Commentary by Heather Kestian
I am cheap. I hate spending money on things I can do myself. I refuse to pay someone to clean my house. I won’t pay someone to cut the grass or trim our bushes. I will risk electrocution to change the carriage lights on our house.
I recently learned that some things are worth paying someone to do, particularly when they have greater expertise than me. In this most recent example, we shall call this person a “doctor.”
While I was doing laundry, I ran two of my toes – full force – into the leg of the couch. Couch – 1, Mom – 0.
My 5-year-old and his impressionable ears were standing nearby. It took every ounce of self- control not to curse. I do not want to be the person whose kid goes to school and says, “Guess what my mommy said?” I was appropriately mortified when my kindergartner brought home the “S” word after his friend introduced this special word to my little one. Even though I wanted to scream his new found vocabulary word to demonstrate context and usage, I refrained from doing so. Couch – 1, Mom – 1. I am back in this game!
I realized I had broken my toe because the pain, swelling and bruising tipped me off to this conclusion. I figured the doctor will merely tape the toe to the toe next to it. In my refusal to pay anyone to do something I can do, I bring the baby toe back in line and tape it to the toe next to it. Painful? Yes. Free? Heck yes!
By the next morning, it was the color of a stormy sky. Here is a clue that this isn’t going to be good. Oh well, off to work. Of course it is going to hurt, it is a broken bone. Take some Tylenol and move on. I have things to do!
Suffice it to say, I learned my lesson. Some hobbling around, and within 10 hours of waking up the next morning, I walked out of the doctor’s office with someone else having taped my toe to the next toe. I also received a boot, proving that some things are worth paying someone to do. This may finally help my husband not have to cut the grass. I may very well be on board with contracting more things to other people. I break a toe and he wins the game.