There are parenting moments you dread, often years in advance. How will you deal with conversations about war, drugs or sex when difficult questions are thrown at you, you worry, attempting to formulate your stance, and preparing to lay out and defend it at a moment’s notice. Then there are some topic missiles that come at you unexpectedly out of left field, which you would definitely have been dreading if it had even occurred to you they were a possibility. I’m shellshocked after one from my 11-year-old son.
He began asking about the NHS, and I explained how lucky we were to live in a country where healthcare was free and available to all. He wondered why some people moaned about it, and I said it might be because the NHS is underfunded. Although the doctors and nurses were working extremely hard, sometimes there were long waits for treatment, which were difficult to tolerate when you’re not feeling well.
“Maybe you could pay to be seen quicker?” he said. My blood ran cold.
“Oh, so rich people are treated quickly, and people who can’t pay just have to wait, in pain?” I said, hoping to make him see the error of his ways by spelling out the clear injustice.
“Yeah,” he agreed, instead.
