Evidence that I’m a bitter hard-ass and also a clueless mother is my reaction to this New York Times day-in-the-life-of article about the school nurse for an affluent, highly competitive public middle school in New Jersey.

Bitter hard-ass? All I could do was roll my eyes and think, “Send the little shits back to class.” Paragraph after paragraph, students come into the office faking stomaches and headaches. One kid was in need of treatment for her ear -- she had scratched it with her fingernail. Another claimed to be having hot flashes. The enabling (see, I'm bitter!) nurse pats each one on the head, talks to them nicely, tells them to lay down, tells the reporter how much she loves these kids. She said she feels for their plight since these 11- to 13-year-olds are under so much pressure about GPAs, sports and other forms of achievement. There's also much sadness over not being invited to the right bar mitzvahs.

Reading this also makes me feel pretty clueless as a mother. First, who knew middle school could be competitive? Also, this can’t be the only school where kids are making such frequent stops at the nurse's office (some up to six times each day!). I laugh at it now, but, like other complications in modern parenting, this, too, could become my life. Will I be my own middle-school child’s version of the mom who calls the school nurse to be reassured that she's not a bad mother for refusing to pick her up when she's faking an illness?

Pathetic, huh? Them, me, us.