever one of us had a cold. laughing at our loud NOs#vi and I talked about it just yesterday#she was about 3-6 years old when it was happening and while she doesn’t remember much from back then she remembers that fucking treatment#every time I look back and think ‘hey. maybe mom wasn’t as bad as I make her out to be’ I make sure to remember this#even if the treatment wasn’t dangerous. if both your kids are screaming bloody murder at the mere implication of it being done to them#maybe you shouldn’t force it upon them. what kind of mother does that.#mine. apparently#so now that I have a cold. despite mom being 2000km away. I’m still scared she’ll show up somehow and do it again#even though it’s been 9 years since the last time she did it. I get a cold and feel like I’m 8 again. powerless to do anything against her#if you notice similar thoughts of helplessness as a common theme in my writing. this is why#it’s the trauma :)
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