Things Only Children of a Veterinarian Would Understand

So I saw a funny blog post recently titled "things only children of doctors will understand" and while I could relate to some of them, I thought I should make one for children of veterinarians. And since it father's day was coming up, I thought I'd do it as a way to look back and realize just how much Dad has impacted our lives. It's not an awesome father's day gift, but I thought Dad and us siblings would at least be entertained and remember some of the good old days. So, here are 12 things that only children of veterinarians would understand. Happy father's day Dad!

1. “Not at the dinner table” was never said in relation to a gross conversation. Surgery was discussed, and bodily functions of both humans and animals were seen as normal topics. When friends or significant others visited for dinner it took a while to realize that your dinner conversations weren't normal.

2. “Doctor” and “Veterinarian” were basically synonymous. If you needed stitches, you probably got them while sitting on your kitchen counter. If you needed teeth pulled, they probably happened at the vet clinic after hours. Broken bone? They probably didn’t believe you until they took an x-ray of it themselves.

3. Getting sick only counted as sick if you were throwing up and your temperature was at least 100 degrees. If you didn't meet those requirements, you sucked it up because you were going to school.

4. You learned how to shut up. You could be in the middle of a great conversation, and their pager would go off, or their phone would ring, and it would be a client, and you learned how to be perfectly quiet and still while your parent explained what the problem was and how to go about treating it. You learned a lot of neat words that way too.

5. You know a lot of medical terms. “Dislocated” and “luxated” are the same thing. Posterior and anterior mean front and back, and if you heard more of them, you could guess what they mean.

6. They still always had other obscure medical words that they would use to win word games like scrabble or bananagrams, and when you challenged them on whether it was a real word, and looked it up, not only was it spelled right, but they practically quoted the definition to you when they told you what it meant (and once in a while they really did make up a word and a definition, and you didn’t challenge it).

7. You probably worked for them. You had the all-important job of walking dogs and feeding all the animals on the weekend, and cleaning up poop. And occasionally you did something that felt actually useful. Like help with blood work. Or urinalysis. Or holding a cat down so an injection could be given. Or laying on top of a dog that was not enjoying it’s mani-pedi.

8. Your friends ask you for advice on taking care of their pet. Or selecting a pet. And they think that since your parent is a vet, you know everything about animals. You let them think that. Unless it was really serious, in which case you gave them the vet clinic’s number because you have it memorized.

9. You’ve watched several surgeries, and you've even seen your own pet operated on. Every time you watch a surgery you wonder how they remember everything, you marvel at how perfectly and quickly they do everything, and you wonder how they got so good at sewing using only those clamp thingys to hold the needle.

10. You got to tag along when they were called to help an animal give birth. You’ve seen a few things that you’re not willing to tell your friends about regarding animal birth. There are some things that you never quite remove from memory.

11. You learned a new form of cleaning things, in which using hot water and soap were only the first step. The level of sterilization surprised you the first time you learned about it.

12. Those days in science class when you dissected things were your favorite days. And when you looked for organs, not only did you already know where to look, you knew about what it should look like. You always tried to be in a group of squeamish kids because they would always let you do the cutting, and it made you feel like you were doing surgery.