The Nuclear Family

  When my brother and I were little we had races to see who could take my dad’s Boots off first. Okay, I know now this competition was fueled by my dads desire to have his boots removed as quickly as possible. Dad worked at Hanford nuclear plant back then, he would come home dirty from a day’s hard labor. He was tired, dusty and short tempered.
  He would sit in his chair and point to the boots and then once they would off he would raise his hand in a peace sign. Which meant he wanted two non-aspirin for the pain.
   The loser went in to the kitchen and fetched two non aspirin and a glass of water along with the paper that was always the next thing to be asked for before he leaned back.
   I was thinking about this a few days ago. My dad worked at a nuclear plant. He was exposed to radioactive material. This is not an assumption, it is a fact. In fact it probably killed him.
  I wonder how much radiation my brother and I absorbed over the years. I would never sue, because it happen in the past, but it does bring up a point. Things that parents do affect the child, excess drinking, drug habits and Domestic violence are just a few of those things. Even the environment can harm your child be it radioactive dust, high voltage power lines, or cans of solvent long ago buried beneath your backyard.
   So what do we as parents with this information? We do our best to protect our children for what we can control and take sleep aids so we can gets some rest from all the worrying we do in the day.