This is a bad time for paramedics and police officers

It is that time of year again and while there are a lot of people out there that love the holidays, there are quite a few that do not handle the holidays well.

While I am on the latter group, I have learned over the years part of why some people hate the holdiays.

For one thing they take place in the winter in the northern hemisphere. The days are short and sunlight is pretty important for keeping a person's sanity. There have been a number of tests made over the years and the amount of sunlight a person recieves had a direct bearing on their outlook and basic ability to deal with things.

Any cop that's not still a fuzz nutted rookie can tell you that the holidays are a time of stress and tension to a lot of people. Stress levels are high and there is often bickering among couples

One person in the couple might spend too much and be carried away with the Christmas spirit and find themselves being chastised for putting a serious dent in the family budget while aother couple might find themselves bickering over not spending enough to keep up appearances.

Much of the pressure often gets dropped on the breadwinners and when you have some poor bastard with a couple of kids that is working his ass off for short money he's going to feel a lot of pressure when his wife and or kids mention that the guy down the street has just bought his kids some pretty expensive things.

Especially if he is finishing up on a pretty rough year and is lucky enough to have a few bucks to buy the family a decent meal and a few toys to put under the tree.

When it's like that, most couples can easily handle it if they work together and treat each other with respect and have realistic expectations.

It's when one of them says or does something thoughless that starts it.

Some poor slob that has had a bad year and thanks God that he has enough for the makings of a decent Christmas and would have probably coped with things easily is apt to snap if his partner asks him why he didn't take her to Jareds.

Cases like that I really sympathize with the poor slob that snaps. Add a couple of good stiff drinks and then watch out.

One of the things I have noticed about a lot of holiday domestic problems is that an awful lot of them could be avoided if someone simply keeps their mouth shut.

I remember hearing my late mother-in-law talking on the phone with a friend of hers after Mrs Pic and I married. My mother-in-law laughed and said, "Now that I am a mother-in-law I guess I am supposed to keep my wallet open and my mouth shut!"

While we never asked her for money, I was pretty damned grateful that she kept her mouth shut. She was pretty good around the holidays because her expectations were not unrealistic. I have always been very grateful for that.

Police officers and paramedics generally have to clean up a lot more messes than usual this time of year and I'm sure it is no fun. This is not the time of year that beng a cop or paramedic is fun.

To those police and medics out there, stay safe.


my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/