WHY?
Why do people post questions online that they REALLY want an answer to in a timely manner in places where it's very obvious that they are NOT going to get an answer in a timely manner... IF EVER?
The Purple Dragon and The Pink Princess were busy spinning each other round and round in our rather large family room when The Dragon managed to spin herself into the corner of a vent. Ironically, it's the new "return" for our AC unit that we had to add in order to get the AC to work efficiently. 2-3 weeks ago, it was just a flat wall with nothing sharp to run into. The Purple Dragon is now the owner of a goose egg that is a little bloody on top. Yuck.
Anyway, to get back to the real point of this post, I went to ParentCenter.com to get some quick info on what to do (answer: put ice on it, something we were already doing), and to find out what symptoms to watch for over the next 24 hours. It was very informative, basically what we thought (yay us!), and quick and easy to find. However, all the reader "comments" were along the lines of "my baby fell (blah blah blah) and she has a huge bump (blah blah blah) and it hasn't gone down at all since she fell and that was three weeks ago (blah blah blah) and I'm really concerned (blah blah blah) so please could someone tell me what I should do? (panic panic panic)"
Maybe I'm an idiot for thinking this, but if you are REALLY that concerned, why not call your pediatrician? Call Ask-A-Nurse? Go to the ER? At the very least, make a visit to your local health clinic the next time they're open? Why expect an answer from a random website? Let's say that they actually DO decide to reply... when is it going to be? 3 months from now? Maybe when it's too late? Get real, pick up the phone, get in your car, and DO something. If you're not going to take action, your simply not that concerned.
And that, folks, is my soapbox for today, like it or not. :)
posted by Queen Karana @ 7:28 PM
5 Comments:
Good point. I agree wholeheartedly, and you're not an idiot for thinking that.
And the advice you get is exactly what you pay for. You ask ten people, you will get ten opinions.
The reason is that they don't really want timely advice, they have decided to watch it and not act, but they want either sympathy, assurance or they want to dump.
There is a great book (a classic at the time) from the 60s called "Games People Play" and it talks about this kind of behavior. Like the ones where people ask advice, but whatever you say they say "Yes, but..." They don't really want to solve their problem. They just want to talk about it.
I hate it when people ask me for my advice and then shoot down every solution I present, just to shoot it down. After 4 or 5 go rounds (the first time they ask for advice that is), I'll stop and ask them if they want my advice to solve the problem or if they just want to complain about the problem. Then I tell them that I can either offer them a solution or they can pay me to sit around while they vent. That usually snaps them in line as no one wants to pay me to sit around while they vent. That would be a great job, but apparently no one wants to pay for it. :)
Oh, Michael, of course they pay for you to listen to them vent, but you have to put up a "shrink" sign.
I have a picture of "Peanuts" comics running through my head. Lucy and her psychiatrist sign. :)
Sounds like an interesting book. I'm sure it's very accurate!
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